Children in Westerbork had to go to school, just as at home. The youngest children were cared for in a daycare center. The slightly older children went to kindergarten, and for the older children from 6 - 14 years old there was compulsory education. For orphans there was a special orphanage with a well-equipped baby and toddler room.  Even though the children often had only a few days to live, they received report cards, written in German, at the end of the school year.  Not only did the children not escape deportation, neither did their teachers and their counselors. The reason that lessons sometimes had to be canceled is because it sometimes tooktime to find replacement teachers.