LOL doubt it, but i wish i could we are moving next year to get away from our kids school can`t bloody wait yippee.

Well you can but it's not going to get you anywhere. The schools don't understand what the problem is and other Swiss parents seem to be mainly in support of the system the way it is. Strangly enough my Swiss wife who was at school in Zürich never had to start so early.

I was born in Switzerland in the early 50s - my mum always worked, my mum always had a better job than dad and earned more than him. We I was about 10 she got an even better job about 40 km away and travelled every day. We got ourselves up and got ourselves to school, and re-heated lunch- then got ourselves home. We didn't have horns or anything - for me it was the norm. I grew up expecting to study, travel, get a career- and knew that voting was on the cards. Why not get organised with other mums for picking up, lunch, after school homework and play. It does take some effort, but it can be done.

Just read the OP and I gotta say, that is just FREAKING RIDICULOUS!! Are these people insane?

Go to school at 8:30am leave at 3:30pm. Go home for lunch if you must but that's another thread.

Agreed, what a mess!

And while I'm at it: start wearing uniforms

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO uniforms, please.

Thing is about the timetable, primary school teachers are often women, often mums- so they must understand that this is a nightmare. When I was a kid (here in CH) we all started school at the same time, had the same time off for lunch, and finished at the same time! I would get together with some Swiss mums and discuss this, then speak to the teacher and the Commission scolaire (like the UK school Governors). In the meantime, try to get together and organise some sort of rosta. Bonne chance.

Yeah sorry I was off topic.

You think that timetable is insane you should see the new ones i have for this year it`s even worse

yep

Would make my life easier and cheaper

They keep saying next year it will be block times been waiting 3 years already

Don't worry it'll never happen here. Still seems to be going strong in England though, which I somehow find quite reassuring

Going back to the OP - my daughters schedule is exactly the same - it is a pain working out a sleep schedule and remembering which day is which and they are throwing curve balls by saying that only till further notice some of her lessons are changing and some mornings where she should go in she doesn't and some where she shouldn't she does.

I did sign to say that if no teacher was available she was to come home. I am surprised that this has happened 3 times in 4 weeks.

Chaos.

Thanks i know the sleeping pattern for our kids is terrible one morning they have to get up at, 6am, and another morning 8am.

I never had to sign anything to say if a teacher was ill i was at home.

According to what I read here, the situation looks much worse in the German speaking part of Switzerland!

In the French speaking part, most of the cantons signed an agreement called 'Harmos' and aiming at harmonising the schedules and the programs for the different levels and between the different cantons.

Schedules are much more regular over here. And in Lausanne - at least here, perhaps elsewhere as well - it's forbidden to send the kids back home if a teacher is sick. School is responsible for its students: if a child is hit by a car or anything during schoold hours, the school will be considered responsible

I have a friend that lives 15 mins drive away from me, and her kids have block timetables.

My daughter was sent home in her break this morning because she forgot her gym kit, again no phone call from the school to ask if i was home, or could i take the gym bag to the school

This is truly scandalous. I think I read somewhere your daughter is 7: I would absolutely not like to a have a child this age alone outside without my knowledge!!!!

What if she gets hit by a car? Or abducted? Who will be considered responsible then???

I might be an over-protective mother, but it would make me truly anxious to know that my child might find herself alone on the streets basically anytime during school hours! You trust school to take care of your child, they should take this responsability seriously!

My daughter forgot here gym kit yesterday and she was just told to sit on the side - and she is 15 not 7.

I agree that at 7 they should call you. We lived in Munich for 2 years and they kept sending my daughter home at random times and I was going mad at 14 so at 7 I would also be stressing. I think its normal in countries where the crime rate is low (that was the excuse I was given in Munich). In UK I didn't see little kids going to and from school on their own like here. I think as ex-pats we are thinking of how it would be back home a little too much.

I'm Swiss and I grew up here, but I'm still shocked!!!

This thread is 2 years old, my daughter is now 9 years old, they sent her home when the teacher was il when she was 7 years old. I agree when you think your child is in school, you should not be thinking i wonder where my daughter is in school, or walking home

Don`t get me started about teachers, the kindergarden teacher forgot my daughter age 5years old took all the other kids to the forest (it was forest day) took her over 2 hours to realise she was not with them That is another thread i started years ago.

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Smile it is another day

When my children were in the 3rd and 5th year they both had school in the morning from 8.00 am till 11.30 am. Afternoons they only had school Monday afternoon together. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday either one or the other had free. Never understood the logic of the system and when I asked they said it was because children can only concentrate for short periods and need lots of time to burn off energy. Personally, I think it was to make life easier for the teachers who have an enormous amount of autonomy and can seem to do what they like without having to answer to a higher authority.

This is absolutely not the case at my son's school (not far from you, so hopefully same applies there!). One end-of-term day last year, half the class didn't realise they needed to bring their agendas, so the teacher sent them out in groups of 3 to pop home and get them. The 'groups of 3' seemed quite deliberate; my son turned up with one neighbouring agenda-forgetting friend and another boy who'd taken his in but had come along to make up the numbers. I assume 3 is because that way if one is injured, one can stay and the other go for help, something like that? And these were 10 yr olds.

And my kids have never been sent home or had class cancelled if the teacher is absent; a substitute is always provided. And we have block time - although my son's block time is to always start at 7.40am

Poor Sutter, but at least many other people don't need to worry about this happening.

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'Chance favours only the prepared mind.'