Brunch and Workshop:
Kita Performance Management from a parental perspective
As a childcare service provider that essentially lives from public funds and direct parental contributions, we feel obliged to be accountable and to achieve the best possible childhood education service. Questions of performance management and the measurability of educational success have therefore been a subject in our management meeting discussions. As a holistic organization, we also try to include the interests of all our stakeholders who are involved in the development of a key figure-based reporting system for rainbowtrekkers. For this reason, in mid-February we invited the parent councils of all our daycare centers to a special workshop.
A Sunday brunch with all parent reps dealt with the question of which key performance indicators should from a parents’ perspective play a special role in our kindergartens.
The joint group work made it clear that the question of the “soft skills” of the kindergarten staff is a top priority from a parent’s perspective. Educators should be “loving”, “empathic”, “reliable”, “friendly”, “well-groomed”, “communicative”, “educating with respect” and “exude security and trust “. They should be creative, not favor a child and give every child the feeling that they are being taken care of. The parent suggests that regular evaluations can be used to monitor whether these goals are achieved in practice.
Practical suggestions:
- Colleague surveys on educator performance
- Parent surveys on educator performance
The second most important aspect from the parents; the clear desire for sufficient educational offers. Above all, this includes a broad program of music and sports, excursions, free play in the outdoor area and a balance between phases of romping and relaxing. It was also desired to formulate common, institution-wide standards for a rainbowtrekkers preschool program in order to facilitate the transition to primary schools.
Practical suggestions:
- Logging of excursions (lists / evaluation)
- Timely (the next day) feedback on trips to parents (report, photos)
- Writing of the preschool curriculum
Other issues discussed included improving parent communication and ongoing efforts in staff satisfaction.
Practical suggestions:
- Communicate promptly; do not wait until there is good news to postpone the bad news
- Employee surveys superior’s performance
I would like to thank the parents’ councils Franziska Landmann and Sabine Rheinhardt (rainbowtrekkers Lindenthal); Anja Abels, Jennifer Pohl (rainbowtrekkers Junkersdorf) as well as Deepti Ramanujam and Katrin Tenbörg-Weber (Widdersdorf) for their time, their input and their willingness to exchange ideas.
Challenge accepted! We will discuss internally in the coming months how and in what priority we will be able to implement the parent proposals.
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