Speaker
Description
Kanvas is a non-profit foundation owning and running 64 kindergartens in Norway, with 1200 employees responsible for 6000 children, approximately. Since 2021, we have introduced several measures to meet the new standards of §8 in the Kindergarten Act, including systematic procedures to strengthen the psychosocial kindergarten environment in general, and to prevent bullying in particular. First, in the time running up to the introduction of the new regulation, we conducted a number of webinars for staff and parents, and gathered all employees for a large, two-day conference with this as the central topic.
On the kindergarten level, we have several new procedures or systems in place: 1) A compulsory annual survey of children's well-being. 2) A compulsory assessment of quality through EBBA, a method to systematically observe, assess and provide feedback on kindergarten quality in line with the Framework Plan. 3) Employees receive guidance at various levels, related to the psychosocial environment. 4) Staff have access to a set of resources on the intranet including templates for logs, minutes, activity plans and resources for parental cooperation. 5) Psychosocial environment, including prevention and handling of bullying, are compulsory topics both on introductory courses and on-boarding interviews.
Over the past two years, we have registered changes in practice related to this topic through municipal inspections and through our internal staff development dialogues. We experience that Kanvas employees have strengthened knowledge and competence in preventing and handling bullying, and in total providing a safer and more stimulating psychosocial environment for all our children.
Keywords
systematic, psychosocial, cooperation
| Please also indicate what kind of contribution it is: | Practitioner experiences |
|---|---|
| Please indicate what type of scientific contribution it is | Not applicable |
