Kathrin Scholz’s euphoria can almost be felt through the phone, she is so happy about the Biosphere Children’s nomination for the German Daycare Award 2024. “I am totally overwhelmed by how well the teachers are doing,” says Scholz. She then lists what makes the daycare centers in Markt Oberelsbach, Lower Franconia, so special: the gentle transitions for the girls and boys from getting used to the daycare to primary school, for example, the open concept in which the children decide where and with what they do want to spend their time in the daycare center, and certification by the seal of the UNESCO Rhön Biosphere Reserve.
This certification has been available since 2019 for schools and daycare centers in Hesse, Bavaria and Thuringia that deal intensively with the UNESCO Rhön Biosphere Reserve. The daycare centers in Oberelsbach were certified in the first round. The primary school and the after-school care center now also have the seal, which is why the Biosphere Children have been nominated as a “local alliance for early education” for the German Kita Prize 2024.
In addition to the Oberelsbachers, another Bavarian alliance is in the final: the “AG Early Education and Support” from Munich. Both are among the last 15 finalists in this category. The third finalist from Bavaria is the daycare center in Diespeck, Central Franconia, which is competing for victory with 14 other daycare centers. The first place winners in both categories receive 25,000 euros in prize money, the second place winners receive 15,000 euros, and the third place winners receive 10,000 euros. Special prizes will also be awarded. All three Bavarian finalists have already beaten 500 others and will now have to wait until the end of June before they find out whether they are among this year’s winners. The prize is organized and awarded by the Berlin Kita Institute for Quality Development, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs and the German Children and Youth Foundation.
The focus on the environment and nature in Oberelsbach came through a local council resolution. In 2018, education for sustainable development (ESD) was declared a cross-sectional task for the 2,700-resident community. A year later, the biosphere daycare centers were certified.
In order to receive this seal, the daycare centers, primary schools and after-school care centers must meet certain requirements in the categories of nutrition, ecology, construction measures, social issues & cooperation and consumption, explains Kathrin Scholz, who is also responsible for ESD at the town hall. The children’s diet must be regional, seasonal and organic. The catering is carried out by the local environmental education center, whose suppliers come from a maximum of 20 kilometers away. The girls and boys can visit the farmers to see where the food comes from.
For example, the after-school care center looked after foster chickens during the Easter holidays and learned what they eat, how chickens live and where the eggs come from, says Scholz. On a rainy day in the forest, the daycare children asked themselves where all the earthworms on the ground came from. The teachers turned it into a project, all the children researched, and at the end the girls and boys observed how earthworms behave, what they eat and how they reproduce in terrariums filled with soil in the daycare center. Scholz can’t explain how exactly, they get tangled up somehow, the children would know better, she says and laughs.
In order to limit paper consumption, the daycare children paint on waste paper or the back of old posters from the town hall. The projects in the social category could also be classified under functioning village life: The daycare center in Unterelsbach regularly bakes cakes, says Scholz, which the children then drive to the village square in the handcart and distribute there with the seniors’ coffee. Or the thing with the Hiffenmus: A senior citizen still had an old rosehip extractor at home, says Scholz, so the after-school care center visited her, collected rosehips and then cooked the Hiffenmus with her.
The idea for the daycare award application came from Mayor Björn Denner. As a Biosphere Children fan, he is in no way inferior to Scholz: He speaks of the “Biosphere Childhood”, the “common vision” of the facilities in the town and the entire “village as a place of learning”. . The application should be a thank you from the town hall for the “valuable work” of the educators. But now there is additional work for daycare centers, after-school care centers and elementary schools. The judges have many questions before they announce the 2024 winners at the end of June.