🇩🇪 Berlin · Schools
Schooling and childcare in Berlin
Free state schools including bilingual state programmes, an unusually long six-year primary stage, and Kita places that are free of tuition but hard to get.
The thing people get wrongBerlin primary school runs to year six, not year four as in most of Germany, and the transition to Gymnasium happens two years later than parents from elsewhere in the country expect. Plan around Berlin's rules, not Germany's generally.
The state system in Berlin
Grundschule covers years one to six, after which children move to a Gymnasium or an Integrierte Sekundarschule; the ISS route also leads to the Abitur, over an extra year. Places at popular schools are allocated on catchment and criteria set by the school, with a lottery where demand exceeds supply. Children with no German go into a Willkommensklasse first and are moved into mainstream classes as their language allows.
- Einschulung is compulsory from age six, with registration the autumn before.
- Transition to secondary happens after year six in Berlin, with a Förderprognose from the primary school.
- Oversubscribed schools allocate a share of places by lottery.
Bilingual and international options
The Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin runs bilingual state programmes pairing German with one of several partner languages across a network of schools, and it is free — it is the most cost-effective bilingual education in the city and correspondingly competitive. There is also a long-standing German-American public bilingual school in the south-west, and a full private international sector with English, British and IB curricula. Private international schools apply in the winter for the following August and charge accordingly.
- SESB places are allocated with a share reserved for native speakers of the partner language.
- Private international schools require past school reports and usually an assessment.
- The German school year starts in August in Berlin, not September.
Kita and childcare
Berlin does not charge tuition for Kita places from age one; parents pay only a modest monthly food contribution. What you do need is a Kita-Gutschein, a voucher from the Jugendamt confirming your entitlement and the hours, which you then take to a Kita that has a place. The voucher is the easy part and the place is the hard part — start contacting Kitas six to twelve months before you need one.
- Apply for the Kita-Gutschein from the Jugendamt in your district, several months ahead.
- Tuition is free; the food contribution is a small fixed monthly amount.
- Kitas run their own waiting lists — the voucher does not reserve anything.
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