Carrier information Kitas

What does your child expect from a daycare center?

It certainly expects many playmates with whom it can explore and discover the world together. We want to offer your child these spaces for the development of all senses. We, the socio-educational professionals in the municipal day care centers, are guided by the following basic principles:

Children educate themselves from birth

Children build their own world view with dedication from the very beginning! This can only be understood by adults "at eye level" with the child, through observation and perception of the child, supported by respect for the child's achievements.

Children need trust and bonding

We see ourselves as trust and bonding persons for your child, enabling educational processes for your child, supporting it in the process and also challenging it with new questions. For us, this already begins in an intensive settling-in phase, which should also be accompanied by the parents. We also want to support education with the design of the rooms, the time and the materials for the child. But education also means teaching your child topics, values and rules that are important to us adults. And it also means answering children's questions in dialogue.

Long live the difference!

In Swabian we say: "There are sotte and sotte". This means: "There are such and others".

We value individual, gender, social and cultural differences, talents and passions. We respect them as an important breeding ground for "learning to learn" from an early age and for our intercultural city.

Joint educational partnership for the child

We want to build up an educational partnership with you as parents already in the settling-in phase of your child in the daycare center. We want to regularly report back to you our impressions of your child's development. We want to involve you and the parents' council in the conceptual process of the daycare. We want to support your family life by letting you use the rooms of the daycare center, e.g. for family celebrations, for a small fee.

Civic engagement in the daycare center

173 Stuttgart residents are taking part in the "Reading mentors" campaign, regularly reading and telling stories in city daycare centers. Interested parties can contact  laura.trianninistuttgartde or  infoleseohren-aufgeklapptde by email.
Anyone interested in volunteering in the educational areas of "scientific experimentation", "music", "movement", "mathematics" and "mechanics and construction" can contact  johanna.duemmelstuttgartde and  nadja.barockestuttgartde.

Einstein in the daycare center

Between 2003 and 2005, eight municipal daycare centers tested new ways of supporting children in their education and development - accompanied by the Berlin-based "infans" institute. In the meantime, all of our more than 180 municipal daycare centers have embarked on the path with children under the age of 6. For more information, go to  Einstein in der Kita.

Holistic language support

129 children with a physical and/or mental disability are currently cared for close to home in the municipal daycare centers with an integrative concept and accompanied in their educational processes.

In order to be able to meet our quality objectives, the socio-educational specialists can obtain further qualifications within the framework of a first-class further training program and receive advice from practice consultants

Fire safety education

Hardly anything fascinates children more than dealing with fire. Whether boy or girl, for most there is nothing more exciting than a sparkler spraying sparks, a flared match or a brightly blazing campfire. But what starts out as creative play can quickly turn into a fire hazard for little explorers. Good fire safety education is therefore important even for young children.

Members of the volunteer fire department teach children

It is in the nature of things that the experts from the fire departments come into play at this point. After all, no one can teach children how to handle fire responsibly better than they can. Since 2003, men and women from Stuttgart's volunteer fire departments have been training in their spare time to become experts in fire safety education. In a project consisting of several modules, they then pass on their knowledge to groups in daycare centers.

What began as an offer in a few city districts has now become an almost nationwide network. Daycare centers that want to include fire safety in their programs therefore have a good chance of receiving support from a fire department expert.

At the end of each fire safety project, the kids involved can now look forward to a coloring and craft booklet created especially for Stuttgart. Entitled "Help, it's burning!", it offers plenty of opportunities to delve deeper into the topic. Children, educators and parents are sure to be fired up by the many ideas and suggestions.

For more information, visit the  fire safety education (opens in a new tab) website.

Parents' council for kindergarten

The Parents' Council at the Kindergarten is the representative body of the parents of the children admitted to the Kindergarten. Parents in the sense of these guidelines are also legal guardians who are entitled to the care of the child's person instead of the parents. Further information can be found on the page of the  General Parents' Council of the municipal day care centers, after-school care centers and student houses in Stuttgart (GEB KiTa Stuttgart) (opens in a new tab) as well as on the page of the  Protestant General Parents' Council (opens in a new tab).

Formation of the parents' council

The parents of the children admitted to the kindergarten will be convened by the provider after the beginning of the kindergarten year (August 1 to July 31) to form the parents' council.

