- The absence rates at a preschool in Krasnik, Poland increased each school year from 2010/2011 to 2013/2014, with the highest absence rate of 69.8% in 2013/2014. - Absence rates were lowest in spring and highest in autumn and winter months, and the highest absence occurred among 3-year old children. - To decrease absence rates, the school promoted healthy lifestyles, encouraged children to attend willingly by offering engaging classes and activities, and organized meetings with parents and medical professionals. - The school also offered additional social and educational activities like English classes, competitions, lectures for parents, and exchanges with other schools to make the preschool more attractive.

1. Absence Questionnaire on Preschools nr 5 in Krasnik
school years 2010/11 to 2013/14
1) What are the absence rates at your school from 2010 to 2014?
Absence in the following years:
- school year 2010/2011 – 65,4%
-- school year 2011/2012 – 66,1%
_ school year 2012/13 - 67,3
- school year 2013/2014 – 69,8%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014
65,4 66,1 67,3 69,9
36,4 33,9 32,8 30,1
Absence
Presence
The diagram shows that the presence was the highest in school year 2013/2014. There was a
slight rise in comparison to other previous years.
2010/2011
%
2011/2012
%
2012/2013
%
2013/2014
%

2. Presence in different months.
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We can see that the lowest presence rate occurred in autumn and winter months.
In years 2013/2014 we analyzed the presence depending on the age. The results indicate that
the highest rate of absence occurred among 3-year old children. Children who attend
kindergarten, skipped more classes. The data is shown in the table below:
SEPTEMBER 71,2 82,1 80,3 85,2
OCTOBER 75 73,2 72,8 78,9
NOVEMBER 68,3 67,9 69,5 68,2
DECEMBER 42,7 52,3 45,3 56,4
JANUARY 44,5 43,7 63,4 67,2
FEBRUARY 62,8 58,0 41,7 55,8
MARCH 716 60,2 44,7 54,6
APRIL 69,1 71,3 62,1 80,9
MAY 66,3 82.2 79,5 81,5
JUNE 74,8 72,3 83,8 x
AVERAGE 63,6 66,1 67,3 69,9
Age group 2013/204
3 year
51,2
4 year
67,9
5 year
81,4
6 year
85,6

3. 2. Every year we conducted a research questionnaire among parents. Owning to this we
knew parents’ expectations and we also got more information on the reasons of children’s
absence. Almost all parents claim that the main reason for the absence is illness – it’s 99,9%.
Next reasons were: parent’s leave or holiday (58,2%).
4) What are your precautions to decrease absence?
.We were promoting healthy life style.
- Physical activities, everyday strolls and going out; we encouraged children to eat healthy
food. We organized classes promoting healthy lifestyle, children were making salads).
- Chats with parents during parents’ meeting about healthy lifestyle and proper ways of
choosing clothes for children in order to keep them healthy and not overheat.
- Meetings with docor and nurse
2. We encouraged children to attend kindergarten willingly.
- We organized many attractive art and musical classes, dancing workshops and many other
activities which aim was to develop children’s skills and abilities.
- Children took part in many theatre performances, they went to the concerts and to the
cinema
- We organized chats with parents during parents’ meetings about healthy eating and proper
ways of choosing clothes for children for outdoor activities and to the kindergarten in order
to keep them healthy and not overheat.
- Children took part in many all-Poland programmes like “Squirrel Club” and “Aquafresh
Academy” promoting hygienic lifestyle.
- We organized family days and activities in kindergarten
5) What are your other social activities to make your school more attractive for preschoolers?
- lectures for parents on the importance of preschool education for the development of their
children and their performance at school
- Taking part in many town competitions and gatherings, singing, dancing and theatre
competitions.
Since September 2013, in the second year of our project, in our kindergarten we have a
permanent offer of English classes for 3-year old children. Earlier English was in 5- and 6-year-
old groups.

4. 6) What are your expectations from “Smileys Project” ? What will it add to your school?
We had a possibility to exchange our experience about our teaching methods and we could look
from a different perspective on work in kindergarten if it comes to both methodology and
organization of work.
We used many different ideas from lessons like making toys from rubbish or making ecological
clothes. We encouraged parents to take part in such classes. We also tried to spend more time
outside and we enriched our theme corner to make them more useful for creative plays and
activities. We also had many classes oriented on manual skills.