Hello Everybody,

Can anyone please explain me how the DOB of your child influences to which class he/she gets admitted in a school in Germany?

I am aware that a child has to be 6Y old to start going to a school, but what’s not clear to me is how this 6Y is calculated.

Session starts in Germany around August, so does this mean that any child born in say September, stands at losing nearly 1 full year, before he/she turns 6Y old the next year? Do we have any clear-cut rules on the cutoff? If so, can anyone please share it with me?

I hope it is not totally at the discretion of the school - Or?

Cheers.

Hi Analphabeten,

well you know we are in Germany. Here everything is strongly ruled.

The fact your kid was born in September is not enought, the day of September is also important.

The key word on that is the so called "Stichtag". I think this changes from state to state, I would like to advice you to google this in your governmental school district page on your state.

If I´m not wrong, in my case was the 1st September. If your kids are born (I guess) one month later, you can request to be accepted and I think is no problem to do it.

But mainly, don´t hurry that much. The German School system is quite strenght, not in the subjects itself (this for me wouldn´t even be a problem) but in the behavioural aspect. They suppose your kid is mature enought, the kids are supported but not that much as in a Kindergarten and in this age, six months is pretty much changes in personality and not too much changes in knowledge.

Normally, the 6 years deadline is of 30.06 every year. But if you feel that your child is motivated and enthusiastic going to school, you can also ask for 'Vorzeitige Einschulung'. It is normally done by a Physcologist at the Gesundheitsamt. If they are satisfied, they can let your child the school at 5 years.

We did this for our second son this year(Birthday August!!). The first doctor was bit strange and we had a conflict with her as she said our son has lot of problems and he will find it much more difficult to adapt but after intervening and asking for a second look from a different doctor, he got checked by a doctor, who gave outstanding remarks for 'VZE' and now my son is ready for School before his 6th year birthday :-).

So give your shot, if you really think that your child can manage and never rush!!

Regards
Rajesh

Hello YO & Rajesh,

Thanks a lot for your detailed experiences with the schooling of your child(ren). These is exactly the kind of guidance that makes this site so special (at least to me). Thanks again.

Meanwhile, taking YO's advice and googling around a bit on Stichtag, I had stumbled upon this link below. Any comments?

http://www.schulministerium.nrw.de/BP/Schulsystem/Schulformen/Grundschule/FAQ_Einschulung/Vorziehung/index.html

Cheers.

Hi again,

well, sound very logical.

You said nothing about which state were you (now we know NRW) and also nothing about when born your kid.

Summarizing:

- If your son/daughter was born between 02.09.2003 and 01.09.2004 you are late, because you should have started your paperstuff in november 2009 ;-)

- If you son/daughter was born between 02.09.2004 and 01.10.2005 can start without problem. One month before/after that dates you can request to be included/excluded.

Just for the records, we did the same than Ragesh but we needed no psichological assessment because as any foreign kid, "his language" was evaluated and in parallel and subtle, they also test his capabilities and they recommended the "Einschulung".

Just to share experiences, in knowledge level (learning content) is doable, even sometimes easy, in the human aspect, the tutors are very patient and supporting the teachers absolutely strict and severe.

Just for the sake of opinions you can read this:

http://www.welt.de/politik/bildung/article4510313/Die-juengsten-Erstklaessler-sind-haeufig-ueberfordert.html

and this
http://www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/0,1518,413806,00.html