These daily sessions covered an array of topics, including our roadmap, programming & planning, family engagement and many more! All the sessions have been recorded for those who registered but were unable to attend.
Guest Presenters
Dr Mia Christensen is a registered teacher, early childhood researcher and professional facilitating and leading innovations and partnerships in the early childhood education and care sector. She has been a teacher for 30 years, working in early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary contexts in remote, regional and urban settings in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. She has worked as an academic at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for the past fifteen years. Her teaching and research focus has been exploring early childhood education for sustainability, STEAM interdisciplinary capability build and accessing and elevating young children’s voices. Currently, she is the Education Innovation and Partnerships Manager at G8 Education, the second-largest provider of early childhood education and care services in Australia.
Mrs Rebecca Freier is a Queensland registered teacher and early childhood professional, supporting high quality outcomes for children, families, and practitioners in the early childhood education and care sector. She has been a teacher for the past 20 years, with experience in early childhood, primary and vocational education. For the past 3 years Rebecca has held a Practice Partner position at G8 Education, the second largest provider of early childhood and care services in Australia. In this role she plays a key role in guiding and mentoring early childhood teachers and educators to provide high quality pedagogy and practice to enable the learning, development, and wellbeing of children. Rebecca is also a mentor to early childhood teachers as they move to proficient teacher registration in Queensland, and is the G8 Education representative on the Kindy Uplift Consultative Committee.
Sarah Louise is a career early childhood teacher, pedagogical leader and lifelong learner. She has dedicated her career to pursuing kindness in the workplace and developing leaders at all levels of organisations. Through her consultancy, Learning to Lead in Early Childhood, she thrives on the challenge of working with highly diverse groups of early childhood professionals across the sector spectrum. With formal qualifications in education, research and leadership, Sarah Louise is a committed advocate for children, social justice and the early years workforce.
Kylie is a playworker and consultant at Keen About. Kylie has a wealth of experience in OSHC and, for the last decade, has been an educational leader as part of a team that has twice achieved the Excellent rating. Kylie has travelled the UK extensively, immersing herself in all things play and playwork, and believes that playwork is absolutely the ultimate approach to working with children and young people.
Just because you couldn’t join us live doesn’t mean you have to miss out—email us at edu.marketing@xplortechnologies.com to access the recordings.
12 – 15 March 2024 | Virtual Conference
OSHC WEEK KICK OFF
The OSHC Week kick-off event welcomed attendees to our 2024 OSHC Virtual Conference and outlined the agenda for the week. Additionally, it provided an opportunity for attendees to hear from our product team about the exciting updates coming to our software throughout 2024.
30-minute session
IMAGE OF THE CHILD
Dr Mia Christensen and Rebecca Freier delved into the “Image of the Child” and “Child Agency” in the context of early childhood education and family communication and engagement. This thought-provoking session navigated the various dimensions that contribute to shaping our perceptions of children’s capabilities, expectations on documenting children’s learning and the role families have in this space.
1-hour session
BOOKINGS & OCCUPANCY
This webinar empowered administrators, staff and directors with the knowledge to set up and maintain their service in Office to streamline booking processes and optimise occupancy management. It also looked at how families can maximise their ability to make and edit bookings in the Home app for BSC, ASC and Vacation Care.
1-hour session
PROGRAMMING & PLANNING
This session was designed to empower OSHC teams with Playground’s tools, features and ideas. They enable educators to create enriching and engaging pieces of documentation and come together to showcase the planning cycle in OSHC. We also examined different templates and layouts that you can draw inspiration from for you planning. You can access them here.
1-hour session
VACATION CARE IN OFFICE
Prepare to revolutionise your Vacation Care programs with a webinar tailored for OSHC providers. We delved into the setup, features and strategies that will empower you and your families to streamline and enhance the planning and management of engaging Vacation Care experiences and quality childcare. Topics ranged from managing master roll sessions to communicating and opening vacation care bookings to sharing vacation care programs and engaging with families.
1-hour session
BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN OSHC
Sarah Louise Gandolfo explored five principles designed to elevate the leadership skills of current and emerging leaders in the OSHC sector, setting them up for success in 2024. These principles are Courage, Kindness, Communication, Learning and Connection. Drawing upon research, practical strategies and ideas from a range of contemporary leadership theories, this session provided practical tools and actionable insights to enhance leadership capabilities and drive positive change in their organisations.
1-hour session
TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY?
It is no longer a question!
Play is a right of all children and young people. There has been a great deal of advocacy for the right to play in Australia and how adopting a Playwork approach can support this. This advocacy has contributed to several recent changes in our Australian Learning Frameworks. Whilst a Playwork approach may have been used across Australia for some time, it has only been in recent years that it has been evidenced and viewed as a “quality” approach. Throughout this session presented by Kylie Keane, we explored how Playwork, the Playwork Principles and My Time, Our Place V2.0 align and why play is so important!
1-hour session
Why watch?
You’re free to watch any or all of the dynamic keynote presentations from our resident and industry experts. You’ll get to hear the questions posed as we discussed real-world solutions shaping how OSHC centres operate today.
Who should watch?
OSHC Week was targeted and specially catered to anyone working as a coordinator, assistant coordinator or educator at an outside school hours care service. Each session has been curated to help you maximise operations at your service.