The Parents' Council consists of at least three members. The parents of each group elect one member from among their number. If there are fewer than three groups, all parents elect one or two additional members from among their number. One representative must be elected for each member of the Parents' Council. The election procedure is determined by the parents. The Parents' Council elects a chairperson and a deputy chairperson from among its members.

The term of office of the Parents' Council is usually one year. Until the election of the new Parents' Council, the current Parents' Council continues to conduct business. If a child of a member (deputy) of the Parents' Council leaves before the end of the term of office, the membership in the Parents' Council also ends with the departure.

The Parents' Council has, among other things, the task of supporting the educational work in the kindergarten and promoting cooperation between the kindergarten, the parents' home and the sponsor. Parents' councils can join together locally and supra-locally as well as nationwide to form parent councils.

Supply structure and closing times

The 10,081 municipal places in daycare centers in Stuttgart are distributed as follows (as of April 2021):

For the age range 0 to 6 years:
7868 full-day places and
1667 places with 6 hours of opening time.

For the age range 6 to 14 years:
546 after-school care places.

Additional school children are cared for in municipal student houses.

The municipal day care centers are closed four weeks a year.

Where little ones make it big".

The Protestant Church in Stuttgart provides care, education and upbringing for children in these daycare facilities on the basis of the Christian message.It maintains 269 groups in 119 facilities. Around 5400 children are cared for in these facilities.

Children need their own living space for their development

To develop their personal and social skills, they need a community that gives them a sense of security and safety. They need friendships and attention, rest and action. In addition, they need opportunities for their development that are appropriate to their age, stimulation for their creativity and imagination, and contact with their environment and nature. As independent personalities, the children should be encouraged in their independence, ability to work together, and decision-making skills. They should be able to develop freely.

Children need support in their religious development

Through songs, prayers, stories, games and the celebration of church and religious festivals, they are given the opportunity to encounter God's Word. This encounter must take up the everyday life of the children and offer a counterpart to their questions, joys and fears. Thus, this task includes respect for parents and children who belong to a different religion and an unprejudiced acquaintance with the differences.

The Protestant day care facilities are open to all children

Children and parents of different denominations, religions and nationalities experience a cooperative, enriching and peaceful coexistence. The work in the day care centers for children should also be part of the local community work. Day care facilities for children are a place where parents, children and staff meet. Here, the needs of children and their families can be perceived in their life situation. Through the kindergarten, there are points of contact with other areas of the community, a variety of contacts can be made and other offers can be taken advantage of.

With their day care facilities for children, the Catholic parishes and Catholic associations provide a diverse range of high-quality services for all families in their respective catchment areas.

The Catholic day care centers see themselves as an area of life in which children and families can have experiences of being accepted, of openness, tolerance and reliability, of orientation, of joy and of community on the background of a Christian value system. They are places where children of different social backgrounds, cultures, nationalities and religions live together, where mutual respect, tolerance and consideration are lived. They are places for individuality and solidarity where a responsible attitude towards oneself, one's neighbor and the environment is learned and lived. They are places of learning and wonder. Elementary contents of the Christian faith are made tangible by being integrated into a Christian community as well as in a child-friendly form in the everyday life of the day care center through stories, songs, prayers, games and the celebration of church festivals.

Education and upbringing in Catholic day care centers have the goal of personal responsibility and community skills, lead to independence and the ability to make decisions, and enable the joy of learning and living through free development opportunities. The child's self-education processes are perceived, supported, accompanied and stimulated by the educators. The living space of the day care center is designed in such a stimulating way that the children can make a variety of learning and educational experiences in their own experience and actions, and in the process constantly discover new things, experiment, research and ask questions in order to acquire the world bit by bit and to find their way around in it. Clear structures in the daily routine of the facility give the children security and orientation. In projects and individual offers, the children's interests and topics are taken up or new topics are introduced. Exploring the environment, excursions into nature, and cultural activities broaden the children's scope of experience. The Catholic day care centers achieve the best possible learning support for children by implementing a professional educational concept, such as the infans action concept or Early Excellence. Special emphasis is placed on language education.

In Catholic daycare centers, care is taken to address children holistically with body, mind, spirit and all senses. Their individual needs and interests are perceived and taken into account, and the further development of their cognitive, linguistic, motor, sensory, creative and social skills is encouraged and supported. The conviction that this can only succeed in a trusting and appreciative educational partnership between the mothers and fathers and the educators is the basis of the pedagogical understanding.

