For almost 37,000 children in Berlin, starting school marks the beginning of a new phase in their lives.
© dpa
A few days after the start of the new school year, 36,800 children will start school in Berlin. According to the education authorities, this is slightly fewer than in previous years, but the decline is only marginal.
On Saturday, the first-year pupils and their families will attend the school enrolment ceremony, and lessons will begin on Monday. Many children receive gifts from their parents and relatives on their first day of school, often in the form of sweet treats.
Many of the first-graders have already had a chance to get a taste of school life in recent days or weeks. Schools and after-school care centres offered orientation programmes, some of which parents were able to attend. In many cases, the children already know their class teacher. A total of around 408,000 pupils are attending general education schools in Berlin in the new school year, which began on 8 September. This figure is once again a good 4,000 higher than in 2024, when it exceeded the 400,000 mark for the first time in 25 years.