Introduction/specifics

Language helps to open up the world, express oneself and make contact with the environment. We are a language kindergarten and employ an additional language specialist. Everyday integrated language development - for both German-speaking and non-German-speaking children - is a priority for us. 

Participation: The children are allowed to participate in all decisions that affect them according to their age and abilities.

We are subsidised by a European social fund, which enables us to finance additional staff hours.

The centre is run by the Catholic Church and is attended by children from different religious backgrounds; we are guided by the church's annual cycle and the associated festivals and teach our Christian values. 

Rooms

The kindergarten accommodates three groups of children on two levels. The rooms for the additional pre-school group are located in the neighbouring community centre. Each group room has a small adjoining room. The children enjoy playing in the gym and in the large entrance hall, which also houses the children's library. The children eat all their meals in the kitchen bistro.

The kindergarten has a garden with play equipment, lots of nooks and crannies and a large tree population.

Outdoor Facilities

We have a garden behind the house, which encourages the children to get plenty of exercise.  We spend as much time outdoors as possible. The children love the harvest time with apple and plum trees, hazel bushes and in the raised bed. Once or twice a year, staff, parents and children get together to work in the garden.

There are many playgrounds in the neighbourhood that we enjoy visiting.

Daily Schedule

We work partially open. In the morning, all children meet in an assembly group. From here, the children split up into their home groups.

Breakfast is served in the kitchen bistro for all children from 8 a.m. onwards.

In the morning, there are various activities in the home groups. They do handicrafts, read, play, sing, paint, do gymnastics, etc. The garden and gym are open to children from all groups.

Music lessons from an external provider and our German courses also take place in the mornings.

After lunchtime (in a flexible form in the kitchen bistro) there is a nap for our youngest children. Afterwards, the children from all groups come together to play. On Thursdays, the ‘Safety Kids’ programme of the Schutzhöhle and our own afternoon activities take place.

Food

The children bring food from home for snacks in the morning and afternoon.

Lunch is delivered to us by Kultur-Catering. The food is flavoured to suit the children and is very tasty.

The children are provided with fruit, vegetables and yoghurt every day as part of the European school fruit and vegetable programme.

As part of the Kulinarix project, we are currently focussing intensively on the topic of ‘healthy eating’.

Basics

-Language helps to open up the world, express oneself and make contact with the environment. We are a language kindergarten and have undergone extensive further training in this area of education. In everyday life, we make sure to create many language-stimulating situations. To this end, we have employed a language specialist who supports the team and offers regular German courses with the children before they start school. Additional German courses are offered by a teacher from the Sprengelschule and by colleagues from the daycare centre. Our children's library is always accessible to all parents and children.

- Participation: The children are allowed to participate in all decisions that affect them according to their age and abilities. We practise democratic co-operation. Every year, group representatives are elected in democratic elections (voting stones), who regularly consult and exchange ideas with the centre staff.

- We are a Catholic centre that is attended by many children from different religious backgrounds. We orientate ourselves on the church's annual cycle with the associated festivals and communicate our Christian values. Many of these values apply to all religions. We want to teach the children that there are different ways of living these values and that diversity is a very positive thing.

We are a “house of little researchers”. The children have a strong curiosity about things that happen around them. We tap into this curiosity and try to impart knowledge in the STEM fields through simple experiments and observations of plants and animals. Our garden offers great conditions for this.

All information at www.stpius-kindergarten-hof.de

Employee

The centre is well staffed, as we receive additional staff hours financed by a European social fund and we are able to employ an additional language specialist. We have a total of 13 employees in our team. We also receive help from our dedicated kitchen staff and a caretaker. We are a colourful mix of ages, genders and religions and speak German, English, Turkish, Hungarian, Polish,...and a little Russian :)

We are a training centre and are regularly visited by interns as part of childcare and educator training.

In 2024, the team underwent further training as part of the pedagogical quality development programme. We are a language kindergarten and are currently taking part in the kita-digital and Kulinarix (healthy eating) projects. Since 2016, we have been able to call ourselves a ‘House of Little Researchers’.

All team members regularly attend further training events. 

We value a good working atmosphere and good cooperation. 

Teamwork with school

 We work closely with our Sprengelschule (Krötenbruck primary school). A teacher regularly holds German courses in the kindergarten. We also have a good dialogue with many other schools.

Teamwork with parents

- We see our cooperation with parents as an educational partnership.

- We try to organise joint events in such a way that as many families as possible can take part

- We regularly discuss the development of the children at scheduled meetings. It is important to us to always take a positive view.

- The parents' advisory council supports and advises us

News

In January we had a visit from the Hof's Youth Theater. We watched the show "Something grows there!" ... and were thrilled :)

More exciting is that they agreed to work with in a theatre workshop ‘Kinderherzen glücklich machen- making children happy’ We are able to keep in contact with the Youth Theatre. Wonderful news :)

Projects

The kindergarten is financially supported by the kindergarten's sponsoring organisation. Sharing is important to us: that's why the association's money is always used to support a project in developing countries.

Overview

Wir nehmen Kinder ab zwei Jahren bei uns auf.