Waldorf Extends the day for Children

To achieve this, I only worked part-time, forgoing money, a higher pension entitlement and a fast-track career. And we lived frugally as a family. Vacations, when we had them, were short. But back then it was more important to me that the children spent the afternoons with their siblings and me. Today, more and more parents want their children to be able to stay at school after school, some of them are dependent on it, single parents usually always are.

As of 2026, all parents who wish to do so will be able to have their child looked after at school after school. Even though Waldorf schools are not obliged to set up all-day care, a lot is happening on the ground at the moment and Waldorf education is being expanded. Because education is a matter for the federal states, there are different conditions for those working in all-day care in Germany. In the eastern German federal states, there is the after-school care center. It is defined as a place where only trained teachers are allowed to work. In the west, this is called all-day school (GTS) or all-day care, where in some federal states people without specialist training are also allowed to look after children.

Katrin Kühne describes the Flensburg Waldorf School, where teachers provide support with childcare and educators help in the classroom – multi-teams are active there. Diana Zapf-Deniz describes the after-school care center at the Freie Waldorfschule Greifswald as an example of best practice in eastern Germany. Sylvia Ramp reports on how all-day care must be organized in order to meet the many needs of children. Ines Stahl and Hanno Ritter are involved as spokespersons for professionals in all-day schools across Germany. They want more awareness and a say for teachers in schools. We also share other interesting stories from the Waldorf world. Heike Birk, a handicraft teacher, would like to see handicraft lessons in the lower school. Franz Glaw describes how the book of block lesson could evolve in the digital age. Laila Kirchner is a left-handed music teacher and is campaigning for the normalization of instruments for left-handers.

I wish you an enjoyable read in the changeable month of Launing, as April used to be called!