Hi everyone,

We are kicking around the idea of switching our child from an international to local public school next year for a number of reasons. We are still on the fence, so I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has done this, and what your experience was like. Generally: Why did you decide to change? Did you have fears of it being a different "standard" or approach than what you are used to in your native country? Were your fears unfounded or was this truly a problem? If your child was already fluent in English, how did they handle this when they started teaching English in class? Did your child have a problem integrating? Would you do it again in hindsight? Did you have any other positive/negative experiences?

Thanks -- I look forward to your insights!

My daughter was in a private English school, in Kindergarten. She loved it, but it was a long way for me to drive daily (30 min one way!). So, after teh one year, we took her to our local Swiss school. And I can only recommend it. It is now 2 yrs on...and she has many friends in the village,these little girls call one another and made dates to play, meet in the street and everyone knows the kids.
She is now fluent in german, and also Swiss german. the teachers were really helpfull, and I have not had a bad experience at all with the local school.

I also have of course more friends in the area

Why did we change: the driving was to much. We wanted to have the kids have friends around the village and also be part of the village. we wanted to 'integrate' - if that is possible

Fears: Nope, I am pleasantly surprised and can only give you plus points for the local system. the internation school was in german and Englis, and somehow my daughter only played with the english kids. Now, she is fluent in german and plays in whatever language you throw at them. She is even 'more' liked amongst the older kids, as they all want to practise their english with her.

I can only recommend to try the local system. My both kids are now in school...and loving every moment of it. The even love the bus ride to school, to the next village. They both also have extra german classes, provided by the local system and they love that too.

Good luck!

The local system is a lot cheaper.

We put our kids straight into local. ( Then aged 10, 6 and 5 ). They integrated fine. They have a disadvantage in their German lessons, because German is not spoken at home. English lessons are great for them - it pulls up their marks nicely. For our eldest, he was excused the lessons - he just had to take the test - which mean he had more time to do his homework.

Unless you're not going to be staying here long, I'd always recommend it over the international schools - at least at first. If it doesn't work out, then I'd consider private.

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Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

We are looking at moving ours. We have 6 year old twins who are in Grade 1 in the International system. Unfortunately the local school is offerring us second Kindergarten places which we have said no too. If we compare their level of Maths, English and German, it is equivalent to the local 2nd Grade. We are hoping to at least get them into Grade 1. We have a meeting with the Kanton Inspector next week to see if we can find a solution, since the ideally the boys need to be seperated.

I can do nothing but recommend it. It was one of the best decisions we made.

We were forced to make it because we couldn't afford the international school any longer. I was very, very worried because my kids were so happy at the international school. But, this has been even better!

They love the independence they have (going by themselves, homework, etc.) They also made many friends pretty quickly. (They already spoke German as their international school was bi-lingual.) I've been impressed with the quality and dedication of the teachers as well. The curriculum moves a bit slower at first, but I don't mind that so much.

Our canton offers a Heimatsprache Kurs for English, so I've enrolled them in that as well to keep up their English grammar, etc.

are there any bullying problems people have heard about with the Swiss schools? our sons are at a bi-lingual kindergarten designed to get them up to speed with the language and keep them at the same level as they would be in the English system. the aim of their current kindergarten is that they could slot straight into a swiss school if we wanted to do that. We are thinking of sending them to Grade 1 at the local school as its closer and much cheaper than an international school, but worried about bullying as we have heard a few things - great to hear all the positive experiences though of people who have moved from international to local. I have heard the education quality is very good in switzerland.

Thank you for this post. We will be moving from the states and I have a 1st grader and one going into kindergarten in the fall. I have been debating about what to do! do you recommend any schools or areas to look for housing where the schools might be better than others. We currently speak no german.

Jenn

This was meant for sleepless as we will be moving to Basel! All the other information here is helpful as well!

Hope you got the information on the other thread! I juet now caught up with this one.

I'm sorry for multiple answers! I really should have my coffee before I reply.

I just thought of one more thing -- you! Don't forget to think about yourself. All communication and teacher conferences will be in German. I think you are allowed to have a translator for the conferences, but I've never asked. Part of the ease of the transition to local schools is because we all had learned to speak German. That also enabled me to make local friends. Many people do speak English, but I think it will take a bit longer to form friendships.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I do think SIS provides a nice alternative for people who are staying for a few years, plan on returning, but still want more from their Swiss experience. Just keep in mind, that's what your paying for and not the 'best', i.e. private, school.

