10 things you should know about FOOSHC in 2023

1. Did you know we are an independent Not-For-Profit business ran separately from the school and are managed by a group of committed volunteer parents from the Forrest School Parents & Citizens Association. We have been in operation since 1976. We are always looking for new families to join us on our management committee The Forrest School P&C AGM is on Thursday 16^th March  in the school library so if you would like to join the management committee and help us to keep making FOOSHC a fantastic service please contact Teresa Gorondi – president@forrestpandc.com.au – or myself anytime.
   
   
2. We are rated Excellent under the National Quality Framework, the highest rating an Education and Care service can have. We are the first OSHC in the ACT to receive this rating. We received this award for the second time – read more about it here The Excellent rating | ACECQA  Our program is based on Playwork philosophy – if you want to know more please read here  Our staff receive specialised training and we have received awards for this innovative programs.
   
   
3. Our program is a CHILD LEAD Play based program. Child- led doesn’t mean “let the children do whatever they want”! It means set safe boundaries, acknowledge their needs, respect and value their opinions, share their joy, be excited in their interests, help them to manage and mitigate risks so they can make informed choices and to empower them to be active participants in their community.
   
   
4. We have lots of great things planned for 2023 , as most of you know we were asked to be part of the development team creating BLUEY- yes BLUEY – teaching resources and future scripts, so we will continue to work on that, as well as investigate some future Action Research possibilities with Griffith University and Dr Jen Cartmel (lead researcher on the National Quality Framework My time our Place)
   
   
5. FOOSHC FEST – SAVE THE DATE Week 8 Friday 24^th March 2023 5pm. This is a new annual event where we invite families into our space to learn more about our practice and pedagogy and experience firsthand what their child does at FOOSCH. This year we will be fundraising to send our Lead Educator Keira on a study tour to the UK which will include The International Play Association (IPA) conference in Glasgow.
   
   
6. We are a BeYou service – which means we are committed to a whole learning community approach to mental health and wellbeing. BeYou is the national mental health in education initiative that equips educators with knowledge, tools and resources to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people from birth to 18 years. BeYou is delivered by Beyond Blue, in collaboration with Early Childhood Australia and headspace, they try and support every learning community in Australia to be their most mentally healthy, positive, and inclusive in ways that work for them, at a time that works for them, and all free of charge. The BeYou platform has a wealth of resources – check them out here
   
   
7. You can follow us on Facebook – Forrest P&C or our website is  www.forrestpandc.com.au which  has all the latest news and forms available for your downloading.
   
   
8. We as a service, have sponsored children all around the world through World Vision for over 25 years, Sanyu is from Nairobi and is our latest child. See her story on our information board. We currently sponsor a food for change program assisting fellow Australians to access food across the country to help alleviate food insecurity across the nation. The children will be choosing a new charity to support when this one ends.
   
   
9. For afternoon tea at 3pm, we try and source local produce, and cook whole to the ground food which is nutritionally dense. Its important children have wholesome food as eating habits develop very early. Our menu is on display near the kitchen door and the children get to vote whether they like it or not using their cutlery.  At 4:30pm we offer large platters full of fresh food and vegetable, cheese and crackers.
   
   
10. And a final reminder please don’t forget to notify us when your child is going to be absent from care. As we are a separate business, the school isn’t allowed to (ACT Dept of Education rules, not ours). You need to tell us by email or telephone before 2pm on that day unless you will be charged a non-notification fee.

Thanks for being such an awesome community and we can’t wait to be part of your family this year!

Ali and the amazing FOOSHC Team.