School holidays are happy and exciting times for children. But for parents, balancing work and family life in the holidays is often a huge challenge. While students at LIPSCHULE enjoy 14 weeks of school holidays every school year, parents usually only have four to five weeks of holidays. This is a big difference, but LIPSCHULE is also open over the holidays to children who attend, with an offering tailored to their needs. Annett Romoht, Pedagogic Supervisor for Cycle 1, explains in an interview what exactly this involves.
Annett Romoht, what type of holiday care does LIPSCHULE offer?
At LIPSCHULE, we offer a total of eight weeks of holiday care for children aged between 3 and 12. This is spread out as follows: two weeks in the sports holidays, two weeks in the spring holidays, two weeks in the summer holidays and two weeks in the autumn holidays. The children are looked after between 8 am and 6 pm, we provide breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack, and usually go on trips.
How do the holidays at LIPSCHULE differ from normal school days?
Our childcare team is in charge of organising the entire day at LIPSCHULE during the holidays. Everyday school life takes a backseat. It is the holidays, after all, and the children deserve some time off from having to think about maths and the like. So the focus is on playing and fun. The children go to different playgrounds in the city, have exciting and relaxing experiences in the forest, at the park, in our school garden, which has a treehouse, and in the outdoor kitchen. They eat together and can play and be active for the whole day. What they want to do and what they need are taken into account when planning the holiday care.
In your experience, which families tend to use this offering most often?
They’re often families where both parents have demanding careers and can’t fall back on grandparents, siblings or other family members because they live abroad or are also still working. It also means they still have the possibility of spending some of the holidays together as a family. Because parents who take advantage of our holiday care don’t have to divide up their holiday allowance to look after their children separately.