More Than Just Cramming for School

09/14/2023

What do Würzburg parents expect from all-day care for their children? A study at the University of Würzburg is investigating this question. The background to this is the introduction of the legal entitlement to all-day childcare from 2026.

Sport and exercise are just as important to Würzburg parents in childcare as learning for school. (Image: Peter Rau)

The results of the survey should help the city of Würzburg to better prepare for the upcoming legal entitlement. Somewhat surprisingly, learning in the afternoon is not the undisputed number one priority for families.

It is the first nationwide local authority study on expectations of all-day care for primary school children. A total of 1,154 parents completed a questionnaire to find out what is important to them about good all-day care. "This is a very reliable data basis, we have mapped all structural areas of the city," says study director Professor Heinz Reinders, Chair of Empirical Educational Research at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), explaining the study's approach.

He emphasises: "The results help us to plan the content of the offers. It's not just about the number of places required, but what families want in terms of qualitative educational programmes." A special highlight of the study is that not only parents who currently have a child in primary school were surveyed, but also those parents who will have one of their children at a primary school in Würzburg when the legal entitlement is introduced in 2026.

Sport and Exercise are Important to Parents

The results were quite surprising: "We often hear that doing homework is by far the most important thing for parents," explains Reinders. "In reality, however, there is not much of a gap; parents consider sport and exercise to be just as important as cramming for school". Both offers are on a par in terms of parents' expectations, so that, according to Reinders, there are clear indications of an educationally diverse offer.

"Families no longer see all-day care purely as a place to stay with lunch and homework time. They want their children to be able to experience a stimulating environment outside of the family". In addition to sport and exercise, this also includes artistic and creative activities, even if these are not quite as popular. In figures, it reads like this: 66 per cent of parents consider sport and exercise to be very important, and just as many emphasise the importance of homework time. 54 per cent can also well imagine artistic and creative stimulation for their children as part of afternoon care.

Greater Importance Due to Corona?

The Würzburg researchers had certainly expected parents to want more than just time to cram. However, Reinders was surprised by such a clear vote in favour of sports activities, for example: "We explain this with the coronavirus experience, when the children were at home a lot and had little exercise - that will have influenced the parents."

In addition, according to Reinders, many families work and don't always manage to get their children into club sports: "That's where cooperation between clubs and all-day programmes comes in," says Reinders, who has initiated such cooperation himself as a club chairman in an honorary capacity. Together with Heuchelhof primary school, his department and the sports club at Heuchelhof, a group focussing on physical activity for girls was founded two years ago as part of the open all-day sports programme (OGS).

Successful Sports OGS Model

"Every school year, 20 girls can take advantage of the programme, which offers a different sports activity every afternoon with experienced coaches," says the passionate football coach, explaining the concept. In the meantime, the waiting list at Heuchelhof alone has risen to 30 girls and other OGS locations are also interested in the model, meaning that the programme definitely needs to be expanded. "There is a lot of potential in the concept and, according to our study, the majority of Würzburg families obviously want it," the education researcher is certain.

The detailed results can be found in the recently published paper in the chair's publication series. The results are to be used in practice by the city of Würzburg and its responsible authorities, who have to gradually provide all-day places for primary school children by 2026. The results of the study will thus provide valuable information on how this all-day care can be organised in a pedagogically valuable way according to the wishes of families.

Publication

REINDERS, H & HOFMANN, D. (2023). Eltern-Erwartungen zur ganztägigen Betreuung im Grundschulalter. Eine kommunale Familienbefragung anlässlich des Ganztag-Rechtsanspruchs im Primarbereich ab 2026. Schriftenreihe Empirische Bildungsforschung, Band 38. Würzburg: Universität Würzburg. Link (in German).