mark4444 (asker) Apr 16, 2013:

Thanks for all your input.

Nicola Wood Apr 11, 2013:

@ -Andrew Thanks Andrew. I didn't post it as an answer as it was just a gut feeling and I was short of time to research it, but you have done that for me, so I'll post it now ;-)

Lancashireman Apr 11, 2013:

fixed-hours primary school Nicola should enter this as an answer:
"In Bremen this year (August 2000) the „fixed hours primary school“(Verlässliche Grundschule) came into being. Compulsory tuition is now combined with special instruction and leisure activities in the classroom. Children are more integrated and get more support, families (especially women) now have the guarantee that their children are looked after every day from
8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m."

Nicola Wood Apr 11, 2013:

Fixed hours rather than guaranteed supervision? I agree with the previous comments that there is no exact equivalent, because in England you already know that your child will be at school from the beginning of school usually around 8.50am until the end of the schoolday at around 3.30pm. Here in Austria and, I gather, in Germany that is not the case. In our case finishing time can be 11.25am , 12.20pm or 1.15pm and varies from day to day. This is what is vbeing addressed here, so that parents know that their children will be in school for a certain number of hours every day, but still onlý during the morning. I agree with the final comment made by LS Lewis that guaranteed supervision sounds strange and suggest fixed hours might be a better alternative.

L S Lewis Apr 11, 2013:

Hi Mark! I agree with Lis. You will not be able to find an acceptable 1-1 translation equivalent. In Germany, primary schools traditionally offered classes in the morning, and children went home for lunch (no afternoon classes). If classes were cancelled (e.g., due to teacher illness), children were also sent home, often without prior notice. Recently a new approach has been adopted (but not everywhere), so that pupils are supervised for the duration of the school day (usually from 8:00 to 12:00). Such supervision is not necessarily in the form of class instruction! I would omit reliable (it is redundanat anyway) and stick with "primary school with guaranteed supervision", even though it sounds strange (i.e., makes you wonder if there are some schools were supervision is not guaranteed and children run wild!)

Lis Liesicke Apr 11, 2013:

http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/countryreports/austria/r...
This site calls it a "reliable primary school", maybe you could use "reliable primary school with guaranteed supervision" or something along those lines

Lis Liesicke Apr 11, 2013:

Hi Mark
Your problem will be that there is probably not really an equivalent. A verlässliche Grundschule is a school that guarantees that children are in school, e.g. from 8:00 to 12:00, every day. In contrast our Grundschule has flexible hours, i.e. on Mondays school starts at 8:00, on Tuesdays at 9:30 etc.