Let's catch up
We are about to close 2022 and whát a quarter it's been. Highs & lows behind the scenes but for the children just ornidary Op Stoom as always.
Well… 'ordinary as always'? The autumn festival with Raw Resonance was AWESOME, the band for children SlodDe and Vos (SlodDe & Vox) is new. And that all pedagogical professionals at Op Stoom have done so many funny, endeering and original activities with the children this quarter is by no means ordinary but nothing less than particularly fine!
It has been a quarter in which the personnel planning was a puzzle to finalize, at times we were at our wits end. But we managed to solve the puzzle every time and we are happy that we didn't have to close any of our groups. We are closed for a week from December 26th to January 1st. A new year with new opportunities is coming, we're looking forward to it optimistically. Merry Christmas, happy New Year, we are back on January 2nd!
Kind regards,
Gerda, Renate & Linda
Op Stoom ♥ music
Raw Resonance
During the autumn holidays, Raw Resonance was a guest at the Op Stoom children's festival. This group of professional musicians gave an awesome music workshop, nice to the beat. Very special to see.
Each workshop ended in a wonderfully swinging performance, together with the children, for the parents (and the employees present also enjoyed it). Curious what that looked like?
Op tour at Op Stoom: MeneerTjes SloDe & Vos
SlodDe, the cheeky musician & fox, the bright inventor, experience the most bizarre adventures together and will perform small shows at several Op Stoom locations together with the children.
MeneerTjes SlodDe & Vos is a wild, cheeky duo consisting of born musician Llewy and gifted producer Delly.
For years, Llewy & Delly toured all over the world with their hip-hop band Relax, performed at major festivals such as North Sea Jazz and Pinkpop and received an Edison and Zilveren Harp, among others.
How cool that they have embarked on a new path! Lucky us… On Sunday, February 12th 2023 Op Stoom organizes, together with MeneerTjes SlodDe & Vos a swinging children's concert at the Patronaat for all Op Stoom children from 3 to 7 years and their parents. An extra concert at this date is for our employees and their own children. More info to follow.
#To cool not to share
QUARTERLY REPORT 2022 | Q4
Podcast De kleine pedagogiek van Op Stoom (the small pedagogy by Op Stoom)
We love children and you can see that in the way we treat children. Pedagogy is in our DNA and you notice that right away when you are with us or when you read our pedagogical vision. From now on you can also listen, to the podcast De kleine pedagogiek by Op Stoom (in Dutch).
Check the very first episode here: Who doesn't wiggle; the need for a child to move. This episode will give you new insights, earpods in and listen away.
A new episode each month, starting now. Stay tuned!
Discover through play
Did you know that feeling different fabrics, rotating, looking and mouthing a toy car, repeatedly twisting off and on the top to a jar, sorting branches, or using a cup as a hat, is a form of play? This type of play is called object-oriented play, and that's what former pedagogical professional with Op Stoom Elizabeth is researching. She is a PhD researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and de Ipabo.
During the past year Elizabeth has collected data for her research at Op Stoom. Her research is focused on the object-oriented play of children between 2 and 5 years-old. Doing, trying and experiencing are at the core of object–oriented play and are a key values within Op Stoom.
This type of play has been relatively understudied in the scientific field and little specific attention is paid to it within practice. The goal of this research is to collect more knowledge and insights to subsequently develop an observational-instrument to observe the object-oriented play of children. Because of her experience working as a pedagogical professional at Op Stoom, she connects science to practice and develops an evidence based observational instrument that matches the insights and needs of the professionals in the workplace.
Interesting isn't it? Elizabeth explains a bit more about how this research is conducted in this video. This interview is a peace from our internal talkshow (in Dutch).
Op Stoom partner of Bes(t)4kids
Maybe you know the BES Islands? Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. They are special municipalities of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. From 2020, Op Stoom has worked together with childcare on St. Eustatius and is a partner of Best4kids www.best4kids.nu
About 3,000 people live on St. Eustatius (affectionately known as Statia by everyone) and there are six childcare locations that are connected to Bes(t)4kids. We work closely with these locations. Knowledge about childcare is continuously shared digitally and we also work together live on the group, in the Netherlands and on Statia.
In October of this year, Andrea from BSO Plein Oost, Lisa from BSO De Zuidwester, Aicha from KDV Elsbroek and Judith from KDV Rutherford went to St. Eustatius together with Linda (management). The basic pedagogical goals that are laid down in the Childcare Act will also apply to Statia: offering emotional safety to children and stimulating personal and social development. In the collaboration with each other, we talk about this in conversation all the time. We now know each other well, we have a lot of fun together and we can talk endlessly about children.
