I am trying to educate myself about schools in Switzerland, but haven't been able to answer some basic questions or I have stumbled upon sites that are not in English, so I am lost.

I am a teacher in the US and am going to be traveling to see some Swiss schools this summer. I am trying to gain as much knowledge as possible.

I was wondering if Swiss school systems have a bus system or if all the children walk to school?

What are the typical hours? I saw some say 8-11ish plus one afternoon session week.

Is is a year round system? I saw that each year begins in August.

Do they have someone equivalent to a principal?

How do they handle children who attend their schools but do not speak the local language?

If you have any other search suggestions, please let me know. I have been lurking to find the answers, but some have eluded me still. If I am asking in the wrong place, I sincerely apologize.

My kids haven't started school yet, so I am not the most competent person to answer your questions, but I am sure you'll get a lot of help here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expat-...n-Switzerland/

Hello,
I live in the Italian part of Switzerland. I can give you some information about my kids public education here. I can only give information about Kindergarten and Elementary school since my kids are 8 and 5 years old. I'm not sure if all of Switzerland's public schools are on the same schedule or structured the same.

For clarification: Kindergarten is called Asilo and starts at age 3. It is not required except for the last year. Most parents start their kids at age 3. Elementary starts at age 6. They go by birth year here and not by a cutoff date in the middle or end of the year. (When we lived in CA, the cutoff date for starting Kindergarten was age 5 by Dec 2.)

Some of what I will tell you may vary within the canton (state) of Ticino where we live.
I have not seen schools buses dropping off kids at either of my kids schools. The majority walk or are dropped off by parents. His school is right across the street from us and then there is another elementary school just down the road (1/4 - 1/2 mile away). Then, there is another school about 1/2 to 1 mile away from this one but that is considered another district. We live in Lugano, but in a small area/suburb (Pregassona to be exact) which is still considered Lugano. I am not sure the population of our little community or the number of students in his school.
I can't speak for most public schools in Ticino, but from what I have heard most start between 8 and 9 in the morning. At my son's elementary school, the first school bell rings at 8am. The kids have 15 minutes to arrive to school (8:15am). My son is finished at 11:30. He comes home for lunch since there is no cafeteria at the school. He returns to school at 1:30. School officially finishes at 4:15pm. This is the schedule M,T,TH,F. Wednesdays are half days (8am-11:30am). No Saturday school.

My daughter's Asilo starts at 8:30 am (they have until 9am to arrive). She stays all day (even lunch) until 3:30pm. She is in her last year and is required to stay all day. The 1st and 2nd year students have the option of leaving at 11:30 am or 1pm or they can stay all day. This is the schedule for M,T,TH,F and Wednesdays are half days (8:30am - 11:30am)
No year round school here. They have 10 weeks off in the summer. School here starts the first week in September and ends in late June (the 20th this year). Both the Asilo and Elementary school have the same holidays. The Asilo here staggers the kids entrance at the beginning of the year. So over a span of a week, a couple of children enter the school each day until all children arrive the second week of school. I think this helps the newbie's.
Yes there is a principal or director.
We arrived in July of 2006. My kids did not speak a word of Italian. They learned by total immersion.

Asilo: My daughter has learned from just being at school. There was no Italian as a Second Language course. Her teacher does not speak english. She is now very fluent! (Lucky her. I'm still learning.)

Elementary: My son started first grade here. His teacher only spoke a handful of english words. He also has learned from total immersion. He had help for 1 hour, 1 day a week with a teacher who practically worked with naming objects in Italian.

I feel lucky because after 2 months, both my kids were trying to communicate in Italian. From there, they just excelled. I know of other kids who struggled a lot more.

One more thing, in the Asilo, the kids have the same teacher for the entire Asilo years. In Elementary, my son is in second grade now and has the same teacher. I believe he could have her again next year. Like Asilo he has the same classmates as last year.

I hope this helps. If you need more information or clarification, just let me know!
Joslyn

I can give you some basic answers to those questions, based on my childrens schooling here in the local swiss schools in Kanton Zurich)

1 Most children do walk to school as the kids are usually placed in a school that's within walking distance from their home. This is certainly true for kids going to KG, primary school and then middle school. After they've completed those they will have to travel to their new school, usually by public transport.

2 Swiss school hours......what can I say. They change from year to year for the students, however they are better now that they have bought in the block hours. Broadly speaking they they start at 8.20 - 11.55 then 13.40 - 15.20 However.... when the child gets to 4th class they will then start to have the odd lesson that starts at 7.20 and they may have a class that finishes at 16.15 (this is primary school) Somedays they may finish at 11.00 and sometimes they may not return to school after lunch until 14.30 !!!!! When I first came here, it took me ages to get my head around their schedules. But you get the timetable for their school year, and there is usually no change to it for that school year.

3 School year.....(eg) Start around the 20th August
October 6th - 18th Autumn hols
December 22nd - 3rd Jan Christmas hols
February 16th - 28th Ski holidays
April 10th - 25th Easter & Spring hols
July 13th - 15th August Sommer hols

of course there are plenty of "day holidays" also

The prinicipal is called a Schulleiter he has the similar role.

There are special classes given to teach German for children who have a different mother tongue. The amount of lessons they recieve will vary from school to school, gemeinde to gemeinde.

Hope this has helped a little.......I'm sure you'll get lots more answers.

Catherine

Thank you for the information so far. Anything others can add is greatly appreciated as well.

I have thought of some other questions while reading.

Are there ESE programs there? Do they offer services to kids with learning disabilities?

Are the teachers primarily female like in the US?

What would be a typical class size?

I read that the children go home for lunch and then go back to school? Is that true for all Swiss schools?

Thank you in advance. I appreciate your input?

Hello Teach! You wil better find out the right info depending on the area that you are gooing to live in. For example note that Joselyn was able to send her daughter to Kindergarden with 3 years old. I live in Kanton Zurich and I won't be able to send my son to Kindergarden untill he is 4.5 . The cut off is April. My neighbor's son was in first grade with 7 years old.
Remember!!!! German is not as easy as Italian or French, so it will be a little more difficult at the beggining. Kids learn fast. A friend of mine brought her daughter from Venezuela and she had to go to German clases for one year before she went to the regular school, but she was already 14 years old.
Good luck and have a great day!
I hope Uncle Max and Mark see your thread because they know almost everything!