Last Wednesday, March 22, an extension was opened at Raasiku Oravakes kindergarten, which gave the kindergarten a new group.
“Despite the fact that we are opening the sixth group, our kindergarten is still small and homely. This is also how the opening of our new group is – small and homely with all our children,” said Triin Hallik, director of the Raasik school, at the ceremony held in the kindergarten hall.
He recalled that when the current kindergarten was opened in September 2004, there were places for 48 children. After the newly completed second extension, when 18 children will initially attend the new group, there will be a total of 116 children in Oravakes.
The headmaster thanked the teachers and other employees of the kindergarten for their hard work, as well as the community, parents and Raasik municipality government, without whom the extension might not have been born.
Raasik village head Raul Siem said that the school principal had a big contribution to the completion of the new group and gave Triin Hallik a bouquet of flowers as a token of gratitude. He gave Toomas Müürisepa, the manager of Aruküla’s ATP Betoon company, a letter of thanks from the municipality government for his cooperative and professional work in the completion of the extension of the kindergarten.
Triin Hallik also praised Toomas Müüriseppa: “Watching the builder’s work from the sidelines was very reassuring, you might see that the work had been entrusted to a professional.”
The principal welcomed the new teachers of the Vöötorava group, Kadri Link, Hanna Heiste and teacher’s assistant Mariia Tiik, with bouquets of flowers. The kindergarten family was congratulated by the representatives of the village council and the village government, the children of Oravakes performed.
After the ceremony, village head Raul Siem, school director Triin Hallik and construction company manager Toomas Müürisepp cut a symbolic ribbon at the door of the new group.
The nursery extension was made to the lower section between the two double sections. The new group, which was named Vöötravas, has two rooms separated by sliding doors – a playroom and a bedroom with a kitchenette, plus a toilet, a wardrobe, and a clothes drying room.
ATP Betoon manager Toomas Müürisepp, who won the tender for the extension last spring, said that the construction started on September 28, because it turned out that the initial sketch project had to be redesigned. Initially, the extension was planned between the two parts of the school side of the kindergarten, but at the request of the rescue service, it was designed and built on the lower part, so that there was a wider gap between the extension and the older part with a pitched roof. Thanks to this, the playroom of the new group got large fireproof windows on two walls.
According to Toomas Müürisepa, another major challenge was replacing the main shield of the building – because the main shield was left in front of the extension, it was moved from the yard to the former cleaner’s room, and the main power cable of the entire building had to be replaced: “The construction went quite well, the team was good, the kindergarten staff held out, we tried to disturb them as little as possible. We sawed in the inner door of the group on the weekend, we didn’t do any noisy work during the children’s nap.”
Director Triin Hallik also confirmed that the builders scheduled noisier and more dust-generating work for the time when the children were not in the house and did a lot on weekends.
The construction company also commissioned a new group of interior design, from color schemes to fireproof curtains, and some furniture – a kitchenette, wardrobes, some shelves. The extension of the kindergarten, including the project and construction supervision, cost 480,000 euros, including furniture, nearly 500,000 euros.
2-3 year old group
Initially, a joint group will be opened in the new premises, where 18 two- to three-year-old children will attend. In autumn, when everyone is already three, Vöötoravas is a regular group for 3-4 year olds, and two more children can be added to it.
Head of education Ave Hermas explained that the group was completed on the basis of order, some children came from Raasik daycare. About ten children remain in the kindergarten queue.
The teachers of the new group were found through a competition. Hanna Heiste worked as a teacher’s assistant in Oravakes until now, Kadri Link came from Kiiu Kindergarten, teacher’s assistant Mariia Tiik is a graduate of Raasik School and is studying to become a kindergarten teacher. They confirmed that the group is ready to receive children. A few weeks ago, a call was made for healthy and clean toys suitable for a group of 3-4 year olds. The teachers said that quite a lot of books, board games and puzzles have been brought, but they are happy to receive more, especially dolls and building blocks.
This week, the children of the Vöötorava group can go with their parents to get to know the new group and the teachers, starting next week, April 3, they are welcome there every day.
