Introduction/specifics

Welcome to the

Our daycare centre is located in a new development in the centre of Helmbrechts and is a new, modern daycare centre with bright and friendly rooms. One of the most important elements are the floor-to-ceiling windows, which give the child many ‘viewing windows’ into the real world, allowing them to better connect the inside and outside worlds. The architecture of our centre is designed to arouse the child's curiosity to discover the world outside the centre in a protected environment. At the same time, the outside world gets an insight into the inner life of the centre. The fire brigade and various shopping facilities are located in our immediate neighbourhood.

Rooms

The rooms have a special significance in Reggio pedagogy because they serve the children as a so-called ‘3rd educator’.

Kindergarten:

On the upper floor, the kindergarten children can develop freely in functional rooms, play, romp, retreat or research and experiment:

• Piazza 
• studio
• Room of 100 games
• Construction room
• Workshop/research room
• Arena

The rooms are not simply interchangeable areas that can be calculated in terms of square metres, but represent protection, but also challenges, help and places of experience for the children. They are places to meet people and offer many opportunities to play, move around or simply withdraw. Spaces have an impact on children's behaviour and therefore also on their opportunities to act. It is therefore important that the rooms offer clarity and structure. By providing an environment that is tailored to the child's needs, the rooms support and promote the child's self-education and co-construction. This means that the respective rooms must be prepared by the specialist through stimuli so that the child is encouraged to act and experiment. The shelves are equipped with photos of the respective materials so that the child can orientate itself independently in the room and has a predefined structure.

Crèche:

The two crèche groups are located on the ground floor. Both group rooms are each equipped with a small built-in area that encourages children to climb the stairs, but also invites them to hide away and retreat. In addition, each group room has its own bathroom with changing table, two small toilets suitable for crèches and a separate bedroom. The mini-studio is located between the two crèche rooms and offers even the youngest children space to give free rein to their curiosity and creativity. In addition, the long corridor and the large, covered terrace can be used very well as an activity centre.

Outdoor Facilities

Our spacious outdoor area offers many opportunities for young and old. A swing, a water play area, a slide, a climbing frame, a playhouse and a sandpit invite the kindergarten children to play and run around. At the back of the garden there is a tarmac track that the children can use with various vehicles.

Separate from this, the crèche children have a separate garden with a climbing frame and slide, a sandpit and a swing. Both garden areas can be accessed via the balcony (kindergarten) or the terrace (crèche).

Daily Schedule

Kindergarten:

7.00 - 7.30 a.m. Arrival in the assembly group

7.30 - 8.30 a.m. Bring time and free play in the functional rooms

8.30 - 9.00 a.m. Morning circle

9.00 - 10.00 a.m. Breakfast on the go in the children's canteen

10.00 - 10.30 a.m. Movement and project circle

10.30 - 11.45 a.m. Work in the functional rooms and project time

12.00 - 13.00 Flexible lunch in the children's canteen

12.15 - 14.00 Sleeping and/or relaxing/free play in the functional rooms

14.00 - 15.00 Free play in the functional rooms

15.00 - 15.30 Snack in the children's canteen

15.30 - 16.30 Free play in the functional rooms

Crèche:

7.00 - 7.30 a.m. Arrival in the group room

7.30 - 8.45 a.m. Bring time and free play in the group room

8.45 - 9.00 a.m. Morning circle

9.00 - 9.30 a.m. Breakfast

9.30 - 10.15 a.m. Care and cleanliness education

10.15 - 11.30 a.m. Limited opening time in the functional rooms/ project time

11.30 - 12.15 Lunch + care and cleanliness education

12.15 - 13.45 Sleeping or relaxing

13.45 - 14.00 Care and cleanliness education

14.00 - 15.00 Free play in the group room

15.00 - 15.30 Snack in the children's canteen

15.30 - 16.30 Free play in the group room

Food

We would like to relieve our parents by offering an ‘all inclusive’ service at our centre. In practice, this means that we take care of all the catering for the children.

Breakfast/bread time

We provide the children with a rich and healthy breakfast buffet every day, which they can help themselves to. We have the following on offer

fresh fruit and vegetables / daily
various types of sausage and cheese / daily
various spreads / daily
homemade jams / weekly
Bread, rolls, pretzel sticks, muesli / changed daily
various teas, water, cocoa, juice shakes / changed daily

Lunch

The Günther butcher's shop in Schauenstein supplies us daily with freshly cooked, child-friendly lunches. We have the following on offer:

Pasta with various sauces
various desserts
various soups
various meat and fish dishes
various desserts

We would like to relieve our parents by offering an ‘all inclusive’ service at our centre. In practice, this means that we take care of all the children's meals. We provide the children with a rich and healthy breakfast buffet every day, which they can help themselves to. In addition, a butcher's shop supplies us daily with freshly cooked and child-appropriate lunches. Children who are booked for longer than 3.00 p.m. also take part in the snack buffet. In addition, various drinks are offered daily.

