Albury OOSH earns Excellent rating for education and care

Date awarded 09/03/2015
Valid until 08/03/2018

Albury Out of School Hours (OOSH) has been awarded the highest rating a service can achieve under the National Quality Framework (NQF) for Early Childhood Education and Care.

ACECQA Board Chair Rachel Hunter said Albury OOSH received the Excellent rating for its outstanding work in creating collaborative relationships and ongoing commitment to building inclusive partnerships with children and families.

Albury OOSH actively works with a range of community and professional organisations, including the Network of Community Activities (NCA), the peak organisation for OOSH services in NSW. 

“It is great to see Albury OOSH taking an active leadership role in the broader OOSH sector, seeking out and taking opportunities to share knowledge with other services,” Ms Hunter said.

Albury OOSH identified that children with additional needs had limited access to services in the surrounding area. Through their involvement in the National Child Care Flexibility Trials, educators undertook research to develop a number of new education and care options for children with additional needs, increasing both flexibility and access to Albury OOSH. 

Albury OOSH also has a strong focus on respecting children’s rights, particularly a child’s right to have an opinion and be heard, and a child’s right to privacy. 

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been used to underpin all of the service’s work with children. An example of the service’s approach is the consultation they undertook with children and families to develop a documentation policy that includes democratic voting for children, allowing them to choose how to document their time at the service.

“Albury OOSH is inspirational in the way it promotes children’s rights and decision-making ability; encouraging them to make decisions about how they spend their time at the service,” Ms Hunter said.

The Excellent rating is an important part of the NQF and encourages services to continue to raise the bar on quality.

“I encourage all eligible children’s education and care services to apply for the Excellent rating to help inspire other services to strive for excellence,” Ms Hunter said.

More information is available on the ACECQA website.