St Nicholas OOSH centres cease bus services to and from public schools

St Nicholas management wrote to families on Tuesday, thanking them for "participating in our recent consultation" about the bus service and explaining it would not be offered from term two.

"Based on the consultation with additional consideration of both the staffing and operational challenges the bus service presents, it has been decided this service is no longer feasible," the letter said.

"We have made every effort to explore the available options to retain the bus, however due to the ongoing viability issues, we have had to make this difficult decision.

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this causes families."

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The St Nicholas OOSH at New Lambton will also cease its bus service to and from its nearby public schools.

A Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle spokeswoman said the services were "utilised by a small number of families with children attending local public schools, and these schools have contracted OOSH services onsite".

She said the provision of a bus service "presents additional operational impacts".

"In addition to needing to coordinate private bus hire and a bus driver... St Nicholas must ensure that, in addition to service-based educators, there is a qualified educator to supervise each bus trip."

The letter brings to an end more than a week of "mixed messaging" about the bus service.

St Nicholas OOSH Kotara mum Jen, who didn't want her surname published, said she received a call on Friday January 6 advising her that the bus service her six year old son used to travel between the centre and Belair Public School was being cancelled from term one.

She said she was told that day and in a call on Monday January 9 it had been a "decision from upper management".

"There had been no consultation and no notice given," Jen said.

"My thought was if we'd known about it even in mid term four then we could have tried to find something else.

"Limbo is the right word... it kind of felt like having the rug pulled out from under us.

"We feel we committed to them and they committed to us because they accepted our enrolment, there was no reason to think everything would not just continue."

Jen said the bus service was one of the reasons the family was drawn to St Nicholas OOSH.

With three weeks to go before the start of term, Jen started calling OOSH services in the area, but they either didn't operate a bus service or had waitlists.

She planned to call Belair Community Out of School Hours Centre when it opened this week. It had a waitlist when her son started school last year.

She said she then received a phone call on Wednesday January 11 advising her there had been an "emergency meeting" on Tuesday January 10 and the bus service would run in term one.

"They said because of all the negative feedback about the insufficient timing that they decided to extend the bus for term one only," Jen said.

She said she has this week secured spaces at Belair OOSH Centre for three mornings and two afternoons each week in term one.

"My plan is to start him from term one across both services... my fear being that if I don't start him at the Belair OOSH in term one that I'll miss the opportunity to get him in at all in term two," she said.

"The emotional energy that has been expended to try and sort this out [has been challenging]. It's not ideal for a six year old to be across multiple services... he's adaptable and he'll be okay but it's not ideal."

Jen said there had been "mixed messaging".

"The trust that maybe I did have - even once I did get the news of the term one extension - I feel like that's gone a bit, because there's no level of accountability for the distress it's caused.

"It would have been easy to say 'We've stuffed up and we made a mistake and we acknowledge that' but to say it was part of the consultation... I remember very specifically saying that word consultation and [the staff member who called] was just a messenger.

"It was not consultation, it was delivering a message."

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