Hi all,

New to the forum and also to Nyon/Vaud. We have just been to the secretariat to sign-up our 9 and 7 year old girls to the local public school. There seems to be 2 in the immediate catchment area "Tattes d'oie" and "Couchant".

Does anyone have experience of these two schools? Is there another school that would be better suited to the girls (who currently don't speak french)?

We are not too keen on the "Couchant" as it potentially means the girls would need to walk past a center for Asylum-seekers (those familiar with Nyon will know what I'm referring to) and the school is also next to the main road.

Any help/advice would be gratefully received.

Just wanted to add that Tattes d'oie is very close to Couchant, just at the other end of the same road. Also on the equally busy cross road that goes to the hospital, so if you are concerned about location it is more or less the same situation. As for the asylum people, I think there are ways to walk around that area if you are concerned, and presumably there is a pedi-bus or similar in which a group of kids walk together. I've seen asylum seekers in the area of Tattes d'oie as well. Furthermore, I believe the asylum seekers are only there for a limited amount of time, as the people around that area made a fuss and some compromise was reached with the city in which there time there is limited.

What on earth is wrong with asylum seekers? I used to work in an asylum centre and some of them have been through absolutely horrendous experiences.

The last thing they need is someone to castigate them because of the simple fact that they are asylum seekers. You are an immigrant. Shall we also avoid you?

It's not important to the original subject, really, but If you were aware (I assume you don't live next to this asylum center) a lot of the local population are upset because they openly sell drugs around where we live. Along with the drug-dealing comes occasional fighting and other behaviour inappropriate for a seven and nine year old. Would you want your children (do you have any?) to be walking past this two, three of four times a day? Hopefully this will be a non-issue as the 80 asylum seekers (all men btw) should be moved at the end of the month.

Thanks for your input, runningdeer

I have two children and live in Rolle. One is 4 and the other is 6.

We live a pretty sheltered life I suppose as I wasn't even aware that there was an asylum centre in Nyon.

Now that you have explained your rationale, I completely understand your concerns and a swift apology is winging its way towards you.

I would go for Tattes d'oie, since it is the regional centre for primaire, the admin and direction have impressed me, I spoke to a couple of teachers there, too. I also dealt with the school nurse that is the regional nurse for primaire, and she is great. I think in terms of quality, it will depend on a teacher more than anything, but if I had a choice and not much info, I would definitely go for Tattes.

Absolutely not necessary but thank you.

Thanks Musikchick.

Any other Nyon locals around?

There is a bunch of us around, fo sho, just put Nyon in the advanced search, and read up. Time we organized sumfin, innit, the weather has finally cleared up a bit. I still have a kite sitting here, no time for kites in the fall

Hi Brabus. Welcome and good luck, I'm sure your girls will be happpy wherever they end up, Nyon is cool. We lived there for around a month when we relocated. Summer was great with the fantastic open air pool! We are in Morges now, just down the road from you, we have a daughter aged 5 who attends the local school here. Drop us a line if you want to get together. We keep meaning to get together again with Music Chick, let's get it arranged!!

Hi the3musketeers and thank you.

We had a look at both schools today and prefer Tattes d'oie. Any tips/help on convincing the direction to allow our girls to go there?

Have they really given you the choice or the option to choose? Usually, it is you live at address X, thus your school is Y. There is not usually an option.

That being said, I know some people that have been successful in having their children go to other schools outside their cachement, even outside the canton, but there generally has to be a good reason, i.e. daycare provider/grandma lives two doors away from school Z, single parent with transport issues closer to another school, divorced parents and school closer to the other spouse, parent works at the school, etc... Not sure what could be applicable in your case.

Thanks again - the girls were sent for a French assessment at Couchant this morning and we also stopped by Tattes d'oie to have a look. We thought it much nicer and it is closer too.

From my understanding the "directrice" was going to decide where to send the girls depending on the level of French but we really prefer Tattes d'oie which is why I was wondering how we could convince them...

I am guessing a bit but assume they may only have one class of intensive french for non-french speakers (or one class at each respective level) at only one school and not the other, as they are both relatively small schools in close proximity. Thus, it would make sense that the directrice would put them in the school which could provide the best (or only) language instruction for their level. As such, you may not have much of a choice if the intensive french or integration classes are at Couchant and not Tattes d'oie, or vice versa. I would try to express your preference, everything else being equal, but if the curriculum/french classes are more suited to your children at one school and not the other, I would tend to follow this in spite of the location issue.

Hi,

From London and now living in Nyon!

Welcome to Switzerland!

Best

J

...this makes perfect sense of course. I guess we're looking for a balance, a best of both worlds. Will let you know how things turn out.

Hi Rugbylad and thanks for the welcome!

My 6 year old is in Tattes 'Oie sounds like we live very close to each other.

The Asylum seekers themselves are generally not the problem. It is only the ones that are openly selling drugs on the corners. Hopefully they will be gone soon, but we heard that last January when the center was kept open for another year. Let's hope end of January they finally move the remaining folks out of there.

I doubt Migros will want them there when the new shopping complex opens next Autumn. The fear is that the drugs gangs won't let go of the space even if the Asylum center is vacated. It is a shame to have to see the police turn up every so often to check for where the guys are hiding the drugs.

There are a couple of ways around these guys hang outs to get to the school.

No problems with the school at all he's in his second year there. Either school is good.

Note the Swiss school system goes slower than the UK school system. So it may seem like the kids are going backwards instead of forwards for a bit. However if they don't already know French it will be tough enough. Says that a lot of the kids there have so many different nationalities and languages it shouldn't be too hard.

Good luck

As some have mentioned, not all the asylum seekers are a problem. Many are doing their best to piece their (often times tragic) lives back together and assimilate. Regretfully, there is a portion of the asylum seeker population who resort to crime. The drug dealing problem in Nyon is bad and is growing worse every day. The Nyon shelter has been closed, and the residents have been moved to other areas (Begnins, Gland, etc), but this will not solve the problem. They are forced to leave the shelters during the day, and return to Nyon because it is a safe market to sell their drugs. The local police are not equipped to deal with this problem effectively. Similar to Lausanne and Geneva, Nyon needs a dedicated anti-drug squad to combat the problem.
We are a group of citizens and expats, neighbors and friends, parents and children, working to raise awareness about the problem of illegal drug dealing in Nyon. Please visit our blog at:

http://nyoncontrestupefiants.tumblr.com/