Introduction/specifics

Living together
living and respecting each other
Being there for each other
being there for each other in all situations
As a day care center and Protestant family center Emmaus of the Protestant parish Büren- Fürstenberg in sponsorship of the “Association of Day Care Centers for Children in the Protestant Church District of Paderborn”, we are a family-supporting and supportive institution. We are guided by the legal requirements, such as KiBiz, etc. and educational agreements and implement these.     
Our management style challenges and supports all employees equally and contributes to building a sense of community. The provider is jointly responsible for ensuring that educational staff can work together without disruption. 
The child is at the center of our educational work. We see each child as an independent personality with their own needs, strengths and individual circumstances. Our work is situation-oriented and cross-group.    The participation of the children is important to us in order to promote their independence and strengthen their self-esteem. We also focus on the areas of ecology and economic efficiency. Key points such as sustainability, recycling and home-grown produce are particularly important.                                                                                                                                                                                 We face up to the constantly changing demands of economic development and make sure that our range of services - care, upbringing and education - is of a high quality. In order to further develop our quality, we regularly undergo further training and ensure that all teaching staff benefit from this. Our daycare center explores the world with the children.              We are supported in this by cooperation partners such as the youth welfare office, schools, doctors, therapists, special education centers and counseling centers. Our living environment also includes the police, fire department, bakery, youth forest home and retirement home. 

As educators, it is important to us to be reliable caregivers for children and parents. We treat everyone with respect and appreciation “I accept you as you are.”                                                                          
In celebrating services and devotions in church and at the daycare center, as well as in everyday life, we live the Christian faith and discover together other faiths of our children and fellow human beings. We experience the good cooperation with the Protestant parish of Büren-Fürstenberg as mutually enriching.             

Together we create time and space for a lively exchange between educators, children and parents. We take a loving approach to the needs and individual development of the children and support them in their daily interactions. Everyone is allowed to contribute their strengths and abilities so that everyone feels comfortable and accepted.                                        Child protection is a central task in our educational work. Protecting children from danger is our top priority. Every child has the right to grow up in a healthy and child-friendly environment.

Rooms

Rooms and their design
Our rooms are designed in such a way that the children have sufficient opportunities for movement, which they can use extensively and still offer a homely atmosphere. They are attractively designed to satisfy children's curiosity and their need to feel comfortable and secure, to experiment and to develop their imagination and inventiveness.

The two floors are divided as follows:                                                                                                                    - three group rooms with adjoining room
- three washrooms with toilets and changing area
- a creative/craft room
- a gym
- one staff room
- two bedrooms
- two staff toilets (+ toilets in the family center)
- one office
- two kitchens (+ one in the family center)
- an additional large event room for the family center

Outdoor Facilities

The outdoor area includes:
- an open meadow for running, romping, balancing and playing
- a paved area for riding vehicles (tricycles, balance bikes, etc.)
- a hill to roll down and slide down
- Grass, plants and bushes to hide in
- a large sandpit with a water pump and a mud track as well as a fishing hut with a jetty 
- a playhouse
- horizontal bars
- two large swings
- a bird's nest swing
- Balancing beam to the tower to which a slide is attached
- trampoline
- large exercise building site
- a small house for the vehicles
- a house for the baby carriages
- a shed for the sand toys
- an extra U3 area (separated again by a fence so that the little ones can move and develop freely) with a sandpit, two small swings, a path for vehicles and a hut for fun and games

Daily Schedule

Daily routine/ A day with us

7.00 a.m. - 9.00 a.m. regular drop-off phase

from 9.00 a.m. morning circle in all groups, followed by 
-Breakfast together (in the Mice group)
-Breakfast on the go in the bear and ladybug groups from 7.30 a.m. to 10.00 a.m.
(During this time, the children can decide for themselves when they want to have breakfast)

9.00 a.m. - 11.00 a.m. Free play and activity phase
(During this time, the children can play freely in the
group rooms/in the corridor in front of the group  
and can then also take part in guided activities).
activities)
from 10.00 a.m. - 11.00 a.m. on three days of the week
the children in the Bear and Ladybird groups can also
can also sign up for a play area in the 
sign up for a play area 
The monthly and weekly calendars show the respective   
the groups are listed! 

