School holidays and OSHC: how bookings, waitlists and vacation care actually work

Before and after school care and school holiday vacation care both plug the gap around a working parent’s schedule, but they run differently and are usually booked separately. Understanding how each actually works makes term planning much less stressful.

Term-time OSHC: how bookings typically work

Most before and after school care runs as a recurring booking: permanent days each week, casual bookings added as needed, or a mix of both. A typical morning session runs from around 7am until the school bell, and an afternoon session from bell time until around 6pm. Fees are charged per session rather than per day the way long day care is, so your weekly cost depends on exactly how many sessions you book.

Booking type	How it typically works
Permanent booking	Same days every week, often at a discounted rate over casual
Casual booking	Added as needed, sometimes at a slightly higher per-session rate
Mixed	Permanent for some days, casual added on others
Waitlist	Applies when a service is full for a specific day or term

Vacation care: a separate booking stream

School holiday vacation care is generally booked separately from term-time OSHC, even when run by the same provider. It is usually priced per day rather than per session, and programs are often themed around excursions, incursions, sport or craft activities that change daily across the holiday period. Because specific days, especially excursion days, can fill up first, it is worth booking as early as a provider opens its holiday program calendar rather than waiting until the week before.

Planning a full term calendar

Working parents generally do best mapping out the whole term in one sitting rather than booking week by week: confirm your permanent OSHC days, note any pupil-free days that need separate casual bookings, and check when vacation care bookings open for the following holiday period so you are not caught out. Many providers publish a term calendar in advance, which makes this planning easier if you request it early.

What to check before you commit

• What is included in the daily or session fee: food, activities, transport to and from school if the service is off-site?
• How are waitlists handled if your preferred days are full?
• What is the cancellation policy if your child cannot attend a booked day?
• How do sign-in and sign-out work, and is there an app or system parents use?

Handling the gaps

Pupil-free days, staff development days, and the days between school holiday programs opening and closing can catch families out if they are only planning around the standard term calendar. Building a small buffer, whether that is a flexible workday, a grandparent on standby, or a backup casual OSHC option, makes these gaps far less stressful when they come up.

Managing costs across a full year

Because OSHC and vacation care are billed separately, per session and per day respectively, the total annual cost can add up in a way that is easy to underestimate if you only budget week by week. Working out a rough full-year figure, term-time sessions plus the holiday weeks you expect to need covered, gives a more realistic picture than looking at any single invoice in isolation. Remember that the Child Care Subsidy generally applies to both term-time OSHC and approved vacation care programs, so your out-of-pocket figure will usually be lower than the gross fee either way.

Getting older children involved

Primary-school-age children old enough to have an opinion often do better with OSHC and holiday programs when they have some say in the activities on offer, rather than feeling like care is simply happening to them. If a program publishes its daily activity schedule in advance, going through it with your child and letting them pick a favourite excursion day or two can make the whole arrangement feel less like an obligation and more like something to look forward to, particularly during the longer summer holiday period.

Comparing providers

Browse the before and after school care category to compare Perth providers on booking flexibility, communication and vacation care offerings, and see our methodology for how we score and rank the providers in that list.