Anyone have any experience with the public elementary school across the street from the Beaulieu convention center in Lausanne? It is called Bealieu.

My 5 year old started CIN 2 (kindergarten) on Tuesday and his first day was a disaster.

When I came to pick him up for lunch, he was no where to be found. None of the adults who were suppose to be watching the children on the playground knew what had happened to him. There was no supervision.

We finally found him 30 minutes later on a city street near by.

After lunch I brought him back to school, hoping things would get better.
But during recess another child bumped into him, he fell down and broke his arm. Now he is in a cast.

He has been in school for 3 years and we have never had any problems, now in a 6 hour time period, two major issues.

I am wondering if these kinds of things happen here or if this is just a freak thing.

I though Swiss schools were good but my initial experience has got me very concerned and I am thinking about maybe putting him in a school away from the center where it won't be so rough and tumble.

Any advice/comments will be much appreciated.

Wow! What a brutal introduction to the school! I don't have any personal experience with Beaulieu, but our son spent 5 mths at the local school in Pully last year, after moving him out of a private school. We had no issues with the local school. Son is 7 yo. I do think there is overall less supervision on a whole, even with the younger kids, than what we would expect in the US. We moved our son out of the private school because it was not a good fit for his learning delays. No reflection on the school itself.

Good luck with the school. What a stressful position in which to find yourself!

I'm sorry to hear he had such a rough start!

I know for a fact there is no supervision when school lets out. I've waited twice, at 2 different schools in Lausanne, with friends of my son because the mothers were running late (about 30 minutes). Poor kids were all alone because the teachers leave quickly for lunch as well. Once the bell rings, and the kids get let out, its everyone for themselves unfortunately.

If you really think there is a problem, you can always talk to the teacher, or telephone the etablissment directly. But it sounds to me like you might need to work your hours around the school more, and the broken arm was just a freak accident.

Thanks for your comments!

There is a Lausanne-Kids Yahoo group that you might want to join, or possibly the Swiss-Schooling Yahoo group, if you want to reach parents of children at that school.