About our workshops and professional development

Working in an after school care or school holiday programme can be both a challenging and very rewarding role. Our workshops aim to help staff approach their work skillfully and with a good grounding in what really matters when working with children in an OSCAR setting.

Our straight-forward guidelines and tips are drawn from our long experience in supporting OSCAR services. There are also frequent opportunities for discussion and questions, allowing participants to share their own insights and ideas. 

Staff will leave a workshop feeling confident, inspired and more connected to the OSCAR sector and our profession. They also receive a certificate to recognise their professional development and will take away useful written material.

“Trying to condense all the ideas we received …could not do justice to our 3 hour workshop ...there were many heads nodding knowingly, mumblings of acknowledgement, stories shared. It was a very familiar pattern of how much we really needed this.” 

READ MORE: What are the training requirements for OSCAR staff?

 

We schedule courses on a term by term basis and aim to release new dates near the end of each term. We regularly offer courses in the following regions, spread over the year: Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Palmerston North and Wellington. We may be able to hold courses in other regions, so please get in touch. 

We have also started on-line networking sessions which are proving to be a very valuable alternative for connecting people and sharing knowledge.

Future workshop dates are listed below, as details become available. 

There is a list of most of the courses we can offer here.

  • Thursday 1 June

  • Webinar - Safe OSCAR - supervision and safety essentials
    An OSCN on-line event. This is a practical and informative 3-hour course that gives your staff an overview of typical safety and supervision duties. We make the topic accessible & interesting for everyone. Cost: OSCN members $40-00 per person, ($100-00 per programme site); Non-members $60-00 per person.
    Date: Thu 01 Jun 2023
    Time: 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM Book Event

  • Wednesday 7 June

  • Meet Up On-line - Holistic Safeguarding - keeping your programme safe when recruiting staff
    FREE EVENT FOR OSCN MEMBERS. A chat with Kim Dickinson of Holistic Safeguarding about the risks we face when recruiting staff and practical tips to help us screen out inappropriate or unsafe people. Grab a cuppa and let's have a catch up!
    Date: Wed 07 Jun 2023
    Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Book Event

  • Thursday 8 June

  • Webinar – After the bell: programming for after school care
    An OSCN on-line event. An introduction to the main characteristics of after school care: routines, activities, schedules. Cost: OSCN members $40-00 per person, ($100-00 per programme site); Non-members $60-00 per person.
    Date: Thu 08 Jun 2023
    Time: 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM Book Event

  • Tuesday 13 June

  • First Aid for OSCAR - Short Course - Onehunga, Auckland
    Venue: Oranga Community Centre, 52C Waitangi Road, Oranga, Auckland. This course covers the common accidents in the playground plus it looks at typical medical conditions and how best to deal with them. The course is very practical and hands-on. Cost: OSCN members: $55-00 per person, Non-members: $75-00 per person.
    Date: Tue 13 Jun 2023
    Time: 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM Book Event

  • Wednesday 2 August

  • "Give it a go" - Easy activities and strategies to help kids join in - Raccarton, Christchurch
    Venue: Rarakau: Riccarton Centre, 199 Clarence Street, Riccarton, Christchurch. A hands-on workshop that lets you try some different, easy activities and learn more about what happens when kids are deciding to join in. Cost: OSCN members: $35-00 per person, Non-members: $55-00 per person.
    Date: Wed 02 Aug 2023
    Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Book Event

In House Workshops

Building OSCAR programme capability and a positive programme culture

We have seen very positive outcomes from bringing all your staff together for professional development that is focussed on your programme.  Sessions range from 2-5 hours.  Choose a topic, time and location and we'll bring a workshop to you.

We have a lot of topics that can be combined to meet your requirements; these are a few of our more popular options (click on these for more information):

- Safe and Sound  safety and behaviour guidance essentials

- Keeping Your Cool   effective discipline techniques & challenging behaviour

- Here to Care   effective supervision practices, duty of care, MSD Standards

- Tuning into Children   building confidence in activity leadership

- Working Together   professional boundaries in OSCAR


PRICING: a 2-hour package starts from $300-00 for up to 14 people. Handouts provided and we issue certificates to all participants. Additional fees apply for larger groups/ longer sessions and for travel to locations outside of Auckland. We can customise a workshop to fit with your time frame and the training needs of your team.

Workshops out of Auckland need a 2-3 month lead in time to co-ordinate travel. We regret that we can only make this offer to organisations based in the North Island.

In-house workshops are only available to current OSCN members.

Contact OSCN for more information