Nursery school teachers are starting to return „home“ to Hafnarfjörður

Nursery places available – the only thing missing is staff.

Recently, the Municipality of Hafnarfjörður Decision on the overhaul of the town's nursery school service. The change includes increased flexibility for nursery staff, greater consistency between the early years of schooling, and increased scope, real and realistic opportunities for professional practice and the shaping of a nursery environment that better responds to the needs of the modern educational community.

Full working time reduction introduced in all nurseries

Professionals within the nurseries accrue their annual leave and take it around the holidays, the winter break and with longer holidays in the summer. Other staff work a 36-hour working week. On Nursery School Day this week Hafnarfjörður received the award The 2023 reputation from the Association of Early Years Teachers and the Association of Early Years Managers for these actions.. The Encouragement Awards are presented to those who are considered to have excelled in enhancing the reputation of the nation's nursery education and have worked tirelessly for the benefit of nurseries and nursery children.

The pupils and staff of the Hlíðarendi nursery school invite the mayor for a visit at least once a year. This photograph was taken in the summer of 2022.

„We gratefully accepted the Reputation Award 2023 and are confident that we are taking important steps into the future with our actions here in Hafnarfjörður. The number of professionals in nurseries has decreased nationwide, and it is long overdue to reverse this trend. Nursery teachers called for these changes, and we are answering that call by revolutionising the working environment for nursery staff. There are vacancies in our nurseries which we will fill as soon as staff have been hired,“ says Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, Mayor of Hafnarfjörður.

The stated aim is to increase the number of professionals in Hafnarfjörður's nurseries.

The stated aim of the council's decisions and actions is to increase the number of professionals in the municipality's nurseries and to prevent further transfers of nursery staff between educational levels and sectors. Nursery places are available in Hafnarfjörður; the only thing needed is staff for the vacant posts. When it was approved in 2019 that a single licence would be valid for teaching at both nursery and primary school levels, the number of professionals in nurseries nationwide decreased. It seems that the council's measures to shorten working hours and align the school levels are already beginning to pay off, for example at the Hlíðarendi nursery school, where a qualified nursery teacher who has been working outside the sector for several years has been appointed as a department head. The main reason for the application was the changed working conditions and working hours within the nurseries. Alongside the change in working hours, a reorganisation of the nursery schools' academic year is underway, with the aim of aligning the nursery school's schedule more closely with that of the primary school, featuring active and professional learning for a large part of the year, followed by professional leisure activities.- and leisure activities with different focuses outside of this. In this way, the school year; working hours and organisation, in Hafnarfjörður's nursery and primary schools will be comparable across the first two school stages.

Nursery School Day on 6 February celebrated in a variety of ways 

At the start of the week, nurseries in Hafnarfjörður celebrated Nursery School Day in a variety of ways, thereby visibly highlighting the great and excellent work that takes place within Hafnarfjörður's nurseries. To mark the occasion, the Mayor of Hafnarfjörður, Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, Green Flag nursery school Hlíðarendi, where a strong emphasis is placed on environmental education in the school's educational work, which is reflected, among other things, in active outdoor teaching, sorting, gardening and composting.