Caring for school age children in long child care requires knowledge and understanding of children’s development and needs in middle childhood. Relationships, environments and activities are the essential elements of the program. Understanding school age children is one of the challenges of working with children aged 5 to 12 years because they display a wide range of development across all areas, from the social and moral to the cognitive and physical areas of development.

School age children possess particular characteristics. The following are some of the characteristics that older children may show:

1. A keen interest in and be influenced by peer and popular culture.
2. A possibility of raising issues such as drugs, sex and personal development.
3. Seeking and being capable of greater independence; clhallenging authority and rules of the service.
4. Requiring more space and resources that specifically suited to the development of their physical size and abilities.
5. Requiring staff to have an understanding of and be sensitive to the physical and emotional needs because of puberty period.
6. Needs of spending time with friends as they prepare for a day at school and to unwind at the end of the day.

Relationships is one of the most important things to be considered in caring school age children in child care centres. Genuine conversations between staff and children are the key to developing meaningful relationships. Child care professionals especially the carer should arrange the environment and experiences so that they can have some time to talk freely and listen attentively to older children. Furthermore, considering older children as equal conversation partners is essential in building relationships so that children feel respected and cared for.

Planning experiences and environments for older children in child care centres should be based on children’s interests and should be recreational rather than academic. The reason is because older children will need an environment that is relaxed before or after attending a full day at school. In addition, the environments in child care centres should provide opportunities to play freely. A balance of active and passive activities should be planned, as well as a balance of independence, collaboration and cooperation. When planning for older children, it should be well noted that the experiences provided are consistent with the service philosophy.

Older children are different from younger children. They enjoy being involved in the planning process. Therefore, it is suggested to ask older children to plan specific activities or larger events for the whole group. It is important that older children have opportunities to share their current interests and their ideas for planning with staff, for example through one to one staff conversation with children or through staff interactions with small groups of children.