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Family Places on Campus

Many small family places make the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam campus a family campus. We show where parents and children can enjoy themselves.

Das Familienzimmer der FH Potsdam.

Family Room

The family room is a friendly furnished room where your children have a variety of opportunities to play, paint, move or read picture books. Our flexible childcare takes place in this family place. There are tables and seating available for you as parents or grandparents to look after your own children, which may also be used as a workplace. If you would like to organise childcare for your child or a fellow student yourself, this is the place to do so. In case of emergency, you can also get nappies or a change of clothes for your child in the family room.

 

Use of the family room

You will find the family room in house 5/room 002. If you need to use the family room, please contact the family team in advance. You can either get the key from the staff at the information desk/gate in the main building upon presentation of your University of Applied Sciences Potsdam student ID or employee ID. Or you can come to our office(house 5/room 026) and we will open the room for you.

On Wednesdays from 4:00 p.m., the family room is reserved for a play group of the Family Centre and we ask you to switch to the cafeteria or our quiet and breastfeeding rooms.

  1. The family room is for members of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and is intended to cover short-term childcare emergencies. It is available for self-organised care when there is no childcare by pedagogical staff.
  2. The family room may not be used if the child being cared for is suffering from a contagious disease (such as chicken pox, mumps, measles, scarlet fever, rubella, etc.). This also applies in the case of severe febrile illnesses.
  3. There is no legal entitlement to the use of the family room, nor to any particular equipment in the room. Furthermore, the use of the family room is subject to the condition that official matters do not conflict with it.
  4. Access to the family room is via the family team. The key can be borrowed against a deposit. With your signature on receipt of the key, you accept the rules of use.
  5. The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam assumes no liability for any items provided (e. g. toys).
  6. Users are responsible for the careful treatment of the furnishings and equipment. No objects may be removed from the family room. The purchase of new toys is done in consultation with the family team. The room must be tidied up and left clean after use! Please wash used dishes in the blue wash bowl provided. The windows must be closed.
  7. The legal guardians are responsible for the supervision of the child in their care. The university is not liable for any damage caused by a breach of the duty of supervision. This also applies to damage to facilities and objects caused by a child if the supervisor has breached his/her duty of supervision.
  8. In the event of a breach of these regulations, the UAS reserves the right to claim damages.
  9. The use of the room is at the child's own risk.

Other family-friendly places on campus

Rest and breastfeeding rooms and baby changing facilities

A variety of family spaces are available in several buildings on campus. At the information desk in the main building, as well as from the family team, you can obtain our well-being plan, which gives you orientation on the location of the rooms:

If required, we lend out a two-seater bicycle trailer which you can use for trips around campus.

Playgrounds

In the natural green area of the campus between House 3 and the former International Meeting Centre, you will find the large sand playground under cherry trees, where students and employees of the university can linger with their children. Here you will find a nest swing, a climbing house with slide, a sand toy box and benches for the whole family to sit on.

In addition, the slide and the balancing beam in front of the canteen can be used by older children. Our green wooden chest contains a selection of sand toys, as well as a compartment specially set up for the children, in which small treasures or natural materials may find their place. You can get the key for the chest at the information desk in the main building by showing your student ID or ID card.

We ask you to take care when using our play materials so that they last for a long time.

Large and small canteen

In both the large and the small canteen, you will find a family table and enough children's chairs to give you and your children space for a meal together. The tables are marked by written and spoken games on the wall that encourage puzzling. You can use the family tables at any time in the dining rooms of the canteen on campus.

Equipped with a small selection of children's books, colouring or play materials and research niches, there are also two play areas available for children in the canteen rooms. While you are engaged in conversation with your fellow students or colleagues, the children are welcome to occupy themselves curiously and sometimes without the eyes of their parents.

Cafeteria

In the cafeteria in the main building, you will find a meeting place that invites families with children from the FHP and the surrounding Bornstedt neighborhood to play and linger.

There is a cozy corner for looking at picture books, a magnetic wall and a blackboard wall for creative play, a Pikler triangle for climbing and stimulating sensory bags for the little ones. The light installations on the back wall are also a highlight, allowing children to discover their self-efficacy.

Let your children discover this room for themselves while you take a break with a coffee from Coffee Nerds or sit together with fellow students or colleagues.

If the family room is overcrowded for your own use, you will find everything you need in the cafeteria to spend more time here with your child.

Campus garden

The campus garden is located in the heart of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam campus (between house 3 and the main building). It was created by an initiative of students and residents from the neighbourhood and has been a meeting place for all interested parties since 2016 – families and children are also welcome to participate.

With many seating areas, it is a green oasis of relaxation, especially in the warmer months. Here you can spend time with your children during break times or meet fellow students to work and study. The family team has its own small flower bed and other activities, such as organising holiday workshops, are planned in cooperation with the campus garden team.

Mobile nursery

If you ever need to have your child with you while you are at work, you can conjure up a little nursery out of the backpack.
The backpacks contain books, a wooden train, a marble run, painting toys and other toys. A blanket for lounging and snuggling up is also in the backpack.
One children's backpack can be borrowed from the reception desk in the main building or from the family team in house 5/room 026.

Children's library in the library

The children's library in the library has a wide range of picture books for children and in this way encourages a love of reading and storytelling. Rollaway carts with a reading and play area, specially developed for the library, also enable parents to study with their child in the library. You will find the children's library next to the outside staircase in the library foyer.

University festivals

The family team is happy to join in the celebrations at large university festivals and always organises a new colourful children's programme with students from the early childhood education programme. The family team is also available for small parties in the department or project.

University sports

In cooperation with the Centre for University Sports, various sports courses are held for parents and children. These include an extensive range of sports courses and other measures to maintain health and relaxation for employees with family responsibilities, courses for expectant and young mothers and courses for toddlers as well as pre-school and school children. Bookings can be made through the Centre for University Sport.

Our family places

Contact

At present, counselling at the Family Office is again available without prior appointment. Please feel free to drop by during office hours:
Tuesday and Thursday, 09:30 - 13:30.

For counselling requests outside office hours, please write briefly to famteam@fh-potsdam.de, stating what your concern is and how we can best reach you. To make counselling sessions as personal as possible, we conduct video counselling sessions via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

Family representative of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam