"Most private schools (I'm not talking about the International Schools here) pick up the kids that for some reason are failing in the state system. Such schools and their pupils thus have the stigma of rich parents trying to help failing kids by throwing money at them. Before volunatrily considering sending your kids to such a school, you should ask yourself if this is the message you want to put out and the stigma you want to place on your kids."[/quote]

I work at a private school in ZH and can assure you that this is not the case! Most of our kids start in kindergarten and are most definitely not failing! Not all the parents are 'rich' either and they are certainly not stigmatised for attending our school

Back to original thread - I would recommend the swiss state school route, for all the reasons others have already mentioned. We have been very happy with it so far. However, our daughter was very young when we arrived, so went through kindergarten and is now in 1st year primary. I can't comment on how it is for non-german speakers who are already heading towarsd or in secondary school.
Good luck with the decision making process