On May 18, 2020, the AGF held an online expert discussion on the quality of all-day child care and education at primary school age. The aim of the expert talk was to discuss quality aspects of all-day child care and education from a family perspective with representatives from science, practice and associations. The results will be included in a position paper of the AGF on this topic, which will be published before the summer break.
Against the background of the agreements of the coalition agreement of the Federal Government from 2018 on the expansion of all-day care for children of primary school age, the AGF had already held a conference on “Quality of all-day care for children of primary school age” in Berlin in October 2019 (see link below).
The current expert meeting was intended to deepen selected aspects of the conference and discuss key points of a planned AGF position paper on this topic.
Oggi Enderlein from the “Initiative for Big Children” and Prof. Dr. Falk Radisch from the University of Rostock were invited as speakers. They presented “Theses on the quality of all-day care in primary school age from the children’s point of view” as well as “Impulses for the current quality discussion on all-day child care”. Gerd Thomas, in his capacity as Chairman of FC Internationale Berlin and as an employee of the “RheinFlanke” sports-related youth welfare organisation, brought the perspectives of external cooperation partners of primary schools into the discussion. Ulrike Peschelt-Elflein and Christine Volland represented the views of the state AGFs of Hesse and Lower Saxony.
The following questions, among others, were discussed:
- What are the special developmental needs of children of primary school age?
- Which quality aspects are particularly important from a scientific point of view for the all-day care of primary school children?
- What potentials does the cooperation between sports clubs and schools or after-school care centres have for all-day care at primary school age?
- How is the discussion about the introduction of the legal right to all-day care in different German states being conducted?