Basics

Our work is based on Reggio pedagogy. Rather, it is a philosophy that we live with the children. In order to put the concept of Reggio pedagogy into practice, we as professionals need a positive personal attitude towards education and learning. In addition, appreciation of the child and his or her ideas and thoughts is an essential element. In addition, there is a willingness and openness to resource-orientated work, which is what this pedagogy is all about. We react empathetically to everything the child moves, thinks and does, and trust in the child's individual competences. We are also inspired by the child's joy of exploration and go on exciting and interesting journeys of discovery with them.

Employee

We employ 6 specialised staff and 6 supplementary staff at our facility. We are also supported by an administrative assistant in the office, a caretaker in the house and garden, a housekeeper in the kitchen and a cleaner.

We also see ourselves not only as an educational centre for children, but also as a training centre. This means that we have a student at our centre every year. In addition, pupils from various schools usually find a work placement with us.

Quality Assurance

Quality does not happen by itself. It is not only dependent on structural conditions, e.g. room size or room equipment, but also on the quality of the staff. The commitment and inventiveness of all those involved are of great value. Utilising and promoting them is a hallmark of good quality.

Quality assurance takes place in our centre in the following ways:

• Regular professional training (1st aid for children, fire safety, occupational safety, Koki, instructions...)
• Weekly team meeting
• Cooperation with specialised services
• Concept days
• Specialist literature
• Observation sheets
• Parents‘ meetings / parents’ evenings
• Own homepage
• Parent surveys
• Hygiene and cleaning plan
• Staff concept for new staff, containing important information such as a mini-concept on pedagogy, house rules, overtime regulations, etc.

Cooperations

In cooperation with the Hof district music school, we offer music lessons once a week in our centre from the age of 4. For an additional fee, children can learn to play the recorder and glockenspiel.

In co-operation with Schutzhöhle e.V., we offer the ‘Safety Kids’ self-confidence training course for pre-school children. The training programme comprises 20 educational units over the course of an entire kindergarten year. For an additional fee, parents can register their future schoolchild for the programme.

Teamwork with school

We work closely with the local Otto Knopf primary school. Be it through the targeted language support programme "Vorkurs Deutsch 240", in which a teacher regularly visits us at the facility, or the school visits for the pre-school children. This gives the children the opportunity to get to know the school, the teachers and also, for example, how a lesson is organised. This takes away the children's insecurities or fear of something new.

Teamwork with parents

In our work, we are not only concerned with good educational work on and with the child, but also with an open, trusting relationship with the parents. We want to treat parents as equal partners with joint responsibility for the child. Furthermore, it is our aim to increasingly turn the side-by-side relationship into a relationship with the parents and to walk a path together in the education of their child. Our daycare centre sees itself as supporting and accompanying families. It is therefore very important to us to provide parents with professional support and guidance in their educational role.

Regular parent-teacher conferences are at the heart of this. Once or twice a year, we offer parents the opportunity to discuss educational goals and the developmental status and process of their child with the responsible educational counsellor.

News

As we use Reggio pedagogy to orientate ourselves to the interests of the children, our annual festivities and activities vary. For example, we may hold a summer festival one year and celebrate a spring or autumn festival with the children and their families the following year. This keeps the year exciting and flexible for everyone involved. Nevertheless, we like to celebrate church festivals with the children, such as Christmas, St Martin's Day, Easter...

Projects

Project work is an essential component of Reggio pedagogy - even when working with crèche children. Children gain knowledge about their actions and through the subsequent (self-) reflection of their actions. A project is by no means an answer to a question, but rather a joint endeavour to search for answers. Consequently, the duration of each project depends on the emotional interests of the child. Project work is characterised by the fact that, once a child's interest has been aroused, they can and are allowed to engage with a particular topic in a long-term and varied way. 

Previous projects have included, for example

• From cardboard box to ice cream van
• Look what the fire brigade can do
• The jam monster
• and a few others

Parental Interviews

In the last quarter of the daycare year, we launch an annual anonymous parent survey for quality assurance purposes. In this way, we want to record the satisfaction, but also all the wishes and needs of the parents. We try to implement these to the best of our ability and develop further. It also serves as a reflection of our educational work in team meetings.