7 Things You Should Know About Grade 1 in Germany 📚 [BEFORE YOU SEND YOUR CHILD]
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- 🎒 Embarking on the Grade 1 journey in Germany? Here are 7 essential things you need to know before sending your little one off to the German "Grundschule"
We're chatting school reputations, Schulpflicht (compulsory education), and the ins and outs of registering your child for Grade 1. BUT also unpacking the fun side of the German school experience - from the iconic Schulranzen to the magical Schultüte and the celebrations that make the first day unforgettable.
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Kiga not kita
@@Schweinehexe depends where you’re living in Germany 😉
A Federmäppchen is organised. All pens, pencils, rubber and pencil sharpener has its own place. A „Schlampermäppchen“ is not organised. You throw all stuff in it. If you need something you have to search in it, like a in women’s handbag😁…and it’s cooler
Sure it's cooler. But in my schooldays, they wouldn't allow us to have one in Grundschule. Glad I came to a Gymnasium in 5th, they weren't as strict there, and you even were encouraged to organize yourself.
@@eisikater1584
Same happened to me
In primary school, most children have both - at least here in Saxony. The pencils are sorted (neatly) in the pencil case (Federmäppchen), and the "Schlampermäppchen" contains scissors, glue sticks, highlighters and other things.
@@312Annabella Sounds reasonable. Well, my days in primary school were in Bavaria in the 1970s. Don't know if highlighters even existed back then. They sure existed in the 80s, but I still hate them and use a pencil instead. You know, if you highlight something wrong, that's irreversible.
@@eisikater1584 I (school years 1979-89, albeit in the GDR) don't really love highlighters either, but they are part of the "required range" at school. The children are often asked to mark something in color, and this works better with markers than with felt-tip pens or wooden crayons. And elementary school students usually love them because of the bright colors.
There are options to keep the kids in school for longer e.g. a Hort or a Hausaufgabenbetreuung that is offered by the school,other than that, my elemaentary school (back in 2007) had offered additional Nachmittagsbetreuung for the kids. So there are ways to have your kids in Elementary school while still having working parents. Later, your kid could also become what we in Germany call a "Schlüsselkind" ("key child") where (when the child is old enough and knows how to gwt home by public transport) the child will have a key for the home so that it can get in when the school day is over but the parents are still at work.
I wish that is what someone started with when they first warned me about the school hours, haha! The school our son will go to also has a couple after school options which is great! 😊
Super interesting about a "Schlüsselkind"! I've never heard of this before - learning something new every day! Thanks!
@@lifeingermany_ You are definitely welcome, while I don't have any kids myself, because frankly I haven't reacher this stage of my life yet, I can supply others with some tips :)
@@j.wagner1633 However a "Schlüsselkind" (Key Kid) is a thing of the 80s or early 90s. Kids would wear a key around their neck and go home by themselves and then they would prepare themselves a sandwhich or reheat a meal, eat and do their homework. They might even take care of younger siblings and make sure they eat or do their homework.
A lot of responsibility and independence for a child that is 6-9 yo. Nowadays it's not that common anymore because the attitude towards children has changed a bit and now it's ""OMG you can't leave a child alone at home!". Normal in the 80s and 90s but now people might think it's like neglecting a child. This is why most schools have programmes and after school activities where they can do their homework and get lunch.
@@lifeingermany_ Definitely find out about the options for "Ganztagsschule" in all the schools in your area or maybe just the "Nachmittagsbetreuung" in those schools. It's not really women-friendly from my experience as they often already end at 4 or 5 pm, so full-time work is not really possible with those hours, but it's much better than nothing, like it was when I was in school in the '90s!
In a Federmäppchen there are the loops into which the pens, the fountain pen, the eraser, the sharpener can be put, so very neatly, and a larger compartment in which things like a ruler or protractor can be stored. A Schlampermäppchen, on the other hand, is just a small bag into which you just throw pens and other things, so it's very messy, which can cost time if you need something very specific. I definitely prefer the Federmäppchen. Ordnung ist das halbe Leben, right?
