Hi! We're moving to Basel land from the US in a couple months and I could use some advice on the best towns to move to with regards to integration and schools. Neither of my kids speak German (although I am trying to teach them "schrift deutsch" at home as that is what I speak). Are there towns that have strong school systems that are particularly good at integrating expats?

My husband is also currently an English-only speaker (will be learning German) so suggestions on places that are more welcoming than others would be appreciated.

My kids are a girl, 7 (in 1st grade) and a boy, 12 (in the 6th grade).

Any and all experiences anyone has had would be much appreciated.

As you have a little bit of time, I hope you'll take the trouble to look at the threads on this subject on here already. There is a lot of basic stuff and it will save the members telling the whole story again if you can do a bit of spade-work first. Get a map and look at the various posts with comments on the various towns and villages, keeping in mind the things which are important to you. Then go on with specific questions from there.

Sorry! I searched for basel land and schools and didn't come up with much. I did see some posts on international schools. Could you suggest a search so i don't waste anyone's time? Just the names of the towns in Basel land? Thanks very much for your help.

Hi there. Here's a link to the Basel tram and bus map. That might help you.

http://www.bvb.ch/docs/regiofahrplan...tz_bs_2011.pdf

I live in Therwil and have friends in Oberwil, Bottmingen and Allschwil (and probably others) that have children in local schools. It seems all these schools have good methods of integration for the children. I think it's fairly standard in this part of the world!

As for choosing which area to live in, you're better off working out from the public transport map which areas give you best access to where you need to get to (e.g. yours/your husband's workplace). Once you've worked that out you can search for info on particular areas.

Here's one I made earlier. Basel schooling - recommendations?

I have found the high school in Pratteln to be very reponsive. The Rector (head master) has been helpful. They run integration classes for none German speakers, which is important to my daughter.
I can't speak about the quality of the education as my daughter hasn't started there yet.

My son and daughters had five years of education in Pratteln - the daughters in Aeglematt, my son in Aeglematt and Fröschmatt.

There isn't really any problem with the teachers - we found some to be very helpful with integration, once they'd understood we weren't there for just a three year stint or so. However, the demographics aren't great. There is a high proportion of non-Swiss (or not Swiss-for-three-generations...) kids, and lower income / blue-collar worker families. This means that the acquisition of Swiss German is not so good, and that there often isn't a culture of learning at home. Kids who want to work are labelled "sträber" (i.e. swot) even in pro-gymnasium.

My kids all did fine during the time we were there. We had to deal with incidences of bullying of our kids, which the teachers helped us with. The principal was amazed that my son, at the time the smallest boy in his year, wasn't bullied. He now tells us that the school was rather rough, but he evolved survival strategies.

I'm not wanting to scare you - as I said, our kids did fine - but make sure that you keep talking to your kids and that they tell you of any problems. The school administration will help if there are issues, but can't if they're not told / not aware.

It's well worth knowing that the kids can be the biggest problem. Bullying is going to be a problem with any new kid especially if they're seen as foreign.
We have been told to avoid another school in BS for exactly the same reasons as stated so it may be that managing the situation is the best approach.
Incidentally the last time we made a big move from West to East Yorkshire - about 70 miles one of my kids was picked on for a while, so its not unique here.

When you say Baselland, do you need to be living within an easy commute to the city? If so, this will influence your choice of where to live quite considerably if you want to remain on the tramline.

I think that the integration classes are provided at the Kantonal level, so should be available wherever you find yourselves.

As NAT mentioned, one thing to consider might be the demographics of the catchment area for any particular school - if your child is one of only a few non native german/swiss speaking children in a class , this may well help with language aquisition and integration, as resources will not be stretched between so many children. We have found this in our primary school, which is in a very 'Swiss' bit of our large village, and our daughter has not had an issue with becoming friends with the children either, so she is not viewed as 'foreign' despite being one of only 3 non german speakers.

Thank you for all the replies to my questions. They have been very helpful.

Yes, ideally we would be in easy commute to Basel so on one of the tram lines, etc.

Thank you for the heads up on bullying. It sounds like being proactive and telling the school administration is the best thing to do.

You did what!!!

Best move we ever made. But talk about being a foreigner. We were 'politely' known as Wessies.

Coud have been worse. Could have been t'other direction - t'other side of the Pennines.