What does education mean to us? For us, education means self-education. We acknowledge that children are self-forming and that it’s not us who shape them with our own concepts. We respect children to be independent, competent and active constructors of their own environment, from the time of their birth. Therefore, they control their education progressions themselves.
We view ourselves as active companions who support the child’s chosen educational processes. We are present, sensitive Early Years Practitioners who recognize their needs and interests, along with modelling their environment in such a way that it is stimulating and challenging for the child.
In order to support the child in his or her own unique way, we follow the concept of bildungskrippen.ch (“BiKri”), which is based on the German early childhood theory and has been adapted for Switzerland. The BiKri theory is a basic model of action designed to enable children to achieve sustainable learning by focusing on the children’s concerns and interests, and challenging children’s education processes at the highest possible level, based on defined educational goals. It is seen as a task for pedagogical specialists to take up the educational interests and themes of the children and to offer them challenging goals.
Each child of Kita Regenbogen, has an individual portfolio.
The contents differ slightly depending on whether it is a BiKri portfolio child (generally all children with a placement of three or more days) or a child without BiKri’s annual plan. A fully managed portfolio for children with at least three childcare days per week includes:
- Overview portfolio
- Accompanying documents
- Preference outline/List of concerns/ List of preferences
- Sociogram/Child’s friends
- Educational interests/ Child’s educational themes (observations)
- Educational areas and access forms (Beller/Gardner arcs)
- Boundaries of development
- Educational history from family/ documentations/parents’ languages
- Photo documentations
- Overall evaluation / Individual curriculum
GREEN = infants to toddlers groups. ORANGE = toddlers to pre-schoolers groups.
The portfolios assist our Early Years Practitioners as working tools on a daily basis and to recognize the needs, interests, topics and important development steps, along with documenting them to create targeted goals.
The portfolios are also regularly used to supplement the parent-key person meetings. Kita Regenbogen provides our staff with preparatory and follow-up time so that they can use the tools in a profound way and lead a regular pedagogical discussion with team members.