Hi All,

I wish you all a very Happy and prosperous New Year 2007......

I am moving to Lausanne (from INDIA) by the middle of January 2007 with my family. My daughter is 5 years old and I need to admit her is an English Medium School in Lausanne. I have already visited the website of Lausanne International School but it seems to be very expensive for me.

I shall be highly obliged if anyone can suggest me some good english medium school in Lausanne (with website if possible) along with an idea of expenditure for admission in Class-I.

Thank you all.

With Warm Regards,
Arindam

At 5 years old your daughter will be too young to start school and will have to start in the Kindergarten. I would strongly suggest putting her directly in to the local kindergarten as children really do pick up the languages very quickly. That would also give you some time to look around for an alternative if that is what you really want.

International schools take the kids from three years old, there are quite a few Indian families in our local school May be worth considering?

I fully agree with this advise. My daughter started kindergarten in August last and 8 of the 17 kids in her class could not speak a word of German at the start and by now they are almost up to speed! I can't speak about other areas but where I live kids are offered additional classes to learn German. The 8 kids I'm talking about had extra lessons each week with a special teacher, to help them get up to speed.

My daughter was not one of the 8, she already speaks two dialects (Bern & Zurich), High German and English, so I can't say how easy it was for them to pick up German.

Regards,

Jim

I realise that International schools take kids from an earlier age but they are still following the Swiss curiculum and are therefore in kindergarten. As they don't really teach them anything in kindergarten I figured that it would be better to save money and have his daughter attend the local kindergarten while they figure out what is best for them. The kid will then have the benefit of meeting some other kids in the neighbourhood.

The international schools often come with a deposit that is non refundable in the first year and this could prove expensive if it turns out to be the wrong solution.

Thanks Mikey,

I really appreciate your views about admitting my daughter in a local school where she can keep her habit of going school as well as learning of a new language. But, I am seriously looking for a school in Lausanne which teaches english beside German / French.

I shall be grateful if you can suggest me some web site of local schools in Lausanne.

Cheers,
Arindam

Sorry, I'm the wrong person to ask as I live in Zürich. Maybe somebody else can help. A quick search on google for international schools in Lausanne brought up a few suggestions but I have no idea how good they are.