Magyar Suzuki organizes kindergarten education conference in Esztergom

Magyar Suzuki Corporation organized a conference on kindergarten education in Esztergom on 9th October. The topics discussed in the roundtable session after the presentations included a special anti-aggression method, whose purpose is to teach children how to protect themselves from aggression and abuse already at this early age. The morning session also provided an opportunity to share theoretical knowledge and practice in a visit by children from Budapest to Esztergom’s Angyalkert Kindergarten.

At the invitation of Magyar Suzuki Corporation, middle and upper group children from Budapest’s Under the Rainbow International Pre-School and Kindergarten visited Esztergom on October 9. The morning started with a yoga session led by the visitors, then both kindergartens presented their creative games and taught them to the other: the Esztergom kids presented and taught their visitors how to work with felt. In their turn, the guests taught the hosts how to make origami. Before lunch, the hosts invited the guests to dance. “Today’s program, the activities, playing together and creating things together is a great experience for the children, and it is also an opportunity for my colleagues and all the attending teachers from Esztergom to share and learn practices, look out to the world outside the city, and become more conscious of the global requirements—all this with the help of Suzuki,” said Erika Radnóti, director of the Angyalkert Kindergarten.

Magyar Suzuki organized the Esztergom kindergarten day with the motto “I am learning about myself, learning about you, we are learning about each other”, creating an opportunity for children from different cultural backgrounds to play and participate in creative activities together, and for teachers to exchange practical and theoretical experience. “This is not the first time Magyar Suzuki Corporation and Angyalkert Kindergarten collaborate,” said MSC’s head of communications Viktória Ruska. “Adjusting its opening hours to the factory’s work schedule, the kindergarten receives children all day. The company has been supporting the kindergarten since 2007, to help create the best possible conditions for the employees’ children there,” she added. “Magyar Suzuki will continue to consider kindergarten education a priority. Besides Angyalkert, all of Esztergom’s kindergartens were invited to the conference,” said Ruska.

The conference was held at the Faculty of Humanities of the Péter Pázmány Catholic University. At the event, kindergarten teachers were offered an introduction to the “bullyproof” method, little known in Hungary as yet but used with success in Under the Rainbow Kindergarten. Using this method, children can gain knowledge and develop skills that will provide them with a higher level of protection from various forms of harassment, abuse and aggression. As was noted at the conference, it is not possible not to face the fact that the problem of bullying and aggression can affect any school or kindergarten, as modern telecommunication tools show the evil face of the world to children at a younger age in our days.

Therefore, any method that helps protect the children in their care from aggression is essential for kindergarten teachers. “It is not about children having to defend themselves but about teaching them how to recognize behaviors, attitudes and acts that they do not have to tolerate, and to tell people close to them if anything like that happens,” the Head of Angyalkert Kindergarten pointed out. “The bullyproof method helps us in all that, and we are pleased that, with Magyar Suzuki’s help, not only Angyalkert but other kindergartens in Esztergom were introduced to it at today’s conference,” she said.

Established in 2009, the Under the Rainbow international English-language pre-school and kindergarten has been using the bullyproof system for a long time, and its teachers have found it efficient. “We are most pleased to have had the opportunity to share this method with our colleagues from Esztergom,” said Emese Ébel Paragi, chair of the kindergarten’s board. “We find it essential for the kindergarten and parents to collaborate in recognizing the threat as quickly as possible when it emerges in the children’s environment, and also in addressing the issue to protect the children,” Paragi pointed out.

Besides its business activity, corporate social responsibility has been a key priority for Magyar Suzuki Corporation since its foundation. Fully aware of the fact that commitment to its own employees, business partners, customers and the local communities is a profitable investment that will add to its competitiveness and sustainability in long term, Magyar Suzuki provides help for the actors of its cultural, social and economic environment. In line with this commitment, inviting a large number of volunteers, last spring MSC participated in cleaning Esztergom’s bicycle route and its surroundings, and in early summer it organized a large-scale health day in the city.

[IMAGEGALLERY]