The care offered is based on the realities of the lives of children and families. The forms of operation are adapted to the needs within the framework of the available possibilities. The structures are therefore correspondingly differentiated and it is best to inquire about the respective opening hours and the age of admission at the individual facilities on site.

Almost all facilities care for children aged 2-6 years, many also offer care for children aged 0-3 years. The full-day facilities or children's houses offer a choice of full-day care and various forms of part-time care. Both can be combined. Opening hours are usually from 7 am to 5 pm.

Parent initiatives are daycare facilities organized by parents, which in Stuttgart are usually called parent-child groups. Parent-child groups organize the extra-familial care of their children themselves and design their educational and upbringing concepts on their own responsibility. The parents voluntarily assume responsibility as employers and are responsible for the staff, for organizational and administrative tasks and design the concept together with the pedagogical staff. Through self-administration and self-organization, the parents bear responsibility on the one hand, but on the other hand this also results in a variety of opportunities for co-determination and co-design.

Umbrella organization of Stuttgart parent-child groups

The Dachverband Stuttgarter Eltern-Kind-Gruppen e.V. supports this self-determined and democratic form of organization in which participation and close cooperation are practiced. The umbrella organization Stuttgart Parent-Child-Groups e.V. is the network, the representation of interests and the professional advice for sponsors, professionals and parents. Currently, 54 facilities are affiliated with the umbrella organization, offering more than 1400 places for children from 0-12 years of age.

The umbrella organization promotes the conceptual and organizational diversity of parent-child groups, which is reflected in the different profiles of the facilities.

To this end, it offers:

• Networking and support of the parent-child groups through exchange of experiences and topic-related cooperation.
• Positioning of the parent-child groups in the field of child day care facilities and in the professional public.
• Representation of the interests of parent-child groups through a strong presence in politics and the public.
• Promotion of quality through professional events, further training and practical advice.

Educational partnership in the parent-child group

The decision for a parent-child group is, from the point of view of the parents as well as from the point of view of the pedagogical staff, a conscious decision for an intensive educational partnership, in which the child is the center of attention.

A close and trusting cooperation between families and professionals is the basis for the education, upbringing and care of the children in the facility. Through the joint commitment of families and professionals, reliable and stable offers of childcare and family support are created in the parent-child groups.

Kinder in Stuttgart gGmbH is a provider of daycare centers in Stuttgart. In October 2015, it took over the management of the daycare centers of the association Kind e.V. Stuttgart. All daycare facilities of Kinder in Stuttgart gGmbH are located close to industrial areas, the university or business parks in Stuttgart. The gGmbH belongs to the Konzept-e network. This includes the other sponsors Konzept-e für Kindertagesstätten gGmbH, Kind und Beruf gGmbH and Konzept-e für Schulen gGmbH. Almost 40 daycare centers in southern Germany belong to the network.

Pedagogy and spatial concept

The element-i children's house concept developed by Konzept-e forms the content-related basis for the work in the children's houses of Kinder in Stuttgart gGmbH. Comprehensive pedagogical approaches and scientific knowledge about learning and the development of children play together. The three central building blocks of the concept are reflected in the name: individuals, interests and interaction. People form themselves individually in the confrontation with an environment that is interesting to them and in interaction with others. In various functional and thematic areas, the children decide what they want to play and also determine the duration themselves. The choice of play partner - same age, older or younger - is also left to the children. In this self-directed play, they learn particularly effectively.

The room concept is also based on the element-i Kinderhaus concept. Different functional areas (e.g. "building room", "studio", "crawling nest", "workshop", "movement room" or "laboratory") offer the children a diverse and stimulating environment. The central marketplace is the focal point of daily life. The educators' task is to observe the children sensitively and to gain insights into their developmental stage. In addition, they provide targeted stimuli to support the children in their educational process. For Kinder in Stuttgart gGmbH, qualified care is just as important as an age-appropriate educational program. All facilities are therefore supported by professional consultations, regular internal training and our quality management.

The Kolping-Kita gGmbH is a company of the Kolping-Bildungswerk Württemberg e.V.. Based on the principle of lifelong learning, the Kolping-Bildungswerk Württemberg e.V. has taken up and continuously expanded the field of early education in recent years. The Kolping-Kita gGmbH takes care of all Kolping-Kitas with its own department. This department benefits from many synergies with other areas of the Kolping-Bildungswerk Württemberg e.V.

