Supporting ALL Children to Participate in School Age Care - Multi age grouping / Children with additional needs and included@oshc 

Facilitated by Emily McKenna

OSHC plays an important role in supporting children’s holistic learning. It’s a unique environment because it caters for such a diverse range of ages, abilities and interests. It makes sense then, that educators should have strategies to support a diverse range of learners. This means understanding diverse ways of knowing, thinking and doing. 

Multi- age play is a core component of OSHC and research has outlined the contributions of these interactions to both younger and older children’s development. For this process to work effectively it is important to ask the question “do all children have access to play experiences, interactions and environments that are suited to their interests and abilities? Do all children have opportunities to achieve success?”

In this workshop we will discuss:

- The use of the planning cycle to develop inclusive experiences, environments and routines 

- The Included@OSHC resource, to develop practice to support children with a complex disability 

- Planning for cultural diversity 

- Catering for the vertical (multi-age) grouping in OSHC