I remember when Schlampermäpchen were allowed in 5th grade, we collcted signatures on and inside them. We draw the names/logos of our favourite bands on them. Each Schlampermäppchen was really a unique piece or art 😅
Cool backpack👍😎
I just love it when your tongue gives up on German idioms: "Tag der öffenen Tur" - you are such a hoot!😁💛💛
😂😂
Nice one, this was fun. I’m originally from Michigan in the US and would love for my future kids to have a German raising and education, along with a great German wife, which I don’t yet have.
Haha I have fun with filming this one too! 🥰
And maybe no German wife yet.. but maybe someday! 😉
And don’t you dare to by a ready made Schultüte from the shop if you want to be a cool mom! Cool moms do it themselves, the more creative the better 🎉
auch in Düsseldorf gibt es Ganztagsschulen, manchmal in freier Trägerschaft
in die Schultüte kommt ganz unten eine Orange, oder eine Pomelo, oder eine (kleine) Melone
Das stimmt! 🥰 Auch unser Sohn wird eine Ganztagsschule besuchen.
This is still a difference between East and West Germany today. In the East, most primary school children attend after-school care. This is often housed in a daycare center near the school, and sometimes (especially in villages) also in the school. The children are looked after there until 5:00 p.m. They can play and also do their homework. You also get lunch and snacks. And for parents who have to work before classes start (which is usually 7:30 or 8:00 a.m.), there is also childcare before school starts (open from 6:00 a.m.). Both are a great relief for parents, who can then coordinate work and family life. The children are also looked after in the after-school care center during the holidays when the school is closed. Then there are holiday plans with special activities and also some excursions.
(Translated by Google.)
ja genau so hatten wir das
I find this so interesting! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
I had NO idea that there were also options in East Germany for the kids to attend an after-school program outside of the school as well. Really cool!
@@lifeingermany_ There are more differences between East and West Germany than you might think - especially when it comes to child care. I have never heard of a kindergarten in the East that (as in some rural areas in the West) is only open from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (and possibly once or twice a week from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m offers afternoon care). I came across this a few weeks ago in the story of a friend from Baden-Württemberg (she lives in a small town). The children also don't get lunch in kindergarten.
East German daycare centers are usually open from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. In my city (90,000 inhabitants - not a huge metropolis, but not really small either) there was an "outcry" at the turn of the year because the daycare centers were run by the municipality (that's 16 - there are a total of 50 facilities in the city) and also many Free providers (There are a total of 16 of these - and, unlike in the West, the church only plays a small role. There is a Catholic and 2 Protestant daycare centers as well as the after-school care centers of 2 Protestant primary schools. Children whose families are not Christian are also looked after everywhere faith - 75-80% of the people here are atheists.) have drastically reduced their opening hours. They are only open regularly from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. However, you can still have your child looked after from 6:00 a.m. or until 5:00 p.m., but you will need a letter from your employer stating that your working hours make this necessary. This now makes the afternoon more difficult for many families (early morning care has only been used by those who actually needed it). Anyone who previously did their shopping quickly on the way home and then picked up the children at 4:30 p.m. now has to reschedule. I'm curious to see whether the shortened opening times will become permanent or whether they'll only respond to the staff shortage for a limited time.
The local daycare centers usually look after children from their first birthday (sometimes even before that) until they start school. 23 of them (these are close to the primary schools) also offer after-school care for primary school students, the 4 independent primary schools in the city (2 Protestant and 2 non-denominational) have their own after-school care. Pure kindergartens (for children from their 3rd birthday until they start school) are the exception. Some of the facilities look after around 400 children - yet the atmosphere in the individual groups is family-like. All offer lunch, many also offer full board. More than half have their own kitchen where fresh food is cooked for all the children every day - and they supply the smaller facilities with freshly cooked food every day.
I apologize for the “novel”.
(Translated with Google.)
3:18 Another good address to turn to is the local "Bildungsbehörde" or "Schulamt" of your chosen city or district. They might be better able to oversee the ressources each school has for accommodating children with foreign language background, and might be able to refer you to the individual schools of interest.
