Moving to Berlin in August - advice needed x

[Swebb]

Hi, My husband has been offered a job in Dahlewiz (South of Berlin) which he is due to start in August. Very excited about the move but also daunted by the prospect of settling there with our two daughters (2y & 4y). Would appreciate advice on kindergartens (German/English/Bilingual)? Areas to live in? Thank you

Hi. Check out toytowngermany.com
This is a website for English speaking expats in Germany. I'm sure they will be able to give some advice and be familiar with what you are undertaking.

I have experience of living in Prague and depended on a good expat website, so I hope this will help you.

Best of luck with your move :o)

Thank you Debina. Will take a look this evening. :-)

Try using google a bit. It appears there is a single kindergarten in Dahlewitz, but there are more in the municipality of Blankenfelde-Mahlow, of which Dahlewitz is part. You can see the boundaries of the municipality by googling the name.

www.blankenfelde-mahlow.de/index.phtml?La=1&sNavID=1631.124&object=tx%7C1631.1624.1&kat=&kuo=2&sub=0

Here is a map showing where Dahlewitz is in relation to Berlin. It's 1 stop from the end of the SBahn network which ends in Blankenfelde stop.

images.vbb.de/assets/downloads/file/11065.pdf

Here is the map showing the SBahn, UBahn lines in Berlin, you can see Blankenfelde in the south.

www.s-bahn-berlin.de/pdf/VBB-Liniennetz.pdf

Ooh I'm moving there too!
Kindergartens have long waiting lists and generally don't seem to take new kids except at the start of the new school year in August. Could you go on a scouting trip now to visit some? And phone some up to try to arrange to visit (we struggled to get a response though - but that was in November).
I think there was a useful website - kita.de maybe? I can check later and let you know.

Thank you all.
We are thinking about living in a neighbourhood to the South of Berlin so my husband can drive 30mins or so to work in Dahlewitz. Just hard to know where to start looking - find a kindergarten that fits / find a neighbourhood that is family friendly but still feels like 'real Berlin'?

AndMiffyWentToSleep - when and where are you moving? How old are your children? Definitely feeling the need for a scouting trip asap!

How about starting near to work?
Look at the train lines into Dahlewitz, they go north, south, east and west.
The zones marked A and B on the Berlin and surrounds public transport map is roughly greater Berlin and its 12 boroughs. The nearest borough of Berlin to Dahlewitz is Tempelhof-Schoeneberg.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempelhof-Sch%C3%B6neberg

We're moving in the summer to Charlottenberg. My DS is 16mths.
Could you find somewhere temporary to stay whilst you get set up?
This link may have some helpful information about childcare:
www.berlin.de/imperia/md/content/sen-familie/kindertagesbetreuung/elterninfo_englisch.pdf?start&ts=1241446142&file=elterninfo_englisch.pdf

Sorry I can't help more with regards to neighbourhoods.

That's an excellent link. I don't know a great deal about German kindergarten placements (2 to 6 years), but I remember previous posters saying the ?free places available to the 3 years upwards are extremely difficult to find in Berlin.

Berlin is its own "land". It's separate to Brandenburg land where Dahlewitz is situated. Berlin is surrounded by Brandenburg. It's worth googling so you can see the geography. It's possible that in Brandenburg, it's easier to get kindergarten places, with less population pressure.

You really need someone to come on here who is an expert on early childhood education in Brandenburg and Berlin.

Berlin is BRILLiant I am very

I don't know the best places - I was there about 10 years ago. It's a wonderful, exciting city. Ace for children, culture, all sorts of things.

Best of luck.

If you are looking for an English-speaking Kindergarten in the south of Berlin, I can highly recommend the Montessori Preschool, in Hüttenweg, Dahlem. Both my dcs have been there - ds is still there.

We have some first hand experience of bilingual Kindergärten in the south of Berlin and this one is fantastic. It is really homely and caring and - unlike in other bilingual/English speaking Kita´s - there is no teacher turnover. If you do end up living in Brandenburg, there are a couple of children whose parents drive their children to the preschool from different areas in Brandenburg because they haven´t found another English-speaking nursery elsewhere which offers this quality of experience for the child.

That would be my tip...

www.montessori-preschool-berlin.de

By the way, due to international families moving on due to the parent´s work, the Montessori preschool is usually not fixed on taking children only in August. They sometimes have places coming free at different times of year. But it seems like you need places in August anyway...

If you´ve thought about whether you want to live in or around Dahlewitz or in Berlin itself, you could pm me with questions about particular areas in south Berlin. I´m afraid I don´t know Dahlewitz or the surrounding area particularly.