Approx. 11.15 a.m. - 12.00 p.m. Chair circle
(During this time, there is a group-internal circle with different activities for
all children in the group, a circle with various games
games, stories etc.)

Or free play in the outdoor area

12.00 p.m. - 12.15 p.m. Pick-up time for the kindergarten children

12.00 p.m. - late 12.45 p.m. Lunch for the daycare children

Approx. 12.45 p.m. - 1.00 p.m. Lunch break
(During this time the kindergarten is closed for 
kindergarten children, the daycare
daycare children sleep during this time or rest in
rest in the groups/play quietly)

From 2.00 p.m. - 4.00 p.m. Free play and offer phase/ pick-up phase begins
(Projects or activities from the morning are continued
continued)

4.00 p.m. - 4.15 p.m. Pick-up phase
By arrangement, the children can also be picked up earlier
picked up earlier.
(The kindergarten is closed from 4.15 p.m.)

Food

The Kretzer restaurant in Büren supplies our daycare center with hot lunches.
It is only a few meters away from the Emmaus Family Center and is therefore always delivered fresh at 12 noon.                    If necessary, we sit down with the restaurant staff or briefly discuss important matters when the food is delivered.
For example, we discuss the quantities, special requirements such as allergies or the children's wishes and suggestions that can be incorporated into the plan. 

Basics

Our image of the child

Children in our eyes
In our facility, the child is the center of attention. We see them as individual and unique personalities with their own needs depending on their age. 
Children are beings who already have many abilities and talents from birth and want to activate and develop these through stimuli and impulses that encourage them to look, listen or participate. They need this activation in order to develop holistically and expand their skills. They understand, grasp, experiment, learn and develop at their own pace. They need enough time and space to do this. They want to do many things themselves, engage independently with their environment, discover their own abilities and get to know their strengths. 
Even as infants, children are able to perceive, discover and explore their environment using their various sensory organs. Through initially non-verbal communication, they seek and establish their first contacts, quickly expanding their radius. Through their innate curiosity, they want to explore their surroundings and their environment. “They deal with materials, actions and things step by step, repeating them until they have understood them [...]”.                                                              Children also have the need to be perceived, accepted and lovingly accepted as an independent person and to be seen as an individual. They need an environment that “[...] invites them to discover, experiment, look and linger.”  That is why children need people who recognize these needs, offer support and accompany them in their development. They should give them security, trust and attention. This includes listening, looking, giving time, encouraging, playing together, laughing and talking to each other. 

Employee

Our team
Our children are currently cared for by 11 educational professionals. The number of specialist hours depends on the booking behavior of the parents each year and can therefore vary. Supplementary staff are also employed among the specialists. The specialists have various additional qualifications, including an inclusion specialist, two quality management officers, two Zahlenland course leaders, 2 Felix-Fit course leaders, 2 specialists for U3 children, 1 specialist for movement and relaxation education, a preacher, etc. We are supported in everyday life by 1 everyday helper.
We are also supported by interns from various schools throughout the year. We also benefit from a housekeeper in the kitchen, who also does some of the cleaning, as well as another cleaner and a janitor.

Qualification

Our work in a handbook

Daycare center certified high quality.

Quality management helps us to reflect on our own work and develop it further. 
The associated Federal Framework Manual BETA serves as a guide, tool and basis, describing the requirements for professionalizing our educational work, using resources in a targeted manner and working in a goal-oriented way. The quality management system also serves to individually describe internal processes and measures and to develop our own handbook.