Definitely! Thanks for the tip! 🥰
At least in East Germany there is a "Hort". After school the children go to "Hort". There it will be ensured that they eat lunch, do their homework and then play until you pick up your child. The "Hort" is open until 17:30 Uhr, which is enough for most parents. I also lived in Rosenheim (Oberbayern) for 17 years. My sister has children and of course they started school at some point. But I don't remember whether there is an "Hort" in Bavaria where children can go after school.
- and the ranzels make perfect "cabin bags" for the kids, when we travel.
When I startet Grundschule in the 90s in the East our small village school was about to close due to lack of children. There was a huge drop in birthrates after the reunification in the East because the future was so uncertain. Many lost their jobs or moved West for better opportunities. The year before us they opened a class with 11 pupils with "Sondergenehmigung". Our class was to small as well, but they couldn't use the same trick again. So the mayor of the nearby town we belong to resized our school district to include the outskirt of town, where the one child lived that was needed to have the minimum class size. Sadly we were still the last class to start and children after us had to go to town for school. But it was fun for the last year in 3rd grade when the whole school consisted of 3 teachers and 25 children. They couldn't keep the school open for one class, so for 4th grade we moved to town as well.
Wow!
Watching from Switzerland . Very interesting
Yay! Hey there!
Is it much different over there?
The reputation of a school seems to me to be more of a problem in some large cities in certain federal states.
In Hesse, for example, there is no free choice of school in primary schools. The children go to the primary school in the district in which they live. The district can only be changed in justified exceptional cases (e.g. if the grandma takes over the afternoon care and lives somewhere else). Only at the secondary level can one choose the school, although preference should always be given to students who live in the area in which they live (of course not always possible in large cities). This is because the municipalities (the cities and rural communities each have to finance the school in their district).
Yeah, I can definitely understand that though! I think in larger cities, people have SO many options that they start to feel the need to "get picky". Whereas in smaller states and towns, the options are limited... which on a positive note, totally eliminates the whole "reputation" issue which I find nice!
Our daughter happened to start primary school in Hesse, too. There it occurs sometimes that a kid’s friend from the other side of the road belongs to the other school district and they can’t start in the same class.
Back in the early 90s, elementary school was wild and I believe people from other countries wouldn't believe it. We would share the school yard and the building with older kids up to grade 10.
My school wasn't only a Grundschule but also a Haupt- and Realschule which meant there were kids from 6-16 or maybe even 17 yo. So there were considerably older kids kicking or hitting you or screaming sexual slur words at you and teaching inappropriate words and jokes to the children. There was also a totally leagal smoking corner where kids that were 16+ were allouwed to smoke on the school yard and this was fine for 16+ yo. Obviously there were sometimes younger children trying to smoke which was't legal but it happened. We also had no school lunch or canteens like nowadays. We had whatever our parents gave us (which was sometimes literally candy in my case because my mother wanted to be nice but tbh not the best choice for a chubby girl).
However: Nowadays an elementary school is only an elementary school and there aren't older kids anymore. Smoking age is 18+ now and it's illegal to smoke at the school yard anyways. And there is school lunch in canteens where kids get a real balanced meal.
❤❤❤❤
Love From India
9:10 They only want that in Elementary School- if you try to use it after that you definitely get bullied 😂
They have way too many books from Grade 2 onwards - and once you get to 5th it is insane - my son is at easily 10kg - and for each course there are 2-3 hardcover books. At weiterführend thank goodness they have a few lockers to rent, so I have with the hope of having less books heading home.
Oh my goodness 🙈🙈🙈 our poor little kids! I never had more than 2 textbooks in my bag back in Canada
@@lifeingermany_Text book & Workbook minimum for each major subject, often some 3rd type in the hardcover variety, and then they love these separate colored plastic folders for each subject. I cannot stand them, since you always are putting new pages on top of old, and I am pretty sure when reviewing stuff, things do not get taught in reverse chronological order.
