Barnehage advice

[Chari]

I'd be really grateful for some advice on choosing Barnehager either generally or in the Bergen/Fana area. I don't know anyone with a child in a Kommunal Barnehage and we're in the trap that until I can get into work we can't afford a Privat place but until we have a Barnehage place/offer I can't take any work or even my Norskkurs since my hubby works such long hours.

I followed up any tips from acquaintances but all turned out to be Privat placements and so far I got really chilly responses the moment I said thanks but we were needing a Kommunal place to start with.

[myratroll]

Just curious to why you need privat nursery and won't/can't accept "kommunal" nursery.....

The way those are run are very similar,and they are all vetted and checked so the care of the children are normally the same.

Working myself in a "kommunal" barnehage and have know a privat one and you can't tell which is and which one isn't.

The price are also normally the same,unless the privat one offers warm lunch etc .

I would visit the different nurseries and also speak with parents who have children there to find out what they think.

 

As it's now summer,then I also suspect that the intake og new children has already been selected and most nurseries now have a waiting list,where any new applicants has to wait for someone to say no to their placement or next intake that usually finds place early spring.

 

Hope you soon get things sorted

[Chari]

Oh I'm happy for her to go to a Kommunal Barnehage if these are good. The thing that concerned me really was how few Kommunal ones there were in comparison to Privat ones. It made me think that most people choose Privat for some reason I didn't know about if you see what I mean.

 

[Lilja121]

I don't know about Bergen, but in Oslo you are lucky to get a place at all, private of municipal. I really don't think private ones are necessarily any better than the ones run by the municipalities. If you have the luxury of choice, visit a few of them, see what you think and then apply.

[shari_z]

We had our daughter in a private nursery, but that was only because we had friends who had their daughter there. It was actually further from us than the three other nurseries (2 private, 1 municipal) all within 600 meters of our home.

 

At the time we chose that place, I didn't understand that there were private and municipal nurseries. Just wanted a place that was nice, not too many kids, had sun in the winter, and chose the one we did because of our friends' recommendation.

 

Now that our child is in school, I understand that the vast majority of the children were in municipal nurseries, and you really can't see any difference in the children.

 

I would say that you visit several nurseries and find one you like. I assume that most, if not all, have some sort of approval and a minimum standard of care. There are also different types: naturbarnehage, musikkbarnehage, gårdsbarnehage, etc. Then you have to look at the number of children they accept and see if you are happy with that; as I said, I wanted a smaller nursery (there were three groups of about 12-15 children each, averaged out - not sure about the 0-3 yr olds as our daughter was three when she started and began in the "storbarn avdeling").

 

And as another pointed out, most places are filled now and only have waiting lists. I live in Drammen and the deadline to apply is February, if I am not totally mistaken, for August start.

 

Prices, as far as I know, are the same, regardless of whether it is private or municipal.

 

Start with the ones closest to your home, your work/husband's work, or your Norwegian class (here in Drammen, there is a nursery associated with the Norwegian courses that only accepts children of students).

 

Good luck! I have been impressed with nurseries in general in Norway (I am from Texas).

[A1973 har råtne egg :-/]

Hi,

 

Have you thought about the Bergen International School? They have kindergarden and school and the main-language is English. We thought about the school for our boy, but found it to be too far away from where we live. I have only heard good things about that school.

 

 

[Chari]

Thankyou very much for all your advice.

I'm interested to hear your comment about the International School. I had a good look over their website at all their published details and I have to say I didn't form a good impression and hadn't taken it any further.

I don't mind too much about having to wait for a place. I will have a new baby by then and so will still not be able to work as it now turns out, for a while. I'm not worried about her development in any respect other than socially, since I am a teacher myself but I'll be taking all opportunities I can for my then 3-year old to spend time with other children. Again my thanks for your replies.

[A1973 har råtne egg :-/]

Just because I am curious... Why didn't you get any good impression of the BIS?

 

Have you been living in Norway for a long time? Do you know how the Norwegian school system is working? I am sure you will not be very impresses... Our son, then 11 years, went to a public school in Liverpool, when we lived there for e year. For him, the UK-school system worked much better than the Norwegian. We travel a lot so we often take him out of school in Norway. He NEVER loose anything while away for a week or two. When he was in Liverpool he said he didn't want to be taken out of school because he would loose so much! In Liverpool he said he LEARNED something, in Norway the school is boring for him. I am sure the UK-system isn't the best for everybody, but for him, it worked very well.

 

You may ask why he doesn't attend BIS now? We thought about sending him to BIS after we came back from Liverpool, as he is speaking fluently English, but he didn't want to change school. He also have to take two buses to get to BIS, a long way for a little boy...

