Our staff are fully trained in first aid and we proudly maintain our facilities to State licensing standards in safety cleanliness and maintenance. All outdoor areas are appropriately fenced and monitored. Unwell children are advised to remain at home to ensure your children’s health.

The centre is conveniently located so you can collect your child at any time, or call in for a brief visit.

Occasionally cooking activities are undertaken and O.S.H.C has developed a special menu to promote healthy eating to children.

O.S.H.C acknowledges the needs of different cultures and maintains an interest in providing additional support services for families from non-English speaking backgrounds.

As a non-profit organisation, the costs involved in caring for your children are maintained at an affordable level. Some families are also eligible to obtain further reductions through the Child Care Assistance program offered by the Federal Government. Please contact the centre for further information.

As a non-profit organisation, the costs involved in caring for your children are maintained at an affordable level. Some families are also eligible to obtain further reductions through the Child Care Assistance program offered by the Federal Government. Please contact the centre for further information.

Please contact our staff for further information on costs.

6.30am – 6pm Out of School Hours Care Hours

Phone: 82815844

Mobile 0412224737

Cyberbullying uses technology as a means of victimising others. It intends to harm another person through the use of an internet service or mobile device technologies such as:

• email
• chat room
• discussion groups
• instant messaging
• web pages
• social media
• SMS and MMS (text and picture messaging)

Examples include communications that seek to intimidate, manipulate, put down, threaten or humiliate others. Cyberbullying includes behaviour such as:

• abusive texts and emails
• hurtful messages, images or videos
• intimidating others online
• excluding others online
• nasty online gossip and chat of a personal nature

Cyberbullying can also be a crime a fact often not clearly understood by those involved. 

For more information about Cyberbullying including how to report Cyberbullying please click here.

The Department for Education, school communities, services and agencies work together to create learning communities which are:

• safe
• inclusive
• conducive to learning
• free from harassment and bullying

Bullying is an ongoing misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power over one or more persons. Bullying can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). 

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.

Bullying has serious short term and long term psychological and social consequences for both students who are bullied and those who bully others. The following negative consequences have been identified for both students who frequently bully and for those who are bullied. They may:

• feel unsafe at school
• have an increased likelihood of being depressed or having thoughts of self-harm; this is especially true for thosestudents who are bullied
• have lower levels of academic achievement than might otherwise be expected
• have negative attitudes towards school and relatively high levels of school absenteeism over time

Students who are frequently bullied:

• are more likely to have physical symptoms such as headaches and stomach aches
• have ongoing low self esteem
• experience high levels of anxiety and are more likely to be referred for additional support services
• may resort to violent retaliation

Harassment
Harassment is behaviour that offends, humiliates, intimidates or creates a hostile environment by targeting an individual or group due to their:

• identity
• race
• culture or ethnic origin
• religion
• physical characteristics
• gender
• sexual orientation
• marital, parenting or economic status
• age
• ability or disability

Harassment may be an ongoing pattern of behaviour or a single act, directed towards an individual or group. Harassment may be intentional or unintentional and use specific words or actions that offend and distress another person. 

Harassment may be regarded as minor or harmless by some, but has the potential to cause significant harm to individuals or groups effected or targeted.

Violence
Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against another person that results in psychological harm or physical injury. Violence may involve provoked or unprovoked acts and can be a single incident, a random act or can occur over time.

Violence and harassment can occur as part of bullying, but can also occur in one-off conflicts or between strangers.

The school takes bullying very seriously.

Sometimes staff are are not told by students when they are bullied. It is very important that victims of bullying tell a school staff member immediately it happens. It is much harder to address bullying at a later time.

Parents can support the school’s antibullying work by encouraging children to report all incidents of bullying immediately to their teacher or a staff member.

Madison Park School has had a policy of handing in mobile phones to the front office for many years. In 2021 the Department for Education made this an official policy for all public schools.

Now mobile phones and portable devices are no longer permitted in classrooms in any SA public school.

At Madison park School students are required to hand them into the front office when they arrive and collect them at the end of the day.

Phones and portable devices are not permitted in pockets, school bags or lockers.
There is an iPad on the front desk where students can register their phones & devices when they drop off or collect them.

Download the Mobile Phone and Portable Phone Policy here.

