I wouldn't over-analyze and worry too much. 7 is still a good age to quickly assimilate and learn the language quickly.

A year or more later then you may have more significant problems, but 7 is a good age.

I have had a situation where the local school could not offer sifficient tuition in German as a foreign language. So I had to make an arrangement with a nearby Gemeinde and one Gemeinde pays the other the "school fees".
So yes, there are exceptions, but these are rare and you need contacts and to know your way around the system.

can you guide if there is an integration school in gabestof or somewhere near where my daughter would be able to attend. And if not then where is the nearest place where there is an integration school that she might be ale to attend.

I know i dont have a choice of which local school i want to attend but I am sure that some schools have better experience in handling expat children better than others as the influx of expatriates is more in some places more than others.
So i just wanted to rent a house somewhere where they are more aware of the problems (like language) what expatriate children face.

What is an "integration school" exactly? Is it a separate school from the local one? Most of us here who left comments are from the same canton and tried to assure you theres a big chance its almost the same all over. The best integration will be the local school itself and then they will give your child "Deutsch as 2nd language" subject twice a week. Which schools are better? that might be subjective, so maybe its time to check the websites of each gemeinde(village) that you are interested in for more details and contact them for availability. They all have their websites. example http://www.schule-untersiggenthal.ch/index.php?id=209

Things are looking much more clearer now. Hopefully we will be pulling things through once we arrive there.

Sorry for the confusion, I meant "integration model" as mainstreaming kids with disabilities wherever possible. Gebenstorf has a kleinklasse, some other villages mainstream. Not sure if it matters to the OP. Integration class (RIK) is offered to the teenagers, the 7 year old would get help from the DaZ teacher at the primary school for at least 2 years (not sure if it goes longer). Every village around Baden has plenty of experience with foreign kids.
Some of the smaller villages have combined classes (one teacher has a class of 3-4-5th graders, or 1-2nd graders). You could ask the school secretary how are they organized. Once again, not sure if you would care one way or another, but it seemed strange to us at first. It worked fine, but I would prefer a regular, not combined class if there was a choice.
If you are big on music, the options in a small village may be limited. The music school in Baden sends a particular piano teacher, for example, to your village. The village then pays half the cost of lessons. Our teacher was awful, and ds quit piano after a while. There are other options, but music is generally more accessible in Baden.
There are pros and cons re: Baden vs village. We love ours, but I could see that for another family the choice could be different.

Places with a large proportion of non mother tongue German generally offer separate integration classes .. like in Basel Stadt.

But I'm not sure why you equate this with a better model for integration. Indeed, it can be seen by the child as segregation.

My son has been the only non native German speaker in his year (ok there are only 12 in his year so its not a huge school) since he started. As a result, he has benefited hugely from the one to one separate sessions with his "DaZ" teacher (Deutsch als Zweitersprache) and she has tailored the 4 years of his one on one sessions with her to his exact needs. Once a week she used to come into the classroom as well to sit with him, but let this drop after 2 years as it was not needed.

This might not be the specialised high input integration class, but I cannot fault it.

My kids started school in October in Baden (2nd and 4th class). They have 6 German lessons a week, they spend the rest of the time with the others in the classroom. Teachers are helpful and most of the classmates are nice to them, no problems so far.

Since the housing is quite difficult to find in Baden ( the kind we are looking for) we would be initially starting in gabenstof, so my children might be going to the local school in gabenstof, by reading the comments of everyone on this forum , i am now quite satisfied that any school your child might be attanding will initially help your child to settle down and would hopefully understand that your child is coming form a different environment and culture and it takes themt o settle in and they require more help.

HI Shafaq,

I will be following your footprints.... Well, what I mean is, right now I am in Dubai, got two daughters, one 7 yrs. and other 3 yrs. Moving to Switzerland in probably June 2012. And exactly like you, most concerned about education of elder daughter.

I am in fact a bit more confused as I am yet not able to decide whether I should send her to german language based state run schools or international one. If I send her to state schools, I am not sure if she will be able to manage and understand german. Also right now she is in grade 2 and will be in grade 3 in month of April 2012. I am not sure if they will put her in grade 3 or even 2 in State schools there?

Any word of advice is highly appriciated or at least would like to keep in touch....

Hi
we have already got our schools sorted as well as the house and everything.I am sending you my UAE cell number in your personal messege please call me and we can guide you through as much as we can to the best of our capability. plus we leave in march and my daughter joins a state school on 23rd of April ISA so will be able to guide you through our experience as well.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. You are not even here yet, your daughter has not even started school and you already consider yourself to be in a position to offer others advice. And this would be based on what exactly, experience????

Gotta love the blind leading the blind.....

Been there twice already since my last enquiry on the forum Have visited the schools and nurseries , the house etc so as a newbie I am quite sure what we are doing plus the relocator agent that our company has booked for us has helped us get through everything smoothly. She is still sorting our Internet connections, phones, cables etc.

Much as I tried I was unable to come up with an adequate response to this post, which surely qualifies for a nomination as "Post of the Month".

I think that it is very good of the OP to offer his experience to the other poster in Dubai. When you are sitting outside of Switzerland trying to understand what to do and where to start, any assistance is helpful.

what can I say?

Maybe Shafaq should just provide the name of his relocation agent that his company provided to him to help him.

So you have done nothing on your own, have you?

i didnt know trying to offer help on this forum to anyone who approaches you can have such an impact on people that they start getting personal. A person asked for advise and I gave her some, ( to the best of my knowledge) if you have something better to guide her with you go ahead too rather than critisising me for no reason.