 

 

[Chari]

Well I'm anxious not to slate an organisation in a public forum when I have only their internet-published information to go on and haven't visited the BIS, otherwise I'd answer you properly.

I am hoping to be open-minded about the Norwegian system since I taught in the British School system for 18 years and like the way it works. My only real criticism of British Schools nowadays is the behaviour but of course this is more a product of the whole culture and is a local thing and not general. I'd love for my children to receive the British curriculum since I think it's pretty comprehensive; also, the caring culture that many English schools work hard to instil I would also like them to be a part of but I did see some schools struggling with families where no discipline was enforced at home and discipline at school wasn't supported by parents.

I'm not yet at all familiar with the way Norwegian schools work, I just observe that the children seem 'happy' from an observer's point of view (we live opposite a school playground) and certainly life in Norway seems safer for children. I do find, as a number of people have commented here that Norwegian children seem 'rude' to British eyes but I try with this also to see what it is about my own culture that makes me think this (and freely acknowledge that my own culture certainly has its own shortcomings).

[A1973 har råtne egg :-/]

Hi Chari,

 

It's interesting to discuss the Norwegian school-system vs. the British as I have had a child in both. I have heard that there is a big variation within the schools in Britain on how good they are. When we moved to Liverpool my husband had a "kollega" (what is the work in English????) who recommended a school for us (the same as John Lennon and other Beatles members went to!). We were very surprised by everything compared to the Norwegian school. It looked like the pupils were more well behaved. I was sooooo surprised when a pupil opened the door for me! I was lucky to get into the class-room, because our son didn't speak English, and it was very quite from the beginning to the end! Fantastic!

 

My son had a friend visiting us, he went to school with our son for a week. When he came back to his parents he said: "Wow! In England they LEARN something at school, and it was so very quite. I wished it was the same in Norway!"

 

If I were you, I would have visited BIS. We did and liked it, but as I said, it's too long for our son to commute everyday with to buses. I know lots of people from abroad and all are very surprised on how bad the Norwegian school-system works.

[Anonym bruker]

Heisann.

 

Sidan du er så utrulig negativ til det norske skulesystemet må eg berre komentera. (På norsk sidan eg er enda dårligare til å stave engelsk en norsk) I mine auge har både det norske og engelske skulesystemet sine manglar. Det engelske vektlegg faktakunnskapar, medan det norske vektlegg kreativitet og individet. (gorovt sakt) Og i grunnskulen tvilar eg ikkje på at engelske elevar har større kunnskapar i dei fleste fag. Men det eg synest er overaskande er at samtlige som eg kjenner som på videregåande/høgskule og universitetsnivå har steudert i anten Uk eller Usa, har fått enormt gode resultat, mykje enklare enn dei får i Norge (dette seier dei sjølv, og det har etter kvart blitt ganske mange) Lærara/professorar over lille og store dammen er imponert over dei noske elevane/studentane si evne til og reflekter, konkloduere og bruk av kilder. Dette er noke dei ferraste på same nivå klarar "der borte". Så det er jo mogleg at vi på nokre områder er betre enn dei engelsktalande, og at det heile ikkje er forgjeves.

[A1973 har råtne egg :-/]

Ok, da svarer jeg på norsk også....:-D

 

Klart begge systemene har mangler og fordeler, jeg har da aldri sagt noe annet, men alt i alt synes jeg det engelske skolesystemet er best. De aller fleste jeg kjenner, som er fra utlandet, og som har barn i offentlig skole i Norge, er overrasket over hvor dårlig det norske skolesystemet fungerer. (Dette er folk med høyere utdannelse.)

 

Selv har jeg også hatt en sønn som har gått på skole både her og der, og for HAM passet det engelske skolesystemet mye bedre. Problemet med den norske skolen er at det kun er de middelmådige som får hjelp - hverken svake eller sterke elver får hjelp.

 

Jeg vet ikke hvilke kilder du referer til, men undersøkelser viser at norske elever scorer dårlig på internasjonale tester.

 

Jeg vet ikke noe om hvor lett det er å få gode karakterer i UK/USA vs. Norge på univ./høyskolenivå, så det kan jeg ikke svare på, men her var uansett diskusjonen på barneskolenivå. (Og joda, jeg har kjennskap til akademia i utlandet, det eneste jeg kan si er vel at det ikke akkurat er mange fremragende norske forskere....)

 

 

[noggie]

Umh, have no one told you you get preferentil places for your child in kindergarden as your mother tounge isn't Norwegian? That goes for one or both of the parents. You have to put it in the application of course, think it's § 40 but it will be on the back of the form( in Norwegian, ha ha). Our daughter didn't speak a word of Norwegian until she got a place( she was just a very quick learner ; ) ).

They should help you with this at barnehagekontoret or at NAV as it means you get your course done sooner.

