Education and development
Preschool education
You can find information in German about day nurseries, day care as well as children and family centres on the page Kinderbetreuung and in English on the pages Youth, Family and Community and Day Care Centres for Children .
Language mediation in the day nursery and afternoon childcare centre
All day nurseries and afternoon childcare centres can – irrespective of their funding body – claim free
- language and cultural mediators or
- language and integration Mediators
to aid understanding with parents and children with a migration background.
The following document in the German language contains an overview of languages, contacts, locations and other criteria, separated according to language and cultural mediators and language and integration mediators.
First language and second language
How do I help my child to learn German to a good standard?
The Department for Migration and Integration has published a guide for parents in order to support parents with and without a migration background so that they can better support their children in the acquisition of their parent’s language of origin and in the acquisition of the German language.
The author is the noted linguist Dr. Yvonne Adler.
The guide for parents is currently only available in the German language.
Scholastic education
Leaflets in several languages with information about migration and schools on the website sachsen.de can be found here.
In Saxony all children have the right and also an obligation to attend school – irrespective of their residency status.
The basis for the integration of schoolchildren with a migration background is the "Saxon conception for the Integration of Migrants" from 01.08.2000.
Essential measures for the promotion of integration are
- special educational advice
- preparatory classes in which German as a second language is taught
- the use of trained supervisory teachers
- lessons in the language of origin
Further information and the flyer "Welcome to the school. German as a second language for children and young people" in the following languages
- Arabic
- German
- English
- Greek
- Italian
- Romanian
- Russian
- Spanish
- Vietnamese
can be found on the page Deutsch als Zweitsprache und herkunftssprachlicher Unterricht (German as a second language and lessons in the language of origin).
Important contacts:
Special educational advice (Besondere Bildungsberatung)
Sächsische Bildungsagentur (Saxon Education Agency), Regional office Leipzig
Dr. Christine Mäkert
Coordinator for Migration / Integration
Postal address: Postfach 100653, 04006 Leipzig
Headquarters: Nonnenstraße 17 a, 04229 Leipzig
Telephone: 0341 4945 725
Fax: 0341 4945 614
Email: christine.maekert@sbal.smk.sachsen.de
Centre of Excellence Language Education (Kompetenzzentrum Sprachliche Bildung) in Leipzig
Mrs Katja Bluhm
Apollonia-von-Wiedebach-Schule
Arno-Nitzsche-Straße 7
04277 Leipzig
Telephone: 0341 30824 69 35
Email: katja.bluhm@wiedebachschule-leipzig.de
Afternoon childcare centres
Afternoon childcare centres are educational childcare institutions for children of school age up to Year 4 in the German education system.
You can find further information in German on the page Horte (afternoon childcare centres).
German as a second language classes for young people and young adults
At vocational schools there are specific preparatory classes with practical vocational aspects for migrants up to the age of 27.
They provide the linguistic basis for
- the transition to vocational grammar schools or technical colleges and / or
- the admission to vocational Training
In Leipzig these preparatory classes are incorporated at the Gutenbergschule .
Help for teachers and nursery school teachers
With the increased presence of migrants in society the proportion of children from families with experience of migration is also growing in the education sector - in day nurseries and schools.
This is also a big challenge for teachers and nursery school teachers in Leipzig.
The brochure "Migrant families from Arabic-Islamic influenced countries in Leipzig" (in German) deals with, amongst other issues,
- Traditions,
- Family structures,
- Educational principles and
- Behaviour and manners
of this relatively large group of immigrants and wants to support Leipzig’s teachers so that they can cope better with the new professional challenges.