After hours school care in the Australian bush

![CDATA[Introduction: ‘OOSH in the Bush’ is an Australian pilot program delivered at Centennial Parklands in Sydney, from their ‘Bush classroom’. Aiming to get children in who attend an Out of Hours School Care (OOSH) service engaging in nature play, three unique partnerships were developed to ensure the successful delviery of the program. Objectives: Working in coalition with two non-government agencies ; Empower OOSH educators through mentoring to be comptement in nature play ; Provide a nature play experience to inner city urban children. Methods: Nine OOSH centres visit Centennial Parklands in the school holidays or after school for ten hours of nature play; Pre-program training day introducing the concept of nature play; Researchers from University of Western Sydney use innovative data collection techniques such as behaviour mapping, video diaries, testimonials and Gopros. Results: 162 children participated in 10 hours of nature play programming; Children encountered wildlife such as bats, possums, reptiles, insects and aquatic animals; Children took advantage of landscape affordances to climb trees, negotiate uneven ground, build cubbies (shelters) and engage in loose parts play; Children engaged creatively and imaginatively with the landscape, participating in role play, natural face painting and ephemeral art works; The training program provided skills and knowledge to enable an understanding and commitment to nature play pedagogy in Educators that had little understadning of the area; Mentoring relationships were established between the Education Rangers, the researchers and the visiting educators; Understanding of how nature play concepts can be integrated into the new quality learning framework for the OOSH sector which in turn will enable further expansion of nature play throughout the various OOSH centres. Conclusion: The results show the ‘OOSH in the Bush’ program has achieved its program objectives. Children from inner city and urban OOSH centres experienced self-directed play in the natural environment. This was evident in children climbing trees, building shelters from natural material and, in one particular example, showing their capacity for empathy for ‘other’ by caring for an injured lady beetle. The OOSH educators were empowered by the training and the time they spent with the children in the natural environment. Behaviour displayed by the educators did not suggest they were uncomfortable with the children’s play; instead educators involved themselves and became part of the children’s play. Some climbed the trees with the children, painted their own faces with ochre, and became a part of the children’s role playing games. The educators became a model to the children for nature play. Since the delivery of the program many of the OOSH educators have taken steps to introduce nature play activities into their regular programming.]]