All 15-month-old children have been offered a nursery place in Hafnarfjörður.

All 15-month-old children have been offered a nursery place.

Enrolment for children in the nursery schools of the City of Hafnarfjörður has rarely, if ever, gone better. All fifteen-month-old children have been offered a nursery school place, are in the settling-in period, or are about to begin it.

25 applications for nursery places were received this summer, and those children have also been offered a place. Around 40 places are still available, and work has already begun to offer places to children born in July, who are 14 months old.

Proud of the achievement

„Our targeted work here in Hafnarfjörður to improve the working environment for staff has delivered this result. We are proud of it,“ says Valdimar Víðisson, the mayor.

„We offer nursery school teachers a competitive working schedule compared to primary schools. Unqualified staff receive higher pay than stipulated in the collective agreement. We have supported people to further their education and offer a range of benefits,“ says Valdimar. This has led to an increase in the proportion of qualified staff.

„We had a good recruitment last year, but we can say that recruitment at the town's nursery has never gone better than it is now.“

Valdimar Víðisson in the singing room at the nursery school in Hamravellir at the beginning of the year.

The measures have worked

The Education Committee met today and reviewed the situation. Rarely, if ever, has the recruitment situation for the school year in Hafnarfjörður been better than it is this year. „We are delighted to see that our recruitment measures here in Hafnarfjörður over the past few terms have borne fruit,“ says Valdimar. „The situation is unprecedented.“

One nursery school teacher is being sought for the 17 nursery schools in the City of Hafnarfjörður, and 3-4 teaching positions need to be filled in the city's primary schools. In addition, three supply teachers are being sought to cover absences in nine of Hafnarfjörður's primary schools. Around 450 teachers are employed there this academic year. Meanwhile, around 500 staff work in Hafnarfjörður's nurseries, of whom just under 370 are teaching staff.

„These advertisements are normal given the scale,“ says Valdimar. Close management of staff matters, opportunities for career development, increased flexibility in work, and higher pay are the key to this success.

„The current situation requires us to be on our toes, regularly assess the situation and react if we see a movement in the wrong direction,“ he says.