Siena Art Institute and Giocolenuv​ole: a nanny, two artists and creativity becomes a game for the summer

From June 18 to 22 and July 9 to 13, two weeks between art, play and discover the area for children aged 6 to 10 years: it is “Tata art”, the program of summer activities for children and the Giocolenuvole Siena Art Institute

 A nanny, two artists and creativity becomes a game for the summer  

 in the morning to mid afternoon, workshops and excursions to Siena Art Institute in town to play with shapes, colors and materials

 

 A nanny, two artists and creativity becomes a game to have fun, learn the art and become better acquainted with the treasures of their city. It ‘s “Tata art”, the educational program for children ages 6 to 10 years, between June and July, will involve the small Siena thanks to the collaboration between Siena and Giocolenuvole Art Institute.

 The proposal is part of the package of summer activities Giocolenuvole offers each year to the families of the area and this year also includes two weeks (June 18 to 22 and July 9 to 13) all dedicated to art, with many initiatives that snoderanno you from morning until mid afternoon, driven by their nanny, an animator of Giocolenuvole, all week the children will be guests of the Art Institute Siena, where they can play with shapes, colors and materials in the company of artists and Anna Silvia Ghelardini Benedict. A part of the day will be devoted to excursions and visits to the city and its natural and artistic treasures, to tell that will become the language of art in creative activities at Siena Art Institute.

 Two laboratories in the program. From June 18 to 22 with the appointment is “Hanging by a thread: the forms that play” from the observation of natural shapes in everyday life and work of artists of yesterday and today, every child will work to own wire suspended, the thread of a necklace that will grow day by day experiences of art and life that will be accompanied during the workshop. The overhead wires of all children will become, then, a large grid that will tell their week between art and play at Siena Art Institute.

 From July 9 to 13, the space laboratory “Orma and sign”, which will guide the children to the discovery of footprints and signs through the construction of a small book of paper enclosed between two clay tablets. The signs and designs drawn on paper objects of their daily lives and leave footprints on clay with a small cylinder will create a story made of words, images and colors.

 Children will also have available a very special means of transport to get to the classrooms of the Art Institute Siena, the Pedibus: moms and dads can take them to Porta San Marco, where the nanny of Giocolenuvole will lead them to walk to Via Tommaso Pendola a cavalcade fun for kids and convenient for parents, that – especially if they arrive from out of town – can save on transportation time and parking.

 Each week of activities is restricted to a maximum of ten children. For information and registration, contact the Giocolenuvole 0577 271558, send an email to info@giocolonuvole.com or visit www.giocolenuvole.com 

 ”This project – says Miriam Grottanelli, director of the Art Institute Siena – stems from the desire to combine over a decade of experience in the field of childcare Giocolenuvole with the Art Institute of Siena in the arts, building a program of activities able to stimulate the children on several fronts, from play to creativity, to explore the socialization of their city.

 We are convinced that joint efforts and mutual competence is the key to providing services to the territory increasingly innovative and quality, responding to a need for space and educational activities, creative workshops and heard a lot of meetings in the city. The art classes for the local community that we have organized in recent months and the projects we have done within the city schools have shown us that children are an inexhaustible source of ideas, imagination and creativity, so we are delighted to be working at alongside Giocolenuvole for this program of summer activities, we hope, is the inspiration for new ideas and new projects to be developed together in the future. “

 In the photo, experiments with clay to Siena Art Pedagogical Institute during the week of school San Bernardino of Siena  

 

 Press Office Art Siena Institute  Tiziana Landi 340 2660319  press@sienaart.org   tizianalandi@gmail.com

Moms Mingle June Dinner

Join us for our June Mom’s Dinner

Saturday, June 2nd at 7:30

Blanco Music Bar Via Cesare Battisti, 8 Siena 53100

Au-pairs in Siena

My name is Fleur and I am an 18 year old student from the UK. I’m coming to work as an au-pair in Siena at the end of July for 6 months.  I would really like to find a weekly Italian class and would be grateful if anyone knew of a school that offers that kind of lesson (I’ve studied up to A2 level Italian in the UK).  Also I would love to make contact with any other au-pairs working in or around the city…are there any? Many thanks, Fleur

2 Really Child Friendly Restaurants

Pizzeria Nonno Giulio

Località PISCIALEMBITA, 157 | 53018 SOVICILLE (SI)

Landline: 0577 314152

Food is lovely and a la carte.

It has a little area with animals children can look at (safely fenced) and an al fresco dinner area. In the winter food is only served inside.

