Introduction/specifics

Municipal day care center

Street: Piccoloministraße 531

District: Mülheim

Quarter: Holweide

Rooms

Our room program is based on the number of children and the age of the children in each group. There are group rooms, side rooms, quiet rooms, sanitary facilities with nursing facilities and a room for differentiated activities. The room design and use of space is flexible and multifunctional. Our teachers design the rooms together with the children in such a way that they invite them to play, explore and discover independently. The rooms and the selected materials offer the children a variety of opportunities to develop their skills and try things out.

Daily Schedule

The daily structure is geared towards the needs and themes of the children and the children's group. Rituals and regular routines give the children orientation and security without restricting them in their development.

Food

The possible day care for the children ranges from 25 to 45 hours. During this time, the children are provided with drinks, a hot lunch and an afternoon snack. Lunch, which is provided by catering and various delivery systems, is nutritionally based on the recommendations of the German Nutrition Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung e. V.). In addition, we implement defined quality criteria (organic content, seasonality, sustainability aspects and others) to ensure a balanced and child-friendly diet. The afternoon meals are also based on these quality criteria.

Basics

Our daycare centers have an independent educational mandate, care mandate and child-raising mandate, which results from Section 2, Paragraph 2 of the Act on the Early Education and Support of Children (KiBiz) and is explained in the principles for the educational support of children from 0 to 10 years in daycare centers and schools in the primary sector in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The "Quality Manual for Municipal Daycare Centers" is the pedagogical basis for the daycare centers. The guidelines "Educating, caring and raising with heart and mind" stand for an appreciative and appreciative pedagogical attitude. (https://www.stadt-koeln.de/artikel/69118/index.html).

We see our daycare centers as places for children where they can explore, marvel and learn with joy and curiosity, according to their individual needs and stage of development. Children with their life situations, their prerequisites, their interests and needs are the starting point for educational activities in municipal daycare centers. Our educators focus on the children's resources and strengths and stimulate a wide range of educational processes.

Employee

Our educational staff consists of the manager, a permanent deputy manager, specialist staff and supplementary staff and is assigned to the groups according to the group structure. In addition, each municipal daycare center has a housekeeping assistant and an everyday helper.

Additional Offerings

The educational work of the daycare centres is enriched and usefully supplemented by additional programmes, such as

• State programme Language daycare centres
• Exercise program - KitaFit
• Movement kindergartens
• Language support program - Language Route
• NRW family centre

In our family centres, families can take advantage of a wide range of family counselling and family education services, such as parents' cafés, playgroups or various information events on important educational topics. The services are tailored to the wishes and needs of the families in the neighbourhood.

Quality Assurance

The "Quality Manual for Municipal Daycare Centers" forms the pedagogical basis and thus the qualitative basis for providing children with the best possible care, upbringing and education. With the help of the quality standards and quality criteria formulated there, as well as the internal evaluation method, the daycare center teams continuously develop their educational work. In addition, the employees of the daycare centers have access to their own program with over 100 further education and training courses and advisory services every year.

Cooperations

Our daycare centers work together with all institutions involved in the education and support of children and reflect on their actions together. Through cooperation and exchange (for example with socio-spatial working groups, family education centers, early intervention centers and others), the targeted support of individual children is supplemented, daycare life is enriched and families are supported in their everyday lives.

Contacts with social institutions and initiatives are used to inform families about offers in the social area.

Teamwork with school

The daycare centre and primary school take joint responsibility for supporting the children. They ensure this through continuous mutual information on educational content, methods and concepts. The transition from daycare centre to primary school is accompanied in such a way that the children can cope well with this challenge and take advantage of the development opportunities it offers.

Teamwork with parents

A trusting and respectful cooperation between the parents or guardians and the carers is fundamental in order to jointly support the children's educational processes. In regular discussions, the carers and parents or guardians communicate about the child's interests, abilities and development. Transparent communication and passing on information to families is a fundamental part of the collaboration. All families in municipal daycare centres are invited to participate in everyday life at the daycare centre and, in particular, to help shape special occasions.

Specifics

Inclusive care – additional special educational needs

Every child has the right to individual support and assistance. All children are accompanied and supported in their development by adults. Children with (potential) disabilities are entitled to curative education services at the daycare center. Curative education services are services for social participation. They are intended to increase the independence of children with (potential) disabilities and promote their social skills and development. If the prerequisites for curative education services are met, assistance for your child and the framework conditions for the day care center can be adapted.

Projects

Throughout the city, our day-care centres take part in various projects tailored to the interests and needs of children and families, for example

• House of Little Scientists
• Daycare centre makes music
• Children's opera
• KitaFit
• Violence prevention project at Cologne kindergartens and schools
• The Löwenmut family

Holiday Care

Children have the right to attend the daycare centre until they start compulsory schooling. When the daycare centre is closed, childcare is available in emergencies at a nearby municipal daycare centre.

Parental Interviews

At the beginning of the kindergarten year, we will ask parents about their requirements for childcare times and determine these accordingly for the kindergarten year. The closing times are determined once a year in consultation with the Parents' Council in accordance with the City of Cologne's user regulations.

Overview

The Office for Children, Youth and Family allocates childcare places in all municipal daycare centres centrally on the basis of the application date. You should therefore register your child as early as possible at municipal daycare centres.

The requirements for a childcare place in a municipal daycare centre are as follows:

1. The childcare request must be made at least six months before the desired childcare start date.
2. The child and at least one contractual partner must be registered in Cologne at the desired start date.

Siblings are given preferential consideration when allocating places. The prerequisites are:

1. One of your children must already be attending the same municipal daycare centre.
2. The corresponding contract must be valid for at least three months after the desired start of childcare.

Please state the name of the child already being cared for when making a childcare request and also contact the centre manager. In principle, a pre-registration for a municipal childcare centre is sufficient. If there is no place available in the pre-registered municipal day care centre at the desired start date, the child will remain on the waiting list until it is provided for. In addition, a search is then carried out for municipal daycare centres with free places within a radius of up to five kilometres. If you do not wish to take part in the radius search, please indicate this directly when making your childcare request or send us an email to kindergarten-vormerkung@stadt-koeln.de.

If you decline an offer of a place in a municipal childcare centre, the legal entitlement to childcare is still deemed to be fulfilled. You will then not receive any further offers of places in municipal daycare centres. If you are still interested in a place at a municipal daycare centre, you must register your child there again.