I would be interested to hear the reason you are considering switching your child from an International to Local School.
I have mentioned on here on a few occassions that I would always opt for the Swiss local school as opposed to an International school.

Children adapt very quickly to a new environment and will pick up the local language quickly which can only be an additionl education for them as well as learning the real cultural of people in Switzerland
The children walk to school together to school, therefore don't only integrate in school and generally play out of school together as well which your child may not do if he is just taken to a distant International School.
I think the parents benefit as well because they are forced to integrate with the local Swiss and this can be useful. Then I suppose one should not forget the financial saving one would make.

I think you need to consider:
1) The age of the child
2) How long you intend to stay in Switzerland
3) If you want your child to gain a culture experience or purely on a mission to obtain qualifications for your child (which doesn't guarantee success or happiness for your child in life)

Personally, If I had children, I would opt for the local school; because I see children playing and having fun together in Switzerland like I did as a child; unlike the children being picked up by parents looking misserable (children and parents) as I see in the UK.

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I do not have friends..........I have contingent liabilities

The reason we are considering switching are as follows:

1) Not happy with the school she is currently in, particularly the English standard once she hits school next year.
2) Daughter is fully trilingual in German, English and Swiss German. Thus, integration would not be an issue for her. Swiss people think she's Swiss anyway (until her parents open their mouths!!)
3) Looks like we will stay longer than expected, thus, why bother with such a costly education, particularly when they follow the Swiss system?

The main issue for me has always been giving up the standard of education we would have had up in the states, hence private school. But the fact is that I just need to give up on that now that we are pretty much decided to stay here. Although, who knows what the future will bring.

Re talking to the school, that's not an issue as I can get by fairly well in German. Finally, I feel confident saying so!!

I think I'm more pro-public school at this point. Just need to get my husband on board, which is funny, as he's a native German speaker!

Not wanting to be provocative, but I don't think you can necessarily say that the standard in the States would have been better than what your children will get in state schools in CH. Unless you were planning on top private schools...

We're planning on sending our children to local state schools as the benefits (assides from impact on wallet) are there to be had. Better language skills, better integration, friends local to home. Especially if you are here for the long-term.

Our oldest (5 at end of Jan) is in a dual kindergarten, which he will stay in until he is ready for school. Then he'll switch to the local school in SO, where we are buying a house.

We figure that we will be able to afford private tutoring, if needed, as we won't be spending it on outrageous international school (IS) fees.

Another apsect that put us off internatinoal private schools is that they often don't have any real oversight relating to their teaching standards. I've heard so many stories from parents sending their children to the IS Basel and other private schools around Basel being told to "put up and shut up" when challenging the curriculum.

A final point is that you also have to be a bit careful with children's identities. If you are here long term, then they may end up feeling more Swiss than US - or a mixture, but certainly not the same as their parents (i.e. you). I can't find the links to the articles that I read on this, but in principle, you should try to make it easier for them to feel that CH is part of their home, as in future years they'll not necessarily want to go back to the US, i.e. when they finish university... and may feel unsettled by the fact that they are international without a "home country". Hope that makes sense...

Thanks Carlos, and you're not being provocative :-) -- I get it. Agree with what you say and it sounds like we are in very similar situations, as ours would also move with school this summer. Additionally put up and shut up is a bit what we are seeing at the moment, and frankly for the money we pay I just cannot understand such an attitude from private schools. Anyway, I recently made a comment to my little one that one day she can go to the US for school, job, whatever, if she wants, and she said "no, I want to stay in Switzerland." So yes, she is our little Swiss Miss. Just as long as she doesn't lose her independent spirit (doubtful anyway), I'm perfectly fine with that!

Hi

We put our eldest daughter in the international school when we first arrived, the company picked up the tab for this, But not for the younger two, policy was they went in to local school
12 months later we pulled the eldest out of the international school, and put her in the swiss system, best move we ever made, Our deccision was made as the two younger ones did well in the swiss system, intergrated with the locals learnt the german, the eldest one did none of the above in the international school we were very dissapointed

My son, at age 12 and very fluent in English, was excused from attending regular English beginner classes. Instead, the teacher challenged him to read English classics. He was tested on that, too!