Lack of space and staff to support OGS: a special solution in Belek

Not all desires for a place in OGS can be fulfilled at Warstein Primary Schools. A special solution has now been created in Belek, where OGS children are also looked after at the club. What is the general situation in the city area?

Belek – Since the 2023/24 school year, which has now begun, the Billecker Center for Children and Youth has been a branch site of Westerberg School’s all-day school, explains meeting leader Jessica Zadash. The reason: OGS’s 55 children in the previous school year are now 77 this year — that would exceed the Westerberg School’s capacity. 22 of them are first-year students alone. That’s why 14 of them now use afternoon care at the Children and Youth Center in Horekamp. “Otherwise, the kids probably wouldn’t have gotten the OGS show at all,” Zadach explains. “So we found a good solution.”

OGS care is very similar to that at Westerberg School: homework support, free play, craft activities and collaboration every day from 11.45am to 3.45pm: “We have lunch with the children at Westerberg School and then walk them along the new bike path to the rendezvous.

Allocation is based on address

The distribution – eight first-year students attending OGS at Westerbergschule, 14 the Treff – was based on the title: “Those who live near the Treff come here too.”

So far, the new school year started a few weeks ago, and things are going well, says Zadach: “The meeting opens every day at 3 p.m., and the OGS kids stay until 3.45 p.m..” Then things get mixed up, but not everyone comes. At three o’clock in the afternoon exactly. “The meeting will be held temporarily for a year in a partial location, after which the needs will be inquired about again,” says Zadach.

It’s not a pure Warsteiner problem

She receives support from Asena Kraft, a Year of Appreciation teacher, and Carlos Buruncaja’s new teacher. He succeeds Michael Heinemann – the 27-year-old from Rothner who recently completed his year-long training at the Hurkamp Center for Children and Youth and has now begun studying social work in Paderborn. As a farewell, we were given a royal blue football shirt. “It was a very fun time and educational as well,” Michael Heinemann said.

Looking at the entire city area, Joseph Pepper, head of citizen services, explains that unfortunately not all of the OGS’s wishes can be met: “But it has different reasons.” There are still places at the Liobachul site in Suttrop for seven children on the waiting list – “but experience shows there is still fluctuation.” At the main Liobachul site in Warstein, there are up to 19 people on the waiting list: “We still have room for ten children, but in this case there is a shortage of staff.” According to Bieber, the topic is “challenging. But it’s not just a Warstein problem.