Rethinking children’s waiting in Outside School Hours Care

Facilitated by Dr Bruce Hurst

Broadly speaking, waiting is an activity that is viewed negatively. Nobody likes to wait, do they? We see waiting as unproductive, wasted time and characteristic of boredom. In Outside School Hours Care, waiting has additional connotations. If we see children waiting in our services, it can be interpreted as a failure of programming, or indicative of a child who is bored or disengaged. But waiting isn’t entirely bad. As adults, we willingly wait if there is something great at the end. We wait for flights, for holidays, to buy groceries, for concert tickets. Waiting isn’t entirely wasted time either. We do things while we wait.

This session takes a critical view of the waiting that children do in OSHC services. Regardless of how hard we try, some waiting is inevitable. Waiting can also be productive. It can be an act of care, a site of identity construction and can look and feel different for every child. Waiting can also be playful. This session looks at recent research into children’s waiting in OSHC. It considers the multiple forms that children’s waiting takes and their implications for programming. If we allow ourselves to contemplate that some waiting is inevitable, then it sets us free to consider waiting as an element of our planning and reflection. What might programming for waiting look like, and how might it transform our services in ways that benefit children?

This session is suited to OSHC professionals at all career stages.