In 2022, we were officially awarded the Protestant BETA seal of approval by Diakonie Deutschland for our good work.          The work processes are reflected upon, changed and developed annually in order to maintain the quality of the daycare center.

Additional Offerings

Focus on the family center 
Our family center has been in existence since 2009. The aim of these newly established facilities is to bring together education, upbringing and care with advice and support services for families. This objective makes our family center a place of education and experience for the whole family. Families who have not registered their children at our center can also take advantage of our services and offers. Take a look at our schedule of events, e.g. in the flyer. So that we can offer as many services as possible, the Emmaus Protestant Family Center works together with various cooperation partners, such as doctors, counseling centers, speech therapists, occupational therapists, pastors, adult education centers and many others. 
Every four years, a family center is subject to a new review to determine whether it meets the criteria required by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for a family center. 
Here are some of the services we offer:

Parents' breakfast
Parents' café 
Adult education through VHS 
Meetings with senior citizens from the retirement home
Café baby time
Intensive toddler group / community toddler group
...

Teamwork with school

In order to ensure that the kindergarten children have a good transition to elementary school, they are given a tour of the school and attend lessons at the respective elementary school. 
The future class teacher also visits the kindergarten children here in the kindergarten to establish initial contact. 
Discussions take place between the teachers and kindergarten teachers before the children start school and after the first half of the first school year.                                                                                                                                                                 We visit each other at the facilities' festivals and celebrations and thus maintain a good exchange with each other. 

Teamwork with parents

Cooperation with parents
Our work with parents takes into account the key objective of regularly involving parents in the promotion of education through target group-oriented parent work in order to help strengthen their children's educational opportunities and increase sustainability. 

The dialog between parents, the kindergarten team and the children is very important to us. Only with good communication among each other can much be achieved together for the benefit of the children. The following points make a decisive contribution to this:                                                                                                                                                                      Door-to-door talks
parents' evenings
parent-teacher conferences
Letters to parents
Pinboard / information boards for parents
Showcase
Parents' breakfast Parties with parents and children
Parents' meeting / parents' council
Parent-child activities

...

Specifics

PlusKita  
Our educational activities are based on the following key objectives, as formulated in the Children's Education Act for NRW: 

- “the strengthening of children's potential through individual support, 
- taking into account the everyday cultural perspective as well as the motives and problems of families in their everyday lives, 
- strengthening children's educational opportunities through pedagogical concepts and forms of action that are tailored to the children's living environment and surroundings”.

As a plusKita, we therefore have a special challenge to overcome. We are guided by the cultural background of the children and, through particularly intensive work with parents, we are able to address their needs and develop our services accordingly. As a facility, one of our priorities is to place a special focus on individual language education and support. In all of our educational areas, we pay attention to the use of multilingual materials (e.g. Polish and Russian, Turkish...) and working in small groups.                                                                                                                                                          Movement, tactile and visual methods and materials make it easier to communicate with each other and promote the development of language skills in all children. We can also draw on the multilingual skills of individual teaching staff (e.g. English, Russian, Polish) when communicating with parents and children in the team. We also use these resources, for example, during admissions interviews and parents' evenings. Parents from other countries also have the option of bringing family members to these meetings for interpreting purposes. Thanks to a closely knit network of cooperation partners, we are also able to break down barriers to access to other institutions in order to enable all parents and children to participate appropriately.

Projects

...To the healthy daycare center “fit4future”
2-year project for all daycare children
The aim of the program is “to motivate children and young people to lead a healthy lifestyle - physically active, balanced nutrition, calm and relaxed, concentrated and focused, enlightened and strong ... - creating a healthy, stress-free and positive living environment in daycare centers”.
We will inform you about various activities and offers

We look forward to further quality development in our KiTa.

Description and Stations

Location and catchment area

The Protestant family center Emmaus is located on the northern edge of the city center of Büren. The facility is located together with the Evangelical Church of the Redeemer, with adjoining community rooms, on a generously sized plot of land.