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Introduction to the education system in Germany It is not compulsory for young children to go to kindergarten (starting at the age of three – anybody younger can attend the crèche) or preschool. However, being in a German-speaking environment from an earlyage will help your child to learn German. This will ensure constant learning and will be very useful for them if you plan to stay in Germany for a while. Futhermore, there are some multi-lingual establishments as well, but unfortunately these are private institutions and so charge fees. State day care centers (or Kindertagesstätte, KiTa) also charge fees, but these are much lower as the state pays the lion’s share. In case you need to bring your child to work at CISPA, you can find KidsBoxes for your child to play with. Every child over the age of 3 is entitled to a place in a kindergarten. This means that the municipality (which is responsible for day care provision) is legally obliged to offer every child between thea ges of 3 and 6 registered in that municipality a space in a kindergarten , but, this place can be far away from your home. Children under the age of 3 are entitled to day care if the parents work, are in full-time education, or if it is judged beneficial to the child’s welfare that it goes to day care. Very young children (age 0–3) can go to a crèche (Kinderkrippe), which most day care centers have. Older children (3 and above) attend Kindergarten, which offers pre-school education in the final year (age 5 or 6). Most children start school when they are 6 years old, 7 at the latest. Compulsory Education All children and minors in Germany are required by law to attend school from the age of 6 to 15. regardless of their residence status. It is in this context that German language skills play a particularly important role. Each state (Bundesland) in Germany has control over its own schoolingsystem, and so there are some variations between the types of school and curriculum. In Saarland, e.g. foreign language lessons for elementary school students are compulsory starting in the 3rd grade. Due to the geographical location of Saarland, French is taught here instead of English. The school system starts with the Grundschule or elementary school (grades 1 to 4). At German elementary schools, classes are only held in the morning between 8:00am and 01:00pm, while in the other schools it can be between 07:40am and 04:00pm. Please note:The choice of elementary schools is connected to the choice of the city where you are going to live in. After the fourth grade pupils switch to one of the following secondary schools: