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| thought i heard that Lycée was moving to the town of Maur in the near future? Not far off but may be a consideration where commuting is a factor.
We moved to Zurich in Nov last year with our kids who are primary years. ICS, ZIS, Lycée and ISZN (Wallisellen) were on our list. The curriculum was a significant decision criteria for us given that at some point we will be returning to our home country and our kids will need to reintegrate back into the home schooling system. As a result, our focus was towards those schools with IB curriculums (International Baccalaureate) which we felt was the closest match to what our kids were currently used to. Lycée's curriculum is not IB but follows that of the French school system. ISZN and ICS (and ZIS I believe) follow the IB. We ended up with ISZN and ICS on our short list as ZIS is on the other side of Lake Zurich from where we chose to live. ICS has more familiar 'campus' look and feel to a north american school along with great facilities (separate computer, art, indoor gym, outdoor gym). ISZN is smaller but has a better student-to-teacher ratio. We ended up choosing ICS as we were fortunate to get a spot and felt that it was a better match for our kids; although ISZN would have been our second choice.
Probably the best way to evaluate and make a decision if you are able to do so is visit the schools first hand. The international schools here are all quite different from one another (overall culture, principals, styles, look and feel). Lastly, where schools have waiting lists, they typically are able to provide input on approximate wait times for open spots.
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Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, we lack time, so between my husband and I we've seen only ZIS, ISZN and Zug International. We like ICS, but the wait list is so long and it's tough getting time with them. However, our daughter is still on the ICS list and they are still considering her.
You say that each school has its own culture, style, look and feel, and styles of the principals. We actually did not consider ISZN because compared to the other schools, the facility just seemed really small and through other threads I've heard that there are some tensions between teachers and management, which can certainly affect the children and the quality of schooling they are receiving.
Can you comment on differences between ZIS and ICS as well as the Lycais (mostly about its facility)? Were you more or less impressed with ZIS' curriculum, quality of teachers and principal compared to ICS?