All Kolping day care centers work according to the UN conventions on human rights, the education and orientation plan for Baden-Württemberg and according to the Kolping pedagogy. Kolping pedagogy finds its origin in the mission statement of the Kolping-Bildungswerk Württemberg e.V.. Adolph Kolping saw education as a "dynamic, never completed process, in which man makes a picture of the world in confrontation with his social environment".

In the transfer to today by Prof. Dr. mult. Fthenakis, this means that we work with the co-constructive approach in our daycare centers. This enables the children in interaction with the professionals and the other children to appropriate the world in many different ways, to share meanings with each other, to solve problems in many different ways and to exchange ideas and deepen their understanding of it together.

Specific house concepts

In pedagogy, space is considered the third educator. We take this into account with our specific house concepts. Every house, every facility has different spatial requirements. The house concepts are developed in order to optimally integrate the specifications, possibilities and strengths of the social space, the existing rooms, as well as the entire pedagogical team.

These house concepts, like the educational process, are never complete and are always in motion. This is intended so that we can adequately incorporate the current needs and interests of the children, because this is our ultimate goal.

"Help me to do it myself"

Maria Montessori, an Italian educator and physician, developed her basic ideas from observation of the child. She respects the child as a personality. Respect for the developmental ability and uniqueness of each child are the core of the pedagogical action.

The child finds room for its own decisions. In this way, they can develop their will and learn to think independently and act responsibly. It is allowed to follow its own need to learn and play. Because children don't just want to learn something, they want to learn something specific at a specific time. Independence and self-reliance according to the guiding principle "Help me to do it myself" are in the foreground.

In the children's house, the children find a prepared environment with the typicalMontessori materials such as the Pink Tower or the Brown Staircase. Children carefully assemble the individual parts and feel them with concentration. Concepts such as "big" and "small" are vividly experienced, and basic concepts of geometry are learned through play.

The teachers see themselves as the child's helpers. They are ready to give orientation, to offer the child a material and to withdraw at the appropriate moment so that the child's own activity can fully develop. The traditional Montessori material is not the only play offer in the day care center, so that there are no limits to the creativity and individual possibilities of the children.

For more information, please contact the day care centers that follow the Montessori pedagogy.

Together for your child

Studierendenwerk Stuttgart provides the social infrastructure for around 58,000 students in the Stuttgart university region. In order to support you as student parents in meeting your family responsibilities as well as the demands of your studies, Studierendenwerk Stuttgart currently operates eight daycare centers in Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg and Esslingen, in which a total of 135 all-day places are available.

Basis of our work

The basis of our work is the orientation plan for day care centers in Baden Württemberg - an educational plan for the elementary sector. It is the basis for an early, individual and gifted support of the children. In addition, our facilities are characterized by different profiles and concepts. Examples of focal points are: experiencing nature, diverse experiments or "movement and family". You are welcome to view the respective concepts of our facilities directly on site at any time. The common goal of all is to support and encourage the children in their development in the best possible way.

Design of the rooms

We design our deliberately smaller facilities with a lot of flair and a homey atmosphere so that the children feel secure and safe. We create rooms with educational and developmental areas that give children the opportunity to understand the world and gain experience - for example, with a garden that is close to nature or a movement room. The children are accompanied and encouraged by pedagogical specialists on their way to becoming independent and self-confident personalities.

Versatile offer with quality

In our facilities, the children experience a multicultural community in small groups. The qualified educators offer the children a varied daily routine with targeted offers, projects and varied free play - such as swimming, gymnastics or support in the mathematical or creative area.

The professional development of our pedagogical staff is very important to us. In this way, we ensure a continuously high quality of educational work on the one hand and the satisfaction of our employees on the other. Both together create a good climate in the daycare centers, from which children and parents also benefit.

Trustful cooperation

It is important to us that the children settle in gently and individually in the group as well as in the new environment. Therefore, it is important that you take about four weeks. Because: A good start is the beginning of a trusting cooperation. In our cooperation with parents, we place great value on a regular exchange of ideas. For this purpose, a parents' council evening is held twice a year at the Studierendenwerk.

Registration

Are you interested in a KiTa place in one of our facilities? Then you can register your child directly at the respective facility. To do this, please call the director and make an appointment to visit. She will then be happy to show you around the daycare center and answer any questions you may have.
A list of our eight daycare centers, contact information and details can be found on our website www.studierendenwerk-stuttgart.de.

