Berlin: School changes about absences and lateness

[Krieg]

In case you have kids in the mandatory years of school (up to class 10th in Berlin), there has been some changes in how the unexcused absences and delays are handled, starting this semester.

- Kids can be late up to two times per semester. After this every lateness will count as a whole hour absence

- If you accumulate six "hour absences" that will be counted as one unexcused absence day, there is no way to get out of this, excuses won't be accepted.

- If you accumulate more than 5 unexcused days in a year you will be breaking the mandatory school regulations (Schulpflicht) and the parents will receive a fine up to 2500 EUR

- If you accumulate more than 11 unexcused days you will be considered negligent parents and the Jugendamt will be involved, including the consideration of taking the kid away from you.


I personally find these new rules a bit excessive, specially with kids in 9th and 10th class, those kids are 14-17 years old and by then there is not much the parents can do it the kid decides to skip school. I understand there should be consequences, but giving the parents a 2500 EUR fine for something they can't really control is a bit unfair. And then this is Berlin, when public transport can be problematic when either BVG or DB strike and on top of that there are frequent interruptions, and then, it is up to the teacher to give lenience in these situations.

[Rebecka]

I don't like it either. We check the BVG app every morning to see if there are any problems on the way to school. It is a good app and it shows if any of the transport options will be late and by how much.

[snowingagain]

Not sure if this helps, but this is a link from BVG for a Verspätungsbescheinigung. My daughter used an equivalent one years ago here (as it was for once really not her fault). Sadly the process to 20 minutes so she ended up really late. Online works better? Obviously it is always wise to allow for at least one extra connection or a bit of a delay, but anyway.

https://sbahn.berlin/fahren/bauen-stoer ... heinigung/

[Franklan]

In case you have kids in the mandatory years of school (up to class 10th in Berlin)

It is not mandatory to attend "up to class 10th", you have to attend 10 years. If a pupil "managed" to repeat 2nd and 5th class, he/she can leave school after 8th class, as he/she has done 10 years of school...

[Krieg]

In case you have kids in the mandatory years of school (up to class 10th in Berlin)

It is not mandatory to attend "up to class 10th", you have to attend 10 years. If a pupil "managed" to repeat 2nd and 5th class, he/she can leave school after 8th class, as he/she has done 10 years of school...

While technically yes, correct, but this is a thread about Berlin and repeating years is not really a big thing here. In primary school you never fail a year, but you can repeat a year under voluntarily initiative, so the parents want the kid to repeat the year, normally under recommendation of the teacher. In Gymnasium if you "fail" one year normally you do not repeat it, you will be moved "down" to an ISS, but the Gymnasium can make exceptions and let a kid repeat a year except class 7th. In an ISS school you only repeat a year under extreme circumstances. The rules for the Abitur phase are different, but by then kids are not anymore in the mandatory school period.

Because of this Berlin is the state with less kids repeating a year in the whole country, it is something around 1% and most is during Abitur.


P.S. And to make things more complicated, the Berlin Schulamt is pushing for changes and if they are approved the mandatory time will be defined in a different way, the kid will have to finish class 10th WITH its graduation certificate AND have already applied for an Ausbilding. If the kid has no Ausbildung aligned then one more year of school will be required, which is strange, because one more year will mean starting an Abitur and potentially abandon it half way through.

[LeonG]

P.S. And to make things more complicated, the Berlin Schulamt is pushing for changes and if they are approved the mandatory time will be defined in a different way, the kid will have to finish class 10th WITH its graduation certificate AND have already applied for an Ausbilding. If the kid has no Ausbildung aligned then one more year of school will be required, which is strange, because one more year will mean starting an Abitur and potentially abandon it half way through.

They probably just want them doing something. As for whether that extra year would be starting an abitur, that kind of depends on what school they were in. If it was hauptschule, they can use the extra year to try for a realschule certificate which could improve their chances on getting the apprentice position they want.

While technically yes, correct, but this is a thread about Berlin and repeating years is not really a big thing here. In primary school you never fail a year, but you can repeat a year under voluntarily initiative, so the parents want the kid to repeat the year, normally under recommendation of the teacher. In Gymnasium if you "fail" one year normally you do not repeat it, you will be moved "down" to an ISS, but the Gymnasium can make exceptions and let a kid repeat a year except class 7th. In an ISS school you only repeat a year under extreme circumstances.

It is definitely different here in Niedersachsen. A friend of mine has kids in 1st, 2nd and 4th grade. All of them were suggested to go to a year of pre-school before starting first grade and one of them was suggested to repeat 2nd grade as well.

[Krieg]

P.S. And to make things more complicated, the Berlin Schulamt is pushing for changes and if they are approved the mandatory time will be defined in a different way, the kid will have to finish class 10th WITH its graduation certificate AND have already applied for an Ausbilding. If the kid has no Ausbildung aligned then one more year of school will be required, which is strange, because one more year will mean starting an Abitur and potentially abandon it half way through.

They probably just want them doing something. As for whether that extra year would be starting an abitur, that kind of depends on what school they were in. If it was hauptschule, they can use the extra year to try for a realschule certificate which could improve their chances on getting the apprentice position they want.

Hauptschulen don’t exist since 2014 in the whole country.


In Berlin both Gymnasium and ISS have their MSA graduation on the 10th class.

[LeonG]

Hauptschulen don’t exist since 2014 in the whole country.

They forgot to tell Niedersachsen. Still many Hauptschulen here.

[PandaMunich]

Hauptschulen don’t exist since 2014 in the whole country.

They forgot to tell Niedersachsen. Still many Hauptschulen here.

He meant Bundesland
Berlin is strange, in many ways.

[Krieg]

Hauptschulen don’t exist since 2014 in the whole country.

They forgot to tell Niedersachsen. Still many Hauptschulen here.

He meant Bundesland
Berlin is strange, in many ways.

It is not only in Berlin, several other states/cities do not have them anymore, In Berlin they were integrated with the Realschule in 2010 and they are called ISS (Integrierte Sekundar Schule).

https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/schulpol ... s-100.html

[kiplette]

Ours have been renamed 'Oberschulen' - whether that was Land wide (Niedersachsen) or just our area, I couldn't say (from what Leon says, not the whole Land), but I would have no expectation of it being country-wide - Schulsachen being Ländersachen, not Bundessachen.

And the renaming didn't involve actual change except that kids with other Empfelungen have the right to go to an Oberschule if they wish, as some of them do, bizarrely. Our Realschulen are still a separate thing, except for the one which became an Integrierte Gesamtschule. Which is different to the Kooperative Gesamtschule in the next town.

So confusing.

[kiplette]

ignore

[LeonG]

Ours have been renamed 'Oberschulen' - whether that was Land wide (Niedersachsen) or just our area, I couldn't say (from what Leon says, not the whole Land), but I would have no expectation of it being country-wide - Schulsachen being Ländersachen, not Bundessachen.

And the renaming didn't involve actual change except that kids with other Empfelungen have the right to go to an Oberschule if they wish, as some of them do, bizarrely. Our Realschulen are still a separate thing, except for the one which became an Integrierte Gesamtschule. Which is different to the Kooperative Gesamtschule in the next town.

I guess Hauptschule has become a dirty word for some people, maybe that's why, but where I live they are still called that. We have 5 in my Landkreis. I looked at some of their websites and it looks like they tend to offer a realschule graduation as well.

I think going down from your recommendation was always a possibility but a few years ago, many Bundesländer let the recommendation be more of a guidance allowing parents to take their kids up a school as well.