For the 11th time, daycare center managers and specialists from Vekio, KiTagGmbh, Lebenshilfe Idar-Oberstein and the Idar-Oberstein city administration, their specialist advisors and representatives of the providers met for a professional exchange. This time, the focus of the meeting was on the transition of children from daycare to school. The event in the Göttenbach auditorium was hosted by the social space budget steering group and the daycare center social workers from the city youth welfare office.
The transition from nursery to elementary school is of particular importance. Successful, positive transitions strengthen children in a special way, creating good conditions for subsequent transitions in their individual lives. Legislation has therefore clearly stated and enshrined the importance of positively shaping this phase in many places. In Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, both the Child Day Care Centers Act and the School Act stipulate that the two institutions, day care centers and elementary school, must coordinate their respective educational concepts with regard to the transition as part of their cooperation. For this reason, the head teachers of all elementary school and special schools in the city were also invited to the topic "Transition from daycare to school" prepared by the daycare center social workers and they also attended in large numbers.
After a welcome from the Head of the Youth Welfare Office, Michael Schweizer, and a brief round of introductions, the daycare social workers gave a technical introduction to the German School Act and the Child Daycare Act. In addition, the model project "Discursive quality development of needs-based transitions (DebÜ)" of the Institute for Education, Upbringing and Childcare in Rhineland-Palatinate at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences was presented.
In a group work phase, the representatives of the schools exchanged views with the daycare centers located in the respective school districts on specific issues: How do we currently organize the transition? What helps and/or hinders us? Is there a coalition agreement between daycare centers and schools? The participants also considered whether they agreed with the theses and associated recommendations for action set out in the DebÜ model project, which was co-financed by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Education, and which they viewed more critically.
In summary, it was found that a lot of beneficial cooperation is already taking place in the individual facilities, such as meetings and discussions between those responsible in the daycare center and school, taster days and joint events. Nevertheless, this cooperation and the participation of everyone, especially the children and their parents, should be expanded and intensified. There are also stumbling blocks such as staff shortages, a lack of time resources or the distance between daycare centers and elementary school. There are also some children in the daycare centers who attend several different schools and families with whom cooperation does not work well.
In conclusion, the organizers were of the opinion that a first foundation stone had been laid for further meetings of this kind and that getting to know each other and exchanging ideas that afternoon was an enrichment for everyone.