Around 1,100 employees on the school planning day

Spirits boosted on Hafnarfjörður’s biggest school planning day!

Almost 1,100 employees of primary and preschools in Hafnarfjörður met for a strategic planning day last Friday. A total of 500 people work in the town’s preschools and 600 in the primary schools, but 5,800 students are at these school levels. The start of the autumn/winter school year is just around the corner.

Fanney Dóróthe Halldórsdóttir, Head of the Division of Education and Public Health, gave a lecture early Friday morning in the Haukahúsið sports hall for all the staff, on Hafnarfjörður’s education policy. She thus led the planning day, which consisted of different seminars on the town’s educational institutions. Primary school staff then went from Haukahúsið to their appropriate seminar.

A new school year, a new beginning

“It’s always so much fun in the autumn when we’re just starting out. This is a new beginning,” Fanney said to this large and dynamic group of employees of Hafnarfjörður´s schools, emphasizing the importance of policy-making. The importance of knowing where to head. There could be many paths to a goal, but they should all be aimed at the same thing. “You take the steps to where we plan to go in the next two years, to support creativity, diversity, well-being and collaboration,” she said.

After her talk, primary school staff went to the first seminars and preschool staff listened to Jenný Dagbjörta Gunnarsdóttir, preschool development officer. She then gave a talk to the staff of the preschools about their national curriculum and the changes to it. She said that the changes should further clarify the role of play as the main educational route of the preschool and how it can be assessed on a regular basis, and with the active participation of children and their well-being.

• Children’s spontaneous play defined
• The youngest children in preschools
• Children’s influence and belief in their own abilities (empowerment)
• Equalisation of children’s socio-cultural circumstances (invalue)
• The importance of belonging to the preschool community (full-fledged),
• Creative preschool activities with an open and flexible organization where diverse learning methods and children’s play are in the foreground
• The role and responsibilities of preschool teachers and staff
• Assessment of children’s learning through play, which is the main educational path for children

This is the first time that such a large strategic planning day is held in the educational department of Hafnarfjörður. Indeed, there is definitely excitement for the coming school year, joy to welcome the children back from the summer holidays.