All-day care in Bremen: Inequalities and legal innovations!

All-day care in Bremen: Inequalities and legal innovations!

The city of Bremen has taken an important step into the future of education by expanding all-day offerings at primary schools. In the last school year, more than every second primary school child attended all-day school, which shows how attractive this model has become. Nevertheless, there are big differences between the districts. While the offers in Borgfeld, Osterholz, Vahr, Gröpelingen and Neustadt are above average, Bremen-Oberneuland does not have a single full-day school place. The quotas for all-day offers are also low in Schwachhausen and Vegesack. In Bremerhaven, the proportion of primary school students who attend all-day school is only a third, which is also cause for concern.

This development is no coincidence. Since the introduction of all-day schools in Bremen in 2001, the city has steadily expanded its offerings. The nationwide expansion has been pushed forward over the last two decades in order to enable individual support and equal opportunities. The all-day offers are intended to make it easier for working parents to combine family and work and are firmly anchored in the Bremen School Act. A uniform concept that includes lessons, practice times and additional offers ensures that learning time not only takes place in the classroom, but is also enriched through projects and leisure activities.

Diverse organizational forms

There are various organizational forms of all-day schools in Bremen. These include theopen,partially boundandboundForm. The open all-day primary school offers lessons from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as additional offers from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for registered students. The fixed form, on the other hand, requires all students to spend at least 35 hours per week in school. Other care options include paid lunches, which are obligatory for participants, and early and late care, which is even offered free of charge in Bremerhaven.

In addition, children and parents have access to early and late care or holiday offers that take place during certain holidays. These additional care offers are aimed specifically at full-time students whose parents are employed or are in training. The cost of care varies and is an important consideration for many families.

A look beyond the city limits

A look at the educational landscape in Germany shows that the expansion of all-day offerings in Bremen is not an isolated matter. The Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs has already decided on measures to develop quality in the education system, which are specifically aimed at expanding all-day offerings. The aim is to create additional educational and support opportunities and to adapt the all-day offerings to the needs of children and parents. New recommendations were published in October 2023 that emphasize the importance of well-being and positive relationships in all-day school.

Overall, it is clear that the full day at schools in Bremen plays an important role, not only at the local level, but also in the context of national developments. The legal entitlement to all-day care for first graders throughout Germany, which will come into force next summer, could bring further impetus to the existing programs in Bremen and help improve the offerings that already exist.

The challenges are clear, but the city is well on its way to designing all-day schools to meet the needs of all families.

If you would like to find out more about the diverse all-day offers in Bremen, you can visit the website butenunbinnen.de and bildung.bremen.de inform and take a look at developments throughout Germany on the website of Conference of Ministers of Education throw.