Admission and subsidies

Our facilities primarily admit, care for, and support children of students. Children whose siblings already attend the respective daycare center, and especially children of single parents, also have priority. Students pay a reduced parental contribution. Free places in our Stuttgart facilities are made available to university staff or non-students. In the case of low family income, the City of Stuttgart will advise you on the possible partial or total assumption of childcare costs.

To make it possible to combine studying and having a child, the Studierendenwerk runs two daycare centers in Hohenheim. All children receive lunch. Great importance is attached to close cooperation with parents.

The daycare centers are closed on a maximum of 23 days per year. The closing days are based on the semester and school vacations. As a rule, the closing time in summer is 15 days. The remaining days are distributed over Christmas, Easter and individual bridge days.

The Waldorf nursery, cradle room, kinderstube

In the first years, attention is initially focused on building and nurturing a secure bond for the child and a good relationship between the educator and his or her parents. On this basis, the child gains the confidence to explore his body and the environment in play and to expand his possibilities for movement. We place special emphasis on the harmonious and stimulating design of our facilities as well as their outdoor areas, so that they meet the needs of the children and are conducive to their development. The daily routine is based on the children's sleeping and eating rhythms and is often different for individual children. The attitude of the teachers in the Waldorf day care centers is characterized by caution and attentiveness, respect for the personalities of the children and their parents, and loving attention. Educators in Waldorf nurseries have usually acquired an additional Waldorf qualification for working with children under the age of 3.

Imitative learning in the Waldorf kindergarten

The basic pedagogical principle is imitative learning, which develops individually through the loving, role-modeling activity of the educator. The areas and times for imitative cooperation and for the active participation of the children in the group's daily routine are very important to us. Because the aptitudes and abilities of the young child still develop completely in contact with people, because the child fully identifies with things and events, great care is taken in shaping its environment.

Basic ideas about education

Through the formative power of all environmental influences, communication and the shaping of relationships with parents gain a central importance that goes beyond the care of the individual child. In this way, the kindergarten acquires its social, cultural status within the comprehensive question of education.

The staff working in the kindergarten arrange the space for the child's play and imitative activity in such a way,

• that meaningful and manageable activities can be experienced and imitated by the child - thus intelligence and understanding are promoted in the context of experiencing and doing;
• that the children absorb a differentiated and cultivated language through stories and through performing games (for example, fairy tale games) - in this way, in the context of movement and gesture, experience and differentiated expression are developed through language as the basis for readiness to learn at school;
• that the child absorbs moral qualities into his or her experience and actions through the example of the educator - in this way, the child connects with the moral without it having a constricting effect as a rule and regulation from the outside;
• that the simple design of the play material stimulates the inner activity of the child's imagination and creative activity;
• that the child prepares and participates in the rhythmic repetition of the festivals of the annual cycle by singing, playing, in the round dance and in the room design, and finally celebrates them with the parents - in this way, concepts, values and healthy elements of the shaping of life are vivaciously inculcated in joyful activity;
• that the child is encouraged in its powers of experience and creation through artistic activities (simple painting and sculpture, singing, eurythmy, round dance, movement);
• that the child learns through free play, in cooperation with other children, to individually develop the abilities he or she has acquired (intelligence, imagination, experience, manual control, social behavior, etc.);
• that the child is awakened to the slowly becoming conscious feeling for his social environment, for the tensions and responsibilities within the group - and thus also within his social and family life situation - and learns to cope with them.

Cooperation with parents in the educational partnership

Is cultivated through regular parents' evenings, at which above all the child's spiritual-mental-bodily development, its musical and linguistic advancement, as well as questions of nutrition, children's illnesses, toys and so on are discussed.

An essential part of the general cultural task of the kindergarten is to discuss the meaning of fairy tales and stories and to establish new traditions for the Christian festivals of the year, from spiritual backgrounds and in connection with the natural processes of the seasons and human work. Regular developmental discussions and home visits serve to deepen the contact with the parents and to gain a comprehensive understanding of the child.

The group forms and opening hours

In the Stuttgart Waldorf day care centers there are crèche or cradle groups for children under 3 years of age, individual mixed-age family groups for children from 2 to 6 years of age and kindergarten groups from 3 to 6 years of age. The opening hours are between 6 and 10 hours depending on the facility or group.