Wild Nature Play: Researching OOSH in the Bush

OOSH in the Bush is a wild free play project that is seeking to address a pressing issue for Australian children in contemporary society: What will be the impact on children if there is a continued decrease in their opportunity to engage in free or ‘wild’ nature play? The research conducted and reported on in this report sought to evaluate the potential of OOSH in the Bush in making a contribution to addressing this issue. The research was conducted by a research team from the Centre for Educational Research (CER) at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). The key role of the UWS researchers was to document the first intake of the OOSH in the Bush program in order to understand its impact and effectiveness. The OOSH in the Bush program has been designed and implemented by Centennial Parkland educators in order to support children and staff from Out of School Hours (OOSH) care centres to participate in wild nature play activities. This pilot program was implemented at two sites: Centennial Parklands in the inner city of Sydney and Mt Annan Botanical Gardens in the outer suburban region of NSW. The pilot involved 10 OOSH services over a six month period in late 2014 and early 2015 and provided 10 hours of nature play activity to approximately 260 children (20 from each service). Additionally, OOSH in the Bush provided training in nature play to OOSH staff by using webinars, workshops, guided learning, on site participation and supplying access to a variety of rich resources.