The New Neighbourhood Community

At Junior Adventures Group, we’re coming to the end of a fun and action-packed school holiday program that has been delighting children and families across the country.  ‘Holiday HQ: Summer Camp’ was designed to evoke the wonderful feelings we experience on long, hot summer days spent having fun playing with friends. 

Sadly, changing work requirements of families and accompanying social norms mean that such days of children playing together in the neighbourhood are increasingly a thing of the past. For many children, summer is now a time when they are often at home, on screens. 

Outside school hours care (OSHC), a key pillar of Australia’s early years education system, provides a solution.   

OSHC services are the new neighbourhood community as Jennifer Cartmel of Griffith University puts it in this recent article. As she says, holiday programs are an avenue for children to socialise and form connections with peers. Children are able to engage in ‘real’ play together which is so important for their development and wellbeing. 

I personally love the way Griffith University noted their key insights from their report Making the Invisible Visible: Consulting with Children (April 2024). It was apparent that OSHC services were a place where ‘childhood is lived’ and contributed to the social networks and opportunities for their childhood. 

A key benefit of our program is its strong focus on physical activity. Research cited in the aforementioned article shows that holiday programs support healthier movement behaviours in children and counters negative impacts on their health during the holidays. These negative impacts are due to interruptions to outdoor play and PE lessons during term time as well as school policies on diet. 

I’m pleased that there is increasing knowledge within the community that OSHC and holiday programs are not just services that enable parents to work during school holidays. It’s also about providing children with care that is physically, socially and emotionally enriching. What’s more, Junior Adventures Group programs are eligible for the child care subsidy (CCS) making them much more affordable than many families realise.