In order to achieve a common goal related to the well-being and overall development of every child from birth to 6.5 years, in the municipality of Odžaci, the Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Project gathered partners to achieve this goal together.

The holder of this project is preschool institution “Poletarac” and its partners are the local self-government, the Health Centre Odžaci, the Sports Association of the Municipality of Odžaci, the Red Cross Odžaci and the Association of Educators of Vojvodina.

In cooperation with the Sports Association of the Municipality of Odžaci, within the Project, a free Sports School for children between the ages of 3 and the school starting age in the “Maslačak” facility in Bogojevo has been realized since September.

Free Sports School program includes physical education program for preschool children. According to Jelena Ignjatić, president of the Sports Association of the Municipality of Odžaci and PE professor, the goal of physical education of preschool children is to contribute to the integral development of the child’s personality, motor skills development, improvement and application of these skills, habits and know-how in everyday and specific living and working conditions.

The activities of the School of Sports take place once a week in the yard,in the room of the kindergarten “Maslačak” in Bogojevo or in the gym of the elementary school “Jožef Atila” in Bogojevo. The activities are implemented by professors of physical education.

Children have the opportunity to get acquainted with physical exercise and all sports, which makes it easier for them to find a sport that best suits their abilities. The obligatory part of the training are exercises preventing the deformities of the spine, feet, chest, legs. Children who attend short programs, children from the preparatory preschool group in which educational work is done in the Serbian language and children from the preparatory preschool group in which educational work conducted in the Hungarian language practice together.

 “The most important thing is that we do all that by playing while training. The laughter, shouts and joy of the children must be present during all 45 minutes, as long as the training lasts “, says Prof. Jelena Ignjatić.

Another example of good practice within the grant program is the Webinar – “Experiences in creating short programs in PU Cukarica” ​​which was created by the Municipality of Cukarica within the project “Dad, Mom, play with us”.

The webinar was created as a response of the preschool institution “Cukarica” ​​to the special conditions and circumstances that characterize the daily design of various types of horizontal exchange with employees and online exchange with parents. The webinar consists of three parts:

• 1. Short programs
• 2. Baby program
• 3. Questionnaire

After watching two videos, all participants of the webinar fill in a questionnaire which is also an evaluation of horizontal training. By forwarding the questionnaire and completing the training, everyone will have the opportunity to exercise the right to horizontal professional development points (2 points). They will also receive a Confirmation electronically. Within the questionnaire, participants will have the opportunity to present their observations, questions and comments.

The director of PU Cukarica Biljana Gajic, expert associates, mentors in the project Katarina Djuric and Tijana Bogovac, project coordinator Aleksandra Petrovic educator, member of the project team educator Mirjana Jerkic, Milica Markovic, social worker, and Marija Gvozdovic, educator, participated in the creation of the webinar.

Just a reminder, the preschool institution “Cukarica” started the project “Dad, Mom, play with us”, in November 2019, as part of the Project of inclusive Preschool Education. All activities carried out since then are part of the program to support the early development of children and the improvement of parenting competencies through networking in the local community.

In Ruma, works are underway on the adaptation of the space in PVO “Poletarac” – the facility “Livade”. A mixed kindergarten group will be formed in the adapted space, which will be attended by children from Pavlovac and Ruma.

The project “Support for Equal Opportunities” has several specific goals: improving access to preschool services for children from vulnerable groups, equity – contributing to equal opportunities for learning and development of children from vulnerable groups, providing support to families to develop parental competencies and strengthening institutional capacity; organization in municipality for providing services to children and families from vulnerable groups. The Municipality of Ruma, preschool institution “Poletarac” Ruma, the Center for Social Work of Ruma, the Red Cross of Ruma and the Association for Assistance to Mentally Underdeveloped Persons of Ruma are participating in the realization of the project. Direct beneficiaries are children from birth to 6.5 years of age and their parents/guardians.

The realization of the first phase of the project is in progress, during which it is planned to increase the coverage of children in places where the need for greater inclusion of children in kindergarten is recognized. In the villages of Vitojevci and Grabovci, mixed kindergarten groups will be formed lasting 4 hours, which will include 40 children aged 2-5. In Klenk, two-hour diversified programs will be realized, in which we plan to include 22 children, also aged 2-5. In addition to this, various forms of support to families are planned with the aim of improving parental competencies – forums, advisory work, family visits, which will be implemented in compliance with epidemiological measures.

Within Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Project on November 19 and 20, 2020, the distance training for directors of preschool institutions for taking the license exam was realized.

The training program for preschool principals who are in the process of preparing for the license exam was developed by the team of CIP – Center for Interactive Pedagogy in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, the Institute for the Advancement of Education and the UNICEF team.

The contents of direct training are adapted for remote work with the help of Web 2 tools (for meetings, conferences: Zoom, Skype, MT…) and are an integral part of the entire training for directors of preschool institutions, which includes mandatory (unmoderated) distance training (at ZUOV Edu platform for the implementation of programs of public interest https://obuke.zuov.gov.rs/).

The training was realized online, during two days with a total duration of 7 hours, using a flipped learning approach (a concept that envisages a change in the organization of the learning process in order to improve the quality of training with the use of modern technology). Participants received the Coaches’ Handbook, as well as all materials before the training, and the training time was used for practical issues related to distance training of directors, dilemmas, support needs, exercises, etc.

The training took place in a very stimulating working atmosphere, with constant exchange between participants and leaders, which all contributed to the improvement of digital competencies of all participants.

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So far, 4,650 employees in preschool institutions have been trained within the Program for Support to Capacity Building for the Implementation of the Fundamentals of Program – Years of ascent, which are implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, UNICEF and the Institute for Pedagogy and Andragogy. Mentoring support to preschool institutions is in progress, while one of the segments of the Support Program – Model of the community of professional learning of practitioners has been piloted since September 2020 in the preschool institution “Radost” in Cacak. During this process, participants will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the Model, its goals, scenario content, as well as technical instructions for the preparation and implementation of professional meetings. In the second half of December, a one-day professional meeting of practitioners from several kindergartens will be organized, during which the practitioners will exchange their experiences, reflections and will have the chance to think together about further action plans for change.

In the work so far, the team of the Preschool Institution “Radost” has shown a high degree of motivation and professionalism for participation in the process of piloting the Model of the Community of Professional Learning Practitioners. The results of the piloting, the insights of the practitioners and the creators of the Model gained during the piloting will contribute to the improvement of the initial Model of the Professional Learning Community of Practitioners.