You use the same form for both type of kindergardens, just put them in order, the preferd one on top and so on...

 

 

 

[Chari]

Ah thankyou. I put in my applications via internet and possibly didn't read everything. I'll have my husband check it all out and see what we need to do

[Anonym bruker]

I have a question: in the UK all nurseries are "checked" for their performance by ofsted (government) and a public report put on the web with their findings (good and bad points), is there anything like that in Norway? Or any way to find out which are the better nurseries in a kommune?

[Anonym bruker]

All private and community kindies are 'checked' as well since they need to go through a list of requirements before they are being set up like a 'business'.

 

Unless, if someone decided to go to a 'dagmamma' / day mom, then it is unlikely to have gone through any check unless the dagmamma has more than the number of kiddies that is allowed under her care etc.

 

 

[Anonym bruker]

Nå vet jeg ikke helt hvor du har informasjonen om forskermiljøet fra, men når er det ganske stor forskjell på forhold for forskning her og til eksempel i USA med mye større forskermiljøer og andre kilder for finansiering. Samtidig bor det færre mennesker i hele Norge enn det gjør i London, for ikke å snakke om middels store byer i USA. At Norge ikke er en verdensstjerne innenfor forskning må en ikke akkurat være rakettforsker for å skjønne.

 

 

 

[Anonym bruker]

Hi there, I’m a teacher at a Norwegian kindergarten and would like you to consider something before you decide wether you would like an English speaking kindergarten. If you plan to stay in Norway for more than a year or two, I would strongly advice you to choose Norwegian. Norwegian kindergartens are very good, and unlike the british system puts the childs need to play and learn in it’s own pace first. I’ve lived in the UK, and nurseries seemed to be run by 17 year old girls. I looked for work and could not find a single nursery that employed anyone with a degree in education. In my case they were reluctant to hire me (as a temp) because they were afraid they would suddenly have to pay me as an early years teacher, and my age meant they would have to pay me more than the preferred secondary school drop outs as an untrained nursery nurse (yes I’m all bitter about it;-)).

 

Kindergarten on the other hand seemed to be all about "education", and outside play areas were either non existing or stripped from anything that might encourage the children to develop their motor skills (which is important an important part of maturing the brain). All the literature I could find on early years was ironically about how play is essential when young children learn, and the importance of developing the childs motor skills. Still parents seemed to go for the "school style" kind of kindergarten. To summarise: I was not very impressed with the early years education system in the UK.

 

As for actual school I don’t know, but that is a few years of, and if you don’t like the norwegian system you could maybe try montessori or something. Also there is no difference in price between private and communal kindergartens (maximum monthly rate of around 2300 NOK) , but you should be aware that some private kindergartens take on more children. In a communal nursery or småbarnsavdeling you would have 12 children and four adults (two teachers and two trained or untrained nursery nurses). In a private nursery as many as 15 children, and even more if some of them turn three during the year (even if they are all born december 31th).

 

If you are staying in Norway I think it is essential that the child learns the language properly. That is why I feel you should forget the international school at this point. Just my humble opinion :-)

[Anonym bruker]

Some private nurseries do take in as many as 15 children but I was once told that they do have to stictly follows the rules of 'per sq meter - per child' requirement. So if they do not have the capacity in terms of space, they will not be allowed to have that many kids.

 

But I do strongly agree on how Norwegian kindergartens are better in terms of encouraging children to play as a way of developing their motor skills and social skills.

 

Kids have to be kids, I believe that they shld be allow to play all they want since education will come later for the next 17 years of their life or even more! Once a child is lacking in motor skills and social skills earlier in their life, they might find it hard to fit in later when they start going to school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anonym bruker]

I hope it's alright if I hop onto this thread and ask something mostly related to the topic at hand: we're waiting for a barnehageplass for our 17-month-old son. We just got back from vacation and haven't received any sort of letter or email from any barnehage during that time. Can I assume that we've been passed over for a barnehage spot, or do people receive acceptance letters up until the week that barnehage starts up again?

 

Also: is it common practice for everyone to call up their barnehage of choice and pester the heck out of them (seems to be the norm) or is it best to wait and trust that you're moving up the queue? A little of both perhaps?

[noggie]

It depends where you're at I think, but it can't hurt.. With our first we lived in Oslo and it took 2 weeks( most impressed as we didn't push it) before we got a spot, but we used all the extras from the back of the form we could( plus I was single, but staying at home then). When we moved ( back together now) to Nannestad it took 3 months!!! before we got any because here they can only start in the beginning of the year we were told( we moved here in april, thats a long time with no kids to play with. Didn't know anyone here). And this time we had all sorts of doctors paper to push with too. Still not impressed with kindergardens up here, sorry to say, and we've been here over a year now. School looks good though.....