Our work as a partner of Bes(t)4 kids is funded by Bes(t)4kids. The money that your children collected during the autumn break will be used for toys for the children who go to these daycare locations.
And partner of education
Study day education & childcare
Op Stoom and Stichting Spaarnesant* organized a study day together mid-November for the directors of the schools and the managers of Op Stoom.
Op Stoom's cooperation with education differs per school. And that is of course allowed. You can work together in one building next to each other, but of course also with each other. Organizing differently is the future and more and more collaboration is part of that. The children are central to this because that is what we are about.
Good mutual cooperation is important anyway. Whether you do a lot together or not. During the study day, childcare and education got to know each other even better and in 2023 we will hold a meeting every other month. Changes that we want to implement together can take place on all kinds of levels; from the parties you celebrate together to sharing staff and the same pedagogical approach of the children.
*Spaarnesant is our largest education partner in Haarlem. Which schools? Camelot – Bos & Vaart – Ter Cleeff – Zuidwester – Cirkel – Beatrix – Cruquius – Kring – Hannie Schaftschool – Argonauten – Zonnewijzer – Plein Oost.
Quality convenant MBO training
On the 2nd of November, childcare organizations in the region and Nova College in Haarlem, Hoofddorp and Beverwijk signed a covenant together. Very valuable! The aim of this is to ensure that the field of Childcare and the MBO training Pedagogical Work (PW) are well connected and are able to find each other. Eating together, setting goals and a lecture by Jan Bransen, professor of philosophy about passion for your profession. Working together for a good MBO training PW. Les Petits, Hero, SKH, Op Stoom, Casca, Blos, Partou, Happy Kids, Sportfever, Welschap and Nova College signed the covenant. It was really nice that Op Stoom was able to organize it this year.
Adjustments in the Terms & Conditions and price
Adjusted Terms and Conditions
The general terms and conditions of Op Stoom have been adjusted as of November 1st, 2022. The adjustment was necessary because the policy on the use of credit points has changed. This policy change took effect on June 1st, 2022 and was discussed with the parent committees prior to April 20th, 2022.
Do you want to read them? You can do that here!
Price adjustment 2023
We will increase the price of childcare by 7.5% from the 1st of January 2023. In October we submitted a request for advice to all parent committees for the new prize. They have given mostly positive advice on this increase.
The price increase, effective January 1, 2023, is based on a forecast. More than in previous years, other factors besides the collective labor agreement have become more important such as the staff shortage, the deployment of external workers and other costs (such as food and energy). This has made it even more difficult to arrive at a good prognosis.
Shortage of staff
Shortage of staff, the situation at Op Stoom
The number of applicants is not increasing and the need for childcare is great. Qualified employees who want to work for us for a short or longer period of time mostly apply through employment agencies and as self-employed persons.
The new normal
We can say that working with pedagogical employees who are not permanently employed by Op Stoom is no longer a temporary situation, but has become the new normal. We are happy that we have enough staff so that all children can come to Op Stoom every day. At the same time, the quality of care and job satisfaction are important values for our permanent employees. It means that we are developing more policies because this raises new issues. For example, if part of the BSO team structurally consists of external pedagogical employees and we do want a varied range of activities for the children. Or how do we ensure that the permanent employees at the day care center do not have more work pressure when they work together with a self-employed person.
We will be recruiting a remote worker manager who will focus on connecting our business with this new group of workers; connecting and seeing what is needed to maintain the quality of Op Stoom when we work with more temporary workers is important. In our opinion, in this personnel crisis, the focus should be on loving attention for the child. Over time, tasks have been added for pedagogical staff that are not necessarily of added value in contact with children. Read the following column (in Dutch) for inspiration.
Shortage of staff at the daycare locations (KDV)
In the coming year, we expect that it will be difficult to fill the vacancies that arise in the KDV in particular. That is also the case now. We have seen for some time now that hardly any qualified employees are applying for jobs. The employees who come through employment agencies often have a diploma only for after school care (BSO). By occasionally having a BSO employee work at the KDV for a day, we can avoid having to close a group of the little ones.
With the increase in temporary workers at BSO, we have more availability for granting leave. We wish this for everyone.
Look at them go, on to 2023!
