On Wednesday this week, the newest crèche in the Sunflower Montessori ever-expanding network has its official opening in Findel, at the Eagle building where there is space for a total of 126 children.

This brings to 390 the grand total of children's places the group facilitates, at its various locations: - Findel 1 (the original crèche; currently undergoing renovation) - Findel Galileo (opened November 2012) - Moutfort (the puropse-built "flagship" créche) - Ersange (opening in November 2015; currently their administrative headquarters) - Bertrange (opened summer 2016) - Brussels (Belgium) - Findel Eagle (opened November 2016)

Although the new crèche is already fully-subscribed, the big development is that Sunflower Montessori is now licenced to also operate as a Foyer du Jour, offering after-school and holiday facilities to childen up to 12 years of age. Naturally, the children are segregated by age, with babies from 3 months the youngest. for such after-school facilities, the group now operates a collection service from a number of schools, including St George's International School, the European Schools in both Kirchberg and Mamer, and the Ecole Francaise.

The Eagle building is primarily offices, with the crèche located on the ground floor. Apart from its classrooms, resting rooms and toilets, plus administrative offices, it also offers a fully-equipped (for small children) gym, where they do dymnastics, musical movement and dance (and have two performances annually) as well as two fenced gardens for different age-ranges. And it also backs onto a forest, so the teachers bring the children from time to time to explore nature without needing to worry about crossing any roads.

While it does not offer its own kitchen, this is intentional as the group avails of a professional chef - specialised in cooking for crèches and taking into consideration a number of food allergies children can have - who uses the specialised kitchen facilities at their Moutfort crèche.

The changing legal framework in Luxembourg

As a new crèche, Sunflower Montessori's Findel Eagle facility falls under the 2013 law and is fully authorised under the Inspectorate of Labour and Mines (ITM), specifically regarding children. currently, therefore, this is a transition period for all existing crèches throughout the Grand Duchy, with the building structures already having had to meet the new standards, with issues pertaining to the numbers and ratios of children, staff qualifications, etc., to be in line by mid-2018.

In 2016, a new law came into force regarding the integration of the pre-school domain into the overall education system in Luxembourg. This implies the adoption of non-formal education into the national framework, with the operators of crèches and foyers du jour required to work with regional agents to develop an education plan - currently there are 22 regional agents throughout the Grand Duchy.

A future step will be the introduction of a pluri-lingualism policy - this is currently in the early stages of preparation, with discussions in parliament already commenced. These are further initiatives since the original shake-up in 2009 when the Luxembourg government introduced the Cheques-Service initiative. And now the Sunflower Montessori group is starting to offer after-school and holiday places for children up to 12 years of age.

Tom O'Dea, Director at Sunflower Montessori, told The Luxembourg Chronicle "We are really impressed at the way the Luxembourg government is using formal education in an early years environment as an integral part of the Luxembourg education system". He added "Rather than seeign this as an abstacle, we see this as a great opportunity to have our educational plan approved nationally".

Photo (L-R): Tom O'Dea, Sam O'Dea, Helen Clarke