1. THE CITY OF SABAC LAUNCHED A COMMUNITY KINDERGARTEN INSPIRED BY THE CULTURAL SIGHTS OF MISAR

Misar is a suburban settlement in the town of Sabac in the Macvan district. During the duration of the project “Support to children and families from vulnerable social groups in providing equal opportunities for learning and development”, we visited all families with children of preschool age. Due to the impossibility of transportation from the remote hamlet to the nearest kindergarten group, children up to 5 and a half years old mostly do not stay in the same one.

With this project, we designed the activity “Kindergarten in the community” in which we ensure greater accessibility to preschool education and care programs, especially for children from socially sensitive groups.

With the mobile counseling center (which is also one of the project activities), we mapped all the children in the settlement and visited families whose children do not go to any kindergarten. We determined their interest and announced a teacher and van transport that will gather them in the settlement and drive them to the places marked on the cultural map of the city.

Children have the opportunity to get to know the local history, customs and traditions of Mishar as an important historical place in an authentic way. The community kindergarten aims to gather preschool children from 3 to 5,5 years old, twice a week during May and June 2022. Gifts and means of work were provided for the children from the funds of the project. An educator with many years of experience in short programs was hired. Free transportation was provided by the preschool institution “Nase dete”. We received support from the local population as well as from the local association “Misar”.

2. MOBILE SCHOOL OF PARENTING IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF THE CITY OF SABAC

In order for children to reach their full potential, they need to have a warm and supportive relationship with their parents, quality nutrition, protection from disease, an opportunity for early learning and a safe and stimulating environment for growth and development.

Aware of the importance of early development and the need for support and encouragement from institutions and experts who work with children and families, we designed the Mobile School of Parenting project activity within the project “Supporting children and families from vulnerable social groups in providing equal opportunities for learning and development”.

The mobile team was formed to deal with the education of parents in the rural area on the territory of the town of Sabac. The topics we cover are focused on prevention – healthy lifestyles and healthy child development. During June 2022, we implemented three mobile schools where experts from the Center for Social Work “Sabac” spoke about the importance of parenting, as well as medical nurses who work in the Patronage Service of the “Dr. Draga Ljocic” Health Center.

Based on the tour of the field where we spoke with the families, potential users of the project, this time we organized the meeting in the available spaces in Miokus, Petlovaca and Prnjavor.

3. JUNE IS THE MONTH OF FATHERS

As part of the project “Support to children and families from vulnerable social groups in providing equal opportunities for learning and development”, a program dedicated to fathers and their role in children’s development was implemented. Through the education of the first folklore steps, in cooperation with the House of Culture from Prnjavor, all participants of the workshop showed why they are super dads.

With this project, we brought together the fathers of Prnjavor and achieved the set goal of supporting families for the development of parental competences.

With the funds of the Grant, candy for children and t-shirts for dads were provided, as well as refreshments for all participants, and everything was organized in the joint cooperation of the employees of the kindergarten “Kolibri” and the Cultural Center from Prnjavor.

The goal of the project is to empower parents and families of children of the youngest age, i.e. from birth to starting school, to create conditions for the holistic development of children by raising awareness of the importance of stimulation in the period of early development at home and by providing access to appropriate services in the community.

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By decision of Minister of education, science and tehnological development, professional development program for employees in preschool education entitled: Years of Ascension “Joint Learning by Modeling – JLM” Horizontal learning of practitioners in PVO program basics – Training,  will recieve the status of public importance.

The Institute of Pedagogy and Andragogy of the University of Belgrade / Faculty of Philosophy has developed training for those responsible in changing practice in school institutions within the framework of component 2 of the project inclusive preschool education. The training for the horizontal learning of practitioners is based on theoretical positions aligned with the concept of PVO program basics – Annual Ascents. The training represents a significant form of professional development of practitioners and a contribution to their professional development as reflective practitioners.

The goal of the training is to empower practitioners for joint learning with colleagues  in PVO program basics. 

Specific training objectives:

1. 1. Empowerment of practitioners , who developed quality practice in the application of  PVO program basics – Years of Ascension, for continuous building of reflective practice through horizontal learning.
3. 2. Supporting practitioners, who developed quality practice based on the PVO program basics – Years of Ascension, to organize one-day professional visits with practitioners from other preschool institutions as a form of horizontal learning.
5. 3. Understanding the potential of horizontal learning in the professional development of practitioners.

The authors of the training are: prof. Dr. Dragana Pavlovic Breneselovic and prof. Dr. Zivka Krnjaja – University of Belgrade /Faculty of Philosophy.

Training for 90 practitioners (nurse educators, educators, professional assistants, directors) from preschool institutions “Radosno detinjstvo” from Novi Sad, “Dr. Sima Milosevic” from Zemun, “Moje detinjstvo” from Cacak, “Cika Jova Zmaj” from Pirot and “Bambi” from Loznica, which are cluster centers in the application of the “Joint learning by modeling – JLM” model, was realized during May 14 – 15 and May 28 – 29, 2022.

In order that the kindergarten centers of the cluster could establish and develop quality practice, but also strengthen their competences to realize one-day accredited professional meetings for colleagues from other preschool institutions, the Institute for Pedagogy andragogy continuously provides support to educators in developing quality practice. Also, through the project, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development additionally equipped the kindergarten centers of the cluster with low mobile furniture and ICT equipment. In the following period, equipping with didactic tools will be implemented.

According to the developed plan of visits with the aim of horizontal learning, from September 2022, trained practitioners – leaders from the cluster centers will realize one-day accreditation of expert meetings for colleagues from all public preschool institutions

Knowing that practitioners learn best through quality professional exchanges with fellow practitioners, we expect that visits to cluster centers in the coming period will further strengthen preschool institutions to develop quality practice in accordance with the program basics.

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As part of the project “Inclusive preschool education and care” implemented by the Ministry of education, science and technological development in partnership with the Novak Đoković Foundation from the loan of World Bank, another 5 workrooms were equipped in the territory of the city of Nis, in the settlement of Novo selo.

The settlement Novo selo is a suburban place in the area of the city of Nis, in the municipality of Palilula, in the vicinity of which there are newly opened factories, which employ a large number of young people who need full-day accommodation for children.

Given that the city of Nis is the third largest city in our country, the need to expand the capacity of preschool education is big. Therefore, there are about 120 children on the waiting list for kindergarten in the Novo selo settlement.

A large number of Roma families with two or more children under the age of 6 live in this part of the city, as well as families of socially disadvantaged categories, which was an additional incentive for us to open a kindergarten and include children from this territory in the preschool education system.

The city of Nis recognized the need to expand the capacity of the kindergarten and completed the reconstruction of the building, while our foundation, through the project “Inclusive preschool education and care with its partners” (MOESTD and WB), provided complete equipment.

The new equipped space will be able to accommodate 120 children in the following groups – 1 nursery, 2 mixed and 2 preschool.

In addition to the furniture that was selected and adapted to each age group, the rooms are also equipped with venetian blinds, new toys, carpets, lazy bags, easels for painting, books and necessary consumables.

In the new groups in the territory of the city of Nis, 120 new children aged 1,5 – 7 years were enrolled and the rooms are equipped in accordance with the needs of our youngest residents.

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