The question comes up in every family planning a longer trip: what happens with school? Not as a theoretical problem, but as a very concrete one with a deadline. At some point the school year begins, the teacher expects your child in class, and you’re sitting on a beach somewhere in Southeast Asia – or you’d like to be.
Pausing school for a world trip is possible in Germany, but it requires preparation, good communication and realistic expectations. Here’s what the process actually looks like.
Start Earlier Than You Think
The most common mistake: families start the school conversation far too late. Two or three months before departure isn’t enough. You need six to twelve months of lead time.
Why so long? Because the process often has several stages: first the conversation with the class teacher, then with the school leadership, then possibly a formal application to the school authority or education office. Between those stages there are waiting periods, revisions, possible appeals. And you want to be able to respond to a refusal without having already given notice on your flat and handed in your notice at work.
Starting early also signals respect. A school that hears about your plans with adequate notice can prepare, can discuss the educational concept with you, and can engage with the idea rather than feeling ambushed by a request two weeks before the school year begins.
The First Conversation: Come With Questions, Not Just a Request
Go to your first meeting with the class teacher or school leadership not with a completed plan that just needs approval, but with genuine questions:
“We’re considering a longer family trip. Are there precedents at this school? What would the school need to see to support a leave application? What are the most important factors for you?”
This approach has several advantages. You show that you respect the school’s perspective and aren’t treating the exemption as a formality. You get useful information about what actually matters here – which can vary significantly between schools. And you open a relationship that might be helpful throughout the process.
Come to this first conversation prepared. Know what duration you’re asking for. Have thought about how learning will continue on the road. Be ready to describe your approach specifically, not just vaguely.
The Formal Application: What Goes In It
A formal exemption application typically needs:
Your request in writing. Addressed to the school leadership, or directly to the responsible school authority depending on your federal state. Name the child, the planned duration and the reason for the trip.
A learning concept. This is usually the decisive element. What will your child learn while you’re travelling? Which subjects will be covered? What materials will you use? How will you document it? This doesn’t need to be a day-by-day lesson plan, but it should show genuine thought.
Supporting documents. Depending on your situation: confirmation of your remote work arrangement, any relevant family circumstances, information about the educational character of the destinations.
Contact details for ongoing communication. Schools often want to know they can reach you during the trip.
The learning concept is worth taking seriously. Not as a bureaucratic exercise, but as genuine planning. Families who’ve thought carefully about how their children will learn on the road – and who can articulate that – consistently fare better in these processes than those who treat it as a box to be ticked.
What “Learning on the Road” Can Look Like
When you present a learning concept, the school wants to know that formal learning will continue. Here are approaches that have worked for other families:
Workbook-based learning: German publishers produce year-level workbooks aligned to state curricula. These travel well, need no internet, and provide clear, structured content. Two to three hours of workbook work per day, well-documented, satisfies many schools’ requirements.
Online learning platforms: Platforms like Scoyo, Schlaukopf or similar provide curriculum-aligned content in digital form. These work where there’s internet access and provide their own documentation of progress.
Distance learning schools: There are German-language correspondence schools that offer full curricula with regular assignments and feedback. These are more expensive but provide the most robust paper trail and the closest approximation to formal schooling.
Portfolio documentation: Some families keep a learning portfolio – collecting work samples, documenting activities, photographing visits to historical sites and natural wonders. This more holistic approach can work, but it requires more confidence from the school and more discipline from the family to maintain it consistently.
A combination usually works best. Core subjects like maths and German get regular structured attention. Science, history, geography and other subjects are covered partly through workbooks and partly through what you encounter on the road.
If the Application Is Rejected
Not every application succeeds. If yours is rejected:
Ask for the specific reasons. Understanding why can help you address those points in an appeal or a revised application.
Request reconsideration at the school authority level. If the school leadership has refused, the next level is the responsible school authority (Schulamt or Schulbehörde). This takes time but is worth pursuing with a strong application.
Explore alternative routes. Some families plan around the school calendar rather than needing an extended exemption – using the full summer holiday plus a shorter period of officially granted leave at the beginning or end. This limits trip length but removes the exemption hurdle.
Consider repeating a school year. For some families, especially with younger children in less academically critical years, accepting a year repeat is a reasonable trade-off. This is a real decision with real consequences – not one to take lightly, but worth having the honest conversation about.
The Return: Don’t Neglect It
Planning the exemption and the learning on the road is important. Planning the return is equally important and often neglected.
Talk to the school before you leave about what will happen when you return. What documentation do they need? Will there be any kind of assessment? Is there a class test your child should be prepared for? What’s the plan for reintegrating socially?
Children returning from a long trip sometimes find it harder than expected to slot back into the school routine. Having talked to the school about this in advance – and having the school genuinely prepared for the return rather than treating your child as someone who needs to catch up on their own – makes a real difference.
The families who navigate the school question most successfully are those who treat schools as partners rather than obstacles. It takes more preparation, more patience and more communication. But it results in a trip that the whole family can embark on clearly, and a return that doesn’t feel like a crash landing.