Parents
Parent involvement
It is needless to say you feel involved with the well-being of your child at the group. The best thing to do is to direct yourself to the caretaker of your child, to talk about issues that might bother you. Do not hesitate to raise subjects ambiguous or dissatisfying. Our employees will also invite you to express your experiences and ask your opinion on group specific subjects. Our mid-management, the unit-coordinator, is present every day and can be contacted directly. The weekly parental consultation hour might be useful. You can make an appointment for that consultation hour, for questions and comments on the care of your child, but also about the relation between the care at Dikkedeur and your own experience at home. A subject from our pedagogical newsletter might be a reason to make an appointment at our parent-consulting hour.
Parent workshops
Many a parent at Dikkedeur has explicitly chosen for the pedagogical principles and working method of Dikkedeur. Specifically our policy of ‘no punishments and rewards but instead being responsive’ is very appealing. For prospective parents this does, however, also raise questions about how to act best in certain situations. Dikkedeur likes to support parents who want to know more about the Dikkedeur approach or have questions about the way they approach their children themselves. That is why we developped the series of workshops for parents: 'Adaptive child raising'. The first series of the workshop, presented in April 2014, was well received by the participating parents.
Parent participation
At Dikkedeur parent participation also goes without saying. Since 1996 we have a parent committee (OC). Of course the composition varies constantly because parents come (with a baby) and go (with a toddler) but the task doesn’t. The OC can fulfil an important role in stimulating parent participation and voicing the subjects that concern a large part of the parents. This requires however the OC to be known and trusted by many parents, by means of open lines of communication with as many parents as possible.
Besides, the OC has an advising task about Dikkedeur-wide affairs that concern all parents and children and is actively involved in the parent evenings and organises activities such as the summer drinks and First aid-course (EHBO-course).
Dikkedeur has two OC’s: 1 in Kralingen and 1 at Heemraadssingel. The OC Kralingen represents the day-care and the BSO. One OC seats 3 to 5 parents. The OC meets at least 4 times a year. Two weeks in advance, the agenda of the OC-meetings is posted at the location. The meeting is open to all parents, thus also for non-OC members.
The rules and regulations describe the tasks and authorities of the OC.