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LOCATION:
Tassane, twenty kilometers away from Tampere
TYPE OF CENTER:
Early childhood municipal school for children from 0 to 6 years, with
very flexible schedules.
GROUPS OF AGE:
There are some 140 children distributed in 7 groups and two different
buildings:
- A group with 13 children between 0 and 3 years.
- Three groups, each one with 23 children from 3 to 4-5 years.
- A group with 23 children of 5 years.
- Two groups with children of 6 years: one with 23 children and another
one with 15
STAFF:
Each group has a teacher and two carers (nurses). The school also has
a director and kitchen and cleaning staff, totalling some 28 persons.
Teachers are graduates in education, plus a year of early childhood education.
Nurses have atended profesional training in children’s education.
There’s a number of different study itineraries.
The director is a graduate in social education.
SCHEDULES:
The school is open from 6 in the morning to 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
Children normally spend amongst 6 and 10 daily hours in school. The children
who arrive in school at 6 o'clock in the morning can have breakfast in
school at 8 o'clock. It’s not possible to remain in school from
6 in the morning to 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
At 6 o'clock in the morning a teacher opens the school, and at 7 o'clock
a person arrives for each group. For the prescholar groups there’s
an arrangement for four fixed hours, from 9 to 12 in the morning, free
of charge.
This center is open all year round. Children are used to share the same
month of holidays with their families, and the school establishes an obligation
for each child to have a minimum of 15 days of holidays.
The teachers work with the children for seven hours, plus another hour
for planning. The nurses or auxiliar staff stay with the children all
day long, for 8 hours. Holidays are distributed along the year, and consist
of 5 weeks, 4 weeks in summer and one in winter.
AIMS:
"Learning is very important but teaching isn’t so"
That children learn in a spontaneous way, enjoying the learning.
ACTIVITIES:
Work through projects, starting with tales, fables, stories or legends.
They try that children discover and learn without teaching them. Children
are much in contact with nature.
They portray the stories. They play different characters and live the
experiences of these characters ina very imaginative way.
Whenever they can, they work in small groups and that allows them to get
to know the children better.
They document whatever
goes on in the group through observations and notes. The observations
are carried out using different methods, for instance video recordings.
Lecto-scripture: it
is not taught in a systemathic way, but the teacher should be attentive
to the children’s interests. In the prescholar course, the teachers
coordinate with the teachers of primary schools which the children will
attend.
Every day there are
two 1 hour periods, one in the morning and another one in the afternoon,
devoted to play in the garden.
The contact with families
is highly valued. A daily
contact exists; they try to speak with each family once a week. They organize
informative chats on issues of interest. They carry out an evaluation
interview in Spring. In the case of prescholar groups, children also participate.
SPACES:
The two buildings were rebuilt as one storey floors, independent from
each other. They’re located in a neighborhood with a low density
of single-family constructions. They’re surrounded by forests and
close to an easy-access highway. The building is of typical wood, and
painted in a soft colour. The very extense gardenis fenced with bushes,
which at that time were sprouting, and some trees, wooden play motrices,
a sandbed and diverse materials, such as bicycles and tricycles that can
circulate in a tarmacked space. There was a wooden cottage to keep the
toys and materials in it.
There are different entrances to the school.
One of them is equipped with a hall with different accessories and machines
to clean and dry the clothes that the children carry.
The second one is occupied by furniture where to leave the children’s
belongings (shoes, coats, scarfs, toys, etc.)
Each age group has
different spaces at its disposal:
- A space has tables, shelves, etc.
- A second space has small beds, folded inside cabinets.
In the groups of older
children this space has mattresses, instruments, constructions...
Other spaces:
- For the children: small workshop of water, at present unused, a real
kitchen at children’s height, with an oven and tab water, baths
with a shower, toilets of different measures.
- A múltiple-use room with apparatuses to play, a piano, a scenery, a
changing room...
- Kitchen and pantry to keep the food.
- Dinning room for the teachers.
- Director’s office, equipped with xeroxing machine, fax, computer,
printer, Internet connection.
- Teachers’ room -large table, coffee pot, sewing machine.
- Teachers’ washrooms and changing room.
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