Coming soon.

Schools and preschools do not get headlice: people do. Nevertheless, because schools and preschools are places of frequent close contact between people, principals have an obligation to support public health measures. 

There will often be children with headlice in schools, and many families have expressed their frustration about the fact that their children seem to keep being infected. We understand this as it is expensive and inconvenient, I have provided some information for your information.

James Cook University conducted research and revealed the following facts:

• At 4 schools they checked about 1000 hats and found no head lice although, about 200 of those kids had head lice
• Head lice are easy to kill on items … tap water at 60C for 10 seconds causes 100% mortality in head lice on combs and brushes
• Few head lice fall off the head, those that do fall off are probably the ones that are about to die – head lice only live about 30 days
• Conditioner stuns lice for 20 minutes. So once the hair is properly covered with a layer of conditioner, do not delay in combing them out!
• No current treatment kills eggs (it only kills live ones), so after 7 – 10 days you must treat again, to catch the ones that hatched, sometimes retreatment is required every 7 days for 3 weeks.
• Lice are becoming immune to treatments that contain pesticides and poisons, (like KP24 etc) new research shows that natural oil-based products like “Lice Blaster” and “Lice Attack” are very effective and are much gentler on young children’s skin and scalp.
• The only sure way children catch lice is by touching heads together, lice do not jump, fly or hop. 

Any situation that gatherers large numbers of children together will increase the risk of lice being transferred from person to person. 

If your child comes home crawling with live head lice, it is very unlikely they caught them that day, research tells us what has really happened is that eggs have hatched, laid by an adult louse several weeks earlier. If your child has been infected with headlice at school they will only have one or two adult lice in their hair until they lay eggs. When these eggs hatch about 10 days later you will see their hair looking infested.

Children found with head lice in school are isolated from other students and are sent home for treatment. A message is then sent out to every child in their class asking parents to check children’s hair. If your child is sent home with lice please do not send them back to school until you have treated them with an approved head lice treatment. Once treated, children can return to school immediately.

We have included a link to the Education Department webpage and an information booklet with more information.

The school Governing Council members are very involved in the school and have provided outstanding support. Members run Committees including:

• Finance
• Out of School Hours Care
• Fundraising
• Volunteers
• School Community Projects

These subcommittees support a range of school/ community programs and provide a clear and streamlined process to managing volunteers, fundraising events and many others.

The Role of the Governing Council

The role of Governing Council is expressed through the legislation, the Administrative Instructions and Guidelines (AIGs) (Section 5), the Governing Council constitution and the Governing Council code of practice. The role of the Governing Council is to:

• focus on improving student learning outcomes in collaboration with the site leader and staff
• develop a cooperative working relationship between the Governing Council and the site leader and staff
• represent the whole school community in understanding local educational needs
• set general directions for the site
• monitor and report on achievements.

The different roles of the Governing Council and the site leader should be understood and respected.  The site leader has specific educational and organisational leadership responsibilities for which they are accountable to the Minister through the Chief Executive of the Department of Education and Children’s Services.  Site governance and site management should be clearly separated.

Functions of the Governing Council

In the context of a Governing Council’s role, the council must perform the following functions:

• Involve the school community in the governance of the school by:
• providing a focus and a forum for parental and school community involvement and values
• identifying the educational needs of the local community and the attitude of the community to educational developments within the site
• ensuring that the cultural and social diversity of the site community is considered and the needs of all student groups are appropriately identified.

• Set the general directions of the site by:
• developing broad site policy statements such as the Site Learning Plan, the site budget, and student safety, welfare and discipline policies

• Monitor and report on:
• the Site Learning Plan
• the site’s finances (including Governing Council enterprises and programs such as OSHC )
• the Council’s operations

• Other:
• raise money for site related purposes
• property maintenance
• OSHC type responsibilities

Role of Council Members

A Council Member:

• is required to attend all meetings or put in their apology
• should be prepared to nominate to be on one of the committees of council
• is to bring their experience and expertise to the council
• is to ensure that once a decision is reached by council, that all councillors support that decision in the preschool/school community
• is to act in the best interests of the preschool/school community
• is to be prepared for council meetings and willing to openly discuss the issues
• is to consult with the preschool/school community to inform themselves