Pulcianese

Strada Ville di Corsano-Murlo 1107/A 
53014 Monteroni d’Arbia
Tel/Fax 0577 377050

Food is home made and delicious – they tend to operate on a price per person base, rather than dish based. It has a (proper) playground, has a little farm animals area which children can safely watch, and is surrounded by beautiful trees. During the winter, food is served inside; during the summer food is served outside in an al fresco area from which adults can watch their children running on the grass fields. From June onwards, they will serve merenda on the weekends – worth going!

Baking Supplies

I like baking and cake decorating. As such, I have looked all over the place for supplies that are good, safe (as I do lots with my daughter) and that allow you to come up with a good final project. It turned out that not very far from Siena there’s just the supplier! The name of the online shop is Kikka’s Cakes and the owner’s name is Giulia. Enjoy!

Family Picnic

Come join us for a family picnic at the Uopini Park on Saturday May 12th at 10:00am.  Bring a small item for lunch or desert to share!

Schools in Siena – part 1 – Scuola Materna

Caveat: this is an opinion article, and as such subjective to my experiences, feelings and interpretations.

Italy is not a transparent country: it is full of colour and nuances; hills, mountains, seas; beautiful hidden coves; several not so nice aspects. There are wonderful initiatives (slow food, anyone?) and horrible experiences to be had when it comes to sort any bureaucratic issue (how about 6 weeks to get gas pumping in to your cooker?).

In theory I can navigate the system, being fully proficient in Italian. In practice, it’s just as hard for me as it would be for any other expat without language skills.

Let us focus on schools, shall we? Here are some points to consider:

a)   Information about schools/schooling is hard to find and that displayed is often incomplete. Websites are often useless and/or oudated.

b)   Children in Italy are grouped by age, not at all by ability. So if your child has been on a scholarship to the Bolshoi or ManU and are 4 years old, they will still be registered for dance or football with any other 4 year olds.

c)   Schools in Italy can be private, public or a mix of the 2. A private school can be paritaria or not (for example following an IB curriculum). If it is paritaria, and even though there may be slight differences to the national curriculum, these schools would allow a pupil to move to the public system without examinations. A public school can be statale or comunale. A statale is controlled by the government, whereas a comunale comes under the auspices of your local comune or city/town hall.

d)   Schools are grouped in Complessori – which means exactly that, they are grouped. Each complessorio has one principal (preside or dirigente), who oversees all schools, from one office – the one my child goes to oversees 3 materne, 1 primary and one junior high.

e)   Whatever you choose within the public system (not sure about private), do not expect to receive a letter stating admission – you may, but it does not always happen. Admissions are made public, usually, by sticking lists on the school glass doors.

Now, my personal experience. We moved to Siena during the last week of June 2011. We had visited 3 schools in May, previous to our arrival:

Scuola dell’Infanzia Avignone (having rented a flat in the neighbourhood, that would have been our catchment school.) – Scuola Statale

The teaching staff were not particularly welcoming but neither were they rude. The auxiliary staff were nice and showed us around. (Note: Just as we were there, the English teacher (for 5 yr olds) arrived and completely failed to engage with our daughter or us parents.)

The school facilities were OK and the playground had adequate equipment. We noticed that the school is located in a one-way street, is adjacent to a middle school and across from a 500+ pupils primary school, therefore there could potentially be heavy traffic at times.

When we visited, even though the roll had not been made public yet, we were told that usually they do get full. We were advised to visit the Scuola dell’Infanzia di Marciano, for its beautiful olive trees orchard and great playground.

International School of Siena – Private

Mid May last Spring, we presented ourselves at the school, without an appointment but after several emails between my husband and the school. Everyone was very busy as it was close to lunch time (11:30 or so) and we were told to come back the next Monday. We did not.

Meanwhile, we saw a classroom, the outside playground (from outside) and the cafeteria. And of course, the waiting lounge.  (Note: I personally felt that everyone was so busy because there was probably a shortage of staff, but I may be wrong.)

Everyone was smiley and quiet (uncommon in a school setting in Italy!) and the children looked happy.

The setting is beautiful and the scenery is breathtaking.

The fact that the school was not yet fully IB certified didn’t count to the school’s advantage. I had read on the ISS website that their sister schools are, but that does not imply this one would automatically be certified, nor when.

Furthermore, it worries me that this school may not offer continuity to Lyceum (who can possibly know?) and that my child could end up being insufficiently prepared to migrate to a public classico (the crown jewel).

We thought that doing one year of materna at a public (=state) could help mitigating the unavoidable shock when entering primary school. If I could flip time backwards, I would have registered our child at ISS. As someone said, what your kid will lack in knowledge they will gain in community and experience. I would agree.

