"Getting Daycare Centers Moving"
The RoKoKids Daycare Center is committed to becoming a high-quality, healthy daycare center. That is why we participate in the state program “Kitas bewegen.” The program supports our efforts by providing facilitator training, professional development opportunities, and financial resources.
Specifically, the state program supports us with …
raising awareness among educators, parents, and school operators regarding a holistic understanding of health and education.
an assessment that is recognized as an internal evaluation of Berlin’s education program: This allows daycare centers to know exactly what level of quality they currently provide in terms of education and health.
a six-step organizational cycle. This cycle forms the basis for systematically and continuously improving the quality of the daycare center.
district coordinators as points of contact.
Excerpt from the program description provided by the State Coordination Office within the Senate Department for Education, Youth, and Science:
“Health and education are key factors that influence children’s development and, consequently, the course of their future lives. In addition to the family, daycare centers are particularly important places for young children where they live, learn, and gain experiences that shape the rest of their lives. The high enrollment rates in Berlin thus represent both a major responsibility for daycare centers and an opportunity for targeted support. The Berlin state program “Kitas bewegen – für die gute gesunde Kita” (Making a Difference in Daycare Centers – For Good, Healthy Daycare Centers) therefore works with many partners to support Berlin daycare centers in promoting education and health.”
Fundamental to this is an understanding of health based on the concept of “salutogenesis,” which does not primarily ask what makes people sick, but rather what keeps them healthy. Health and education therefore mutually condition and promote one another; that is, health is both a prerequisite for education and its result—and vice versa.
What Makes a Good, Healthy Daycare Center
A good, healthy daycare center is one where everyone—children, educators, and parents—can grow up, work, learn, and live well together:
Here, children not only have the space to be active and eat healthy, but also to develop as individuals and experience the world around them with all their senses. Health and education are intertwined; one cannot exist without the other.
Early childhood educators support children as they develop their strengths, thereby fostering healthy growth. To ensure that early childhood educators can fulfill their demanding responsibilities, their working conditions and well-being are of the utmost importance. In a high-quality, healthy daycare center, they take care of themselves and their health, as well as the development of their team. To make this possible, they receive a wide range of external support.
Parents are involved and engaged. They support the daycare center and the children on their journey, help shape the center’s direction, and actively participate in creating a positive, healthy daycare environment.
These facilities are supported in their efforts both by their respective sponsoring organizations and by the districts, as well as by partners from the education and health sectors. The Berlin state program “Kitas bewegen – für die gute gesunde Kita” (Moving Daycare Centers Forward – For Good, Healthy Daycare) serves to continuously implement the “Berlin Education Program for the Education, Care, and Support of Children Until They Start School” (BBP) and the associated mandatory quality development initiatives for Berlin’s daycare centers. The quality development process initiated by the state program can provide the facility with valuable insights regarding the daycare team’s aspirations for further development of the entire daycare center, taking into account the assessments of all educational staff and parents, and is recognized by the State of Berlin as an internal evaluation tool.”