Studying for a 5th grade english test honestly had so many books, and thne 3 sections within each of those books that were all the same chapter - vocab in the back....some section of chapter 4 on pages 53-58 and another section of chapter 4 on pages 82-90...and they love to work with abbreviations - and not necessarily of the title, but of the artwork on the front of the book....in elementary there were books referred to as "blubber blasen heft" and "Indianer Heft" BBH and IH - not to be confused with the other IH called Igel Heft.
If you ever want to be a parent who helps with math - make sure you follow along from minute one - to get the terminology right - because the teachers seem obsessed with terminology, and if you even mention any english term used to your kids that you remember form Canda, expect admonishment (This is me recently helping my eldest with Abi math)
They don’t offer a Turnbeutel (sports clothing bag) in their package?
Not sure if this has changed, but when my kids went to elementary school 15+ years ago, I was not able to choose the school for them! We received a letter in which we were told which school belonged to our school district. That was our school. Fertig aus.
Every school district had only one elementary school, and if you lived near the boarder of two districts like we did, you were never really sure about your district, because it changed from year to year, depending on the amount of children living in your area.
However, if there was already one of your children in elementary school, you had the option to choose this particular school for your other child, too, even if it belonged to a different school district that year.
The reputation of the school was a huge topic back then, too, of course, although we did not have the choice. The most asked question by relatives and friends was probably: Does the school have a good reputation?
But it had nothing to do with status or something, like in stating "my kids went to the best elementary school in town". It‘s also not because you want your child to be ahead of the field at that young age.
Schools just do have different reputations, and as parents you want the best for your child, so you hope for a school with a really good reputation. I think that’s normal.
As I already mentioned, we live(d) at the boarder between two school districts, and I was pretty nervous because the school in district a was very modern (building and concept)and had young teachers, while the school in district b was quite old and a bit more conservative. Both had their cons and pros, both had a good reputation, but for some reason, I soooo hoped for district a. And we were lucky. But I was really nervous when I opened the letter.
😂😂😂😂 OMG....what a BS. Boarder between two schools 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@esmeraldaemeralda9766 That was completely normal back then. I don‘t know if it was everywhere in Germany, though.
Either way, I don‘t think it was bs. Actually it made a lot of sense, because each school can only take so many kids, and the amount of children that live around each school varies from year to year. So it’s inevitable to change the boarders according to the amount of children that are around 6 years old.
Just looked it up. Nothing has changed. In my Bundesland, we still have (ever changing) school districts and can‘t choose the elementary schools ourselves. I honestly like that!
I don't think it's changed much everywhere in Germany 🙂 ... would likely entirely depend on the size of the state/town/city! In Düsseldorf we are allowed to choose our top 2 favourites, and in a couple of the neighbouring cities, they're allowed to choose 3 or 4 I believe. All so dependent on where you live.
😭😭😭😭😭😭 I will need to watch this video next year 😭😭😭😭😭😭 the idea makes me so sad already!! My babies 😭😭😭😭 lol
Omg Schulverwaltungsamt!! What a nice word! I love it
Hahahah right?! 😂@@LaurenAngela_aufDeutsch
Es gibt nicht nur die Halbtagsschule und die offene Ganztagsschule, sondern auch die normale Ganztagsschule, aus der man die Kinder nicht früher abholen darf, damit sie zum Verein, Musikschule oder Kindergeburtstag können. Dort müssen die Kinder zB bis 16 Uhr bleiben, selbst wenn man es mal nicht braucht oder will, obwohl dann gar kein Unterricht mehr stattfindet, sondern andere Aktivitäten wie Fußball. Je nach Schule ist das Nachmittagsangebot nichts für das eigene Kind, aber früher abholen und zum individuellen Verein bringen, ist dort verboten. In BW hilft dann ein "Schulbezirkswechselantrag", um in eine andere öffentliche Schule zu kommen, die nicht so einschränkt und einen freiwilligen Hort anbietet.
In the classroom:
"Federmäppchen"(😂) are used in the first rows....
Schlamperl are used in the rest.
Ok, wait last row very often comes only with a roller pen. Literally! No books and no homework, too.🤷😉
Same like the seat position in a bus when on Klassenfahrt...
