My two boys started first grade this week, timetable on Thursday, go to school at 10:00 come home at 11:30 - talk about part time. I just find it difficult getting my head around the way schooling here works!

So that's why our Swiss colleagues always look half dead after their first day with us...!

They've probably never worked a full day in their lives...

That's a nightmare. How about moving to Zurich... ?

How do they expect women to have a career like this?

And that other guy today got flamed because he wanted to move to Switzerland with 2 wives!!

That's nothing - last year in 3rd grade, my son's Friday afternoon timetable was home at lunch from noon until 2.45pm, then back for 45mins to finish at 3.30pm!

Although I still prefer that to the timetable he's going to start next week, as a secondary school 5th grader: in every morning at 7.40am...

Surely this is for the 1st week.. normally they go to school from 8.30 to 12.00 in 1st grade in canton bern. And yes, this is partly why I can't find a proper job although it is now an obligation to accept any kids from 1st year in Kindergarden in Tageschule.

Nope - that is the timetable for the year, it is a mixed grade 1/2 class. Their sister in kindergarten is 08:30 - 11:30

Everyone talks about a block system and then they ignore it. I don't understand it. It's idiotic. Our kids need more schooling but the schools don't give it to them. Whose fault is it? The politicians (probably), the adminstration or the headmaster of the school?

Don't get yer nickers in a twist. This is NORMAL here!

Mothers stay at home until the child is about 12 years old, that is normal.

It is also normal to send the class home if the teacher is sick, with no explanation. There you are in the middle of an affair with the postman and in comes the little one saying he has no more school today.

When I lived in Canton Fribourg they discovered 3 weeks before school began they had too many children (Legal limit in Canton Freibourg is 27). Then they had a big rush around to find another teacher and rent a class room and extra furniture. Now isn't everybody registered from birth here, so why after 7 years do they suddenly discover they need another teacher?

You will in time get to know that this teacher has her washing day on Thursday, and she has to pop home at 12 to get the towels in the drier.

Don't worry. In a few years, they'll be doing a 35 hours a week at school or more.

Bloody foreigners.

That is so nuts! How do they squeeze the curriculum in? And with the Swiss Abitur and the end, how on earth do they make that all work? In four years your kids (theoretically) have to take the big mama test to see if and which high school they qualify for, and with school for 8seconds a day, what the heck? Absolutely nuts!

Women? career? This is Switzerland... The only option is private schools. And the majority of people here think that if you are a working mother it serves you right to pay a fortune for child care (because your family has two incomes)

In some cantons like Basel and Basel Land there is block time. 8-12 then 2 afternoons a week 2-4.

In more remote areas there is no block time. I know someone who lives out in the countryside and wanted blocktime (was a member of the SP party) they managed to get the initiative through and then apparently all the mothers voted against it

Swiss school hours is the one, single, biggest aspect I will never "get used to" or "see the point in" living here. Designed to suit an agricultural society of extended families from a bygone era, perpetuated by areas of society keen to maintain the status quo, keep women chained to the kitchen sink and keep the unemployment and tax bills down.

Only hope the next generation has it easier!!

Don't know about the city, but I can tell you that in BL, the timetables vary considerably. Usually my kids need to be at school at 7:30, but sometimes later. They're usually out from 12 to 13:45, but sometimes earlier, sometimes later.

Is this the age a kid can be home alone here?

Anyways, I'm afraid this is the main reason why we are considering leaving the country...which is a shame as my kids are quite happy here.

Totally agree with that - the random hours, home for lunch, no after school care/activities drives me absolutely up the wall. And as Olympe says - this is basically the only thing likely to drive us away from Switzerland too which would be very sad.

I'm slightly lucky in that I work part time and am also able to work from home sometimes so I can manage some weirdo hours, but even so, I have to have some kind of schedule. And what about all those women who work in shops and at the coop and in regular office jobs? Surely there are enough of us around that this ought to be different.....

I do think it is changing here, but it probably won't change in time for me and my kids.

Just imagine how entertaining it is for a single mom huh?

When I first arrived here, with a second grader, I thought I was allucinating - back to the '50ies, if not to the previous century. To add insult to injury, I found that the primary school system was sub-par; poor teaching, hardly qualified teachers (German? forget it... question asked? not answered... methodology? confused... understanding of the need of children? none).
Eventually it got better, in particular I found that since the 7th grade, the teachers are professional and sometimes even passionate, and while starting at 7h35 every morning is hard, it also helps to have a full day of work.

But it is a long way....

Are you living in the city of Bern or in a village? The City already has some 20 Tagesschulen and most of the more densely populated areas have one as well. As the Kanton forced all the villages (with sufficient demand) to offer a Tagesschule, some 69 additional ones were opened this year.

Full day being from when the parents drop their kids off before school starts and picks them up well after from "late care" ?

Poor little buggers hardly see their parents .

Which curriculum? The Swiss curricululum? Into the Swiss timetable?

No idea.