The partner organisation ERI cooperates with Primary School in Tišina: Presentation Slovenia

Troughout this first project period we faced folowing challenges:

• In our learning network the associated partner advocacy poverty group plays an important role in critical reflection and bringing in the multiple perspectives of children and families living in poverty. We had to search how to make this work and avoid that they are not just spectators but participants in what the childcare centre and preschool would do in terms of actions. Leading the research of the experiences of parents, was a good decision in order to give them a clear and supporting role for the other centres. Especially when ECEC centres dominantly take in an institutional perspective instead of what children, families and local communities also need, bringing in organisations that are advocates for families living in poverty or families from ethnic cultural minorities, is an interesting future pathway to ameliorate the quality of the transitions for children.
• In order to create sustainable chance, ECEC centres should be competent systems in which individual professionals are supported and foremost enabled to create innovations. In both centres we also work on ensuring that there is a continuous professional learning structure. For instance in the childcare center, the director is a driven actor of change. Yet her pedagogical coaches did not seem to be less engaged in the problem of transitions in order to support the childcare workers to work on the actions. In the preschool, directors have changed 3 times throughout the first period of this project. Yet, from a systemic view it is important in our case study that we work with the level of the class practice of the teachers and childcare workers, but also work with the directors who can ensure good working conditions in order to organize a warmer and more inclusive transition. Each time we tried to involve the director in order to ensure some continuity. The pedagogical guidance person of the school in this project has been an important coach for the preschool teachers and also in order to create the conditions within the school for successful actions. Nevertheless, the importance of her role should also be acknowledged and protected in the school system.

Based on these common principles, we developed first actions that would be undertaken to ensure a more smooth and warm transition for all children and families:

1. The childcare centre childcare centre Mezennestje (P9) started to organise monthly family moments for families in the neigboorhoud to support them in the education of their children and more specificaly the transition to preschool. Staff of the preschool are also present to talk about this big step with parents.
2. The pre- and primary school Kolva (P10 -Sint-Maartensinstituut, Moorselbaan) started with welcoming parents in the class of the youngest children. Before that parents had to wait outside the school and rarely had opportunities to talk to the teachers of their children. Staff of the childcare centre childcare centre Mezennestje (P9) supported the teachers how to organise a ‘settling down time’ for children and their parents in the school.
3. We organised staff meetings with all the involved partners to inform and make other colleagues aware of the problems that occur for children and families in transitional periods. This is an important step in order to make sure the innovations that take place in this project will be sustainable in all the organisations. Out of these staff discussions it for example became clear that also in the childcare centre, it is important to again work on vision on how to welcome children and parents through settling down time. So the action of welcoming parents applies to both the pre- and primary school Kolva (P10 -Sint-Maartensinstituut, Moorselbaan) and the childcare centre Mezennestje (P9).

In order to research how parents themselves experience the transtion from home or childcare to preschool education, we organised 4 focus groups and 10 individual interviews in the period January –March. The associated partner, advocay poverty organisation Mensen voor Mensen NGO, together with VBJK, a Centre for Innovation in the Early Years (P4) took this in hands. They organised, invited parents (with the help of the childcare centre and the preschool) and analysed the data in different meetings. The analysis of the data has been presented to the learning network in two sessions. Based on the discussion of the analysis, the participants enriched their current actions and developed new actions like how to create a caring, emotionally safe and exciting outdoor play ground for children and parents. The majority of parents problematised the lack of care and supervision of children during the moments children are not in the preschool class (outdoor playtime, lunch, …). As it is challenging or sometimes even not possible for parents to go in dialogue with the preschool staff, they are worried about this and some expressed that they would rather keep their children home. However, they find preschool an important educational environment for their children in terms of learning the dominant language, learning to be in a social group and learning to become autonomous in life.

We are conducting an action research with employees of childcare centre Mezennestje (P9 -in collaboration with the associated partner, advocay poverty organisation Mensen voor Mensen NGO) and pre- and primary school Kolva (P10 -Sint-Maartensinstituut, Moorselbaan). This action research is facilitated and guided by VBJK, a Centre for Innovation in the Early Years (P4). Basing ourselves on the literature review (o1) and problem analysis previously conducted by many stakeholders, we are focusing on how to create a warm and inclusive transition for a diversity of children and families, including societal disadvantaged children . Since in Belgium preschool education often starts from the assumption that all children have attended childcare, we specifically ask ourselves how ECEC services can work together and learn from each other to take care of a diversity of children & families with different previous experiences at all times, irrespective of their cultural or socio-economical background.

Monthly we have been discussing what the problems are in transition and which actions can be undertaken and how to follow-up and evaluate these actions. Since Belgium is characterized between a historical split between childcare and preschool, the first two meetings were focused in childcare workers and preschool teachers getting to know each other so they could collaborate better in future. Based on this input and the visits to the ECEC centers and primary schools, we developed 9 common principles that our casestudy will be based on:

1. We respect each child in his/her identity and give them all possible changes in the transition.
2. We approach children and parents positively and personalized: strengths and forces of children and parents are at the core
3. We want to ensure a gradual and comfortable transition for children and parents.
4. By encounter and dialogue we build a trust relationship with parents.
5. We actively involve parents in the transitional process
6. By an open and warm reception, children and parents can feel welcome
7. We support and strengthen each other to take actions in transition
8. We unite our forces to establish continuity in the upbringing process of children
9. We fine tune our organizational policies with respect for the singularity of each organisation.

Tišina, 16. 2. 2017

Training was the first of four trainings, aimed to influence professional development of professionals working in Pre and Primary school Tišina, with the goal to contribute to better school practices on the field of transition.

30 participants were present at the training/workshop coming from preschool, 1st- 3rd grade of primary school and neighbouring private preschool Laura, which also feeds Romani and non-Romani children to Primary School Tišina.

Two main topics were addressed at the workshop: strategies of supporting parents, children and also professionals in transitions among various educational environments. The importance of ensuring continuity of approaches among different educational environment was underlined. The second topic was importance of partnership with parents and  developing shared understanding of its importance among professionals working with children and their parents. 

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