Scuola dell’Infanzia di Marciano – Scuola Statale

Literally back from ISS, we stopped by the Scuola dell’Infanzia di Marciano, wanting to book a visit. It was a beautiful May midday in Tuscany. Children were having lunch (as one would expect at that time) and even though noisy, they acknowledged our existence. The gentleman part of the support staff was unbelievably welcoming and nice. He lead us to the outdoor playground, where we waited for one of the teachers to come and talk to us. We talked to 2 and both were nice and very daughter centered-instead of parent-centered – I liked that.

The grounds were amazing: you reach the school walking down from the little square, where you can leave your car if you are lucky, and along maybe 10 olive trees on the left. The back garden where pupils play is well equipped. There is a designated room for meals.

Our daughter was placed in Marciano. Unfortunately.

Six months later I can add

About Marciano:

The school has 3 classes (A, B, C or blu, gialla,rossa); each can have up to 26 pupils.

School hours are

Drop off: 8:00 – 9:00

Pick up: 13:00, 16:00 or 16:30.

You are expected to pick up your child at the agreed time, not earlier nor later. Say you have booked Sammy till 16:30 – if you pick them up at 16:00, you will have to sign a form. No pick ups are allowed in between unless there is a pressing medical or family reason – you would need to call in advance.

Parents are not welcome in school at all, at any time that is not drop off or pick up. These are expected to be short.

There are 2 teachers per class, but they are contemporaneously in school only at meeting times and 11:00 – 13:00.

The school allows the parents to have a private after school club run in the premises. It is currently managed by Giocolenuvole, 16:30 – 18:00 in the gialla area.

There is a bus service to and from the school, within a set route, organised by the City.

I personally find the school extremely disorganised and noise is a constant.

Staff shouts indiscriminately (barred the male member of support staff) and that reflects in the children’s behaviour. I personally have had 1 teacher and one support staff shouting on my face, the latter in front of the children.

Diversity is not an issue the school deals with properly. It feels that the  more standardised the children are, the better, as it is easier to manage.

Furthermore, positive re-enforcement is something unheard of…

There is no such thing as a publicly available programmed activities – and neither there is a willingness from the staff to inform the parents. Pretty much parents get to know what their children have done rather then what the group plans to do. In general parents get this information from the parents reps, not from the school nor from the teachers, and after the fact.

The school offers some sort of English classes to the 5-years old (weekly), however I cannot comment on its quality as my own daughter complained that she was ‘unlearning’ and thus we pulled her out. Also, there is a religion class every week, from which you can withdraw – in that case, children stay with their regular teacher doing other activities. There is no such thing as PE (!!!!), even though several parents have insistently asked for it and even volunteered to organise it.

There are 3 parents-teachers meeting in the year (it used to be only 2) and each is to last 10 minutes – that’s the time one would have to learn about their children’s progression.

I find that neither the community nor the families are central to the school’s management and current staff, which is in my humble opinion simply appalling.

Soon, on primary schools.

April Mom’s Mingle Dinner

Mom’s Mingle Dinner

April 21st, 7:30

Minohana Sushi Bar

Viale Vittorio Emanuele II, 32, Siena

RSVP via comment by April 19th

US Tax Laws have changed!!!

The US Tax Laws have changed so you might want to check now what you need to do.  According to this article below  taxes of foreign financial assets have changed.

 20 Tax Changes You Need To Know About

Several important tax changes took effect in 2011 that will impact federal income tax returns filed this April. While some of the changes are straightforward, such as the standard mileage rates, others, including the tax handling of foreign financial assets, may be more complicated. Following is a list of the tax law changes for 2011 Federal tax returns.  Read the whole article

A personal opinion (based on visits and/or phone calls) on schools in Siena

Caveat: this is an opinion article, and as such subjective to my experiences, feelings and interpretations.

Italy is not a transparent country: it is full of colour and nuances; hills, mountains, seas; beautiful hidden coves; not so nice, ugly neighourhoods. There are wonderful initiatives (slow food, anyone?) and horrible experiences to be had when it comes to sort any bureaucratic issue.

Let us focus on schools: information is hard to find and that displayed is often dated or incomplete. Websites are often useless.

In theory  I can navigate the system, being fully proficient in Italian. In practice, it’s just as hard for me as it would be for any other expat without language skills.

We moved to Siena during the last week of June 2011. We had visited 3 schools in May, previous to our arrival:

Scuola dell’Infanzia Avignone (having rented a flat in the neighbourhood, that would have been our catchment school.) – Scuola Statale

The teaching staff were not particularly welcoming but neither were they rude. The auxiliary staff were nice and showed us around. Just as we were there, the English teacher (for 5 yr olds) arrived and completely failed to engage with our daughter or us parents.

The school facilities are OK and the playground had adequate equipment. The school is located in a one-way street, is adjacent to a middle school and across from a nearly 500 pupils primary school, therefore there is a lot of traffic at given times of the day.

There is a bus service to and from the school, within a set route, organised by the City.