😊 Good old days in the last row.😇🤞(german meaning)
😉😈 👋
Somethin u dont seamed to k ow.there is Vorschule a grade 0 it would translate literialle to pre school wich is in north smerica what we would understand as kindergarten so merely the concepts are swsped with the word
But Vorschule is not exactly the same
If u reach the age of 6 and ur kindergärtner thingmk u are way behind the others for one reason or another. Ot u get into the school and the class teacher things u cant follow ubget send to Vorschule wich is like a prep year for the kiddo to catch up
Could be couse they come from a family thsts dumb to beginn with or if they have language issues
We had one kid in our neightborhood a girl wich had to go there
Her mother was not the brightest headliggt of the car and her older beother even becsme a criminal drug addict with 15 .......
She was one year older as i but was then in my elementary class
So she got to regular grundschule with 7 instad of 6
And even then she had an easy time following rules and instru tions but offten could not catch up on logical things
Like when we lerned about word stems so she thought Wolke had the same source as Wolle and would be written with an ll😅
Guess who got laughed at by the class later. Right it wasnt me
Not just germsny did u know japan has Ranzen too shure they pronounce the word a little bit fmdifferently but its the sane meaning like this elementary school bsckpack
Also be glad ur school did not demaded to have a Ranzen with reflective stripes all over it 😅 some schools csn be strict abiut this shite
Why? Well couse usually its the visibility factor why they have allnreflectors and so on
And to fit the ridiculus big books😅
But its becomin more lax in the later schools as the children will be taler and more aware of their souroundings
First graders sometimes run on the stret and push esch other playfully in dangerous places so visibility is important
Wich well ur kids bVkpsck may be cooler and lighter but it has its downsides as well
.jes u have reflectors but thei are nothin compared to a scout backpack lol
Wow! It's A LOT of pressure on parents that can't afford all that stuff! 😞
Why would you spend so much on a backpack that lasts four years, when most likely, in a few months (or even weeks), the child won't be interested in dinosaurs or spaceships anymore?
I remember that every year, my daughter was thrilled to get a new school bag! 😊
But that's a very cool celebration of the first year of school! 🎉, ❤ 🇨🇦
Well, you talk to your kid what will happen. You will have this backpack for the next few years.
Why buy one every year if the old one is still totally fine?
@@karinland8533 Exactly! The old one would NOT be "totally fine" as it wouldn't last that long, and that's OK, because it didn't cost a ton of money, and the child wouldn't even care about its design anymore!
I just don't think it's worth spending that much.
But if having the same backpack design for four years is a "thing", it's OK too! 😊
There are designs you can switch with patches btw. But the point is that backpacks are kind of a high tech thing here. German kids have to carry so much stuff in there that it has to fit anatomically perfect. You take home all books and notebooks, your Brotzeitdose/lunch box and so on
Back in the day our Ranzen was not ergonomical but old fashioned leather. In 1st grade I was too small to carry mine and got a "play-version" instead. From 2nd grade on I had the beautiful dark red leather Ranzen which accompanied me all through trade school and bible school. I still have it. Whatever this Ranzen initially cost it was certainly worth it!
There are some ways for low-income families to apply for a fixed sum of financial assistance for children's school materials and school trips etc. Sadly this has not improved the social rigidity of the German school system much... Many children from low-income families end up with worse academical outcomes...
Schultüte schon gekauft? 😉
Haha yup!! Wir basteln es aber im Juni glaube ich!
@@lifeingermany_ ich bin schon irgendwie froh, dass ich das alles hinter mir habe. Meine Töchter sind jetzt 23 und fast 38. Die müssen sich also um sich selbst kümmern. Papa hat frei!😊
B moin Arno. Meine beiden Seglerrinnen aus Oldenburg sind wieder bei ihrem Boot in Portugal. Die Saison geht also richtig los! Freue mich schon auf die Videos in diesem Jahr! Grüße an den Bodensee.
@@tasminoben686 Mast und Schotbruch den beiden ⛵. Grüße in den Norden.
Arnoux!
Bitte grüsse mein geliebtes Düsseldorf 😊😊😁😁😃😃👍👍