Confusion over what ages are Swiss Klasse

Family, Education, Health and Pets
1
Hi

Sorry for such an obvious question but I have trawled lots of sites looking for this answer.....

We are moving to CH and are looking for schools.

We are a bit confused about what years and grades compare to the UK systems.

We have 2 daughters, one just turned 10 years old (dob July 2007, just finishing UK Year 5) and the other just turned 7 years old (dob June 2010, just finishing UK Year 2).

What is the equivalent grade for them in the Swiss system? Is UK Year 5 (ages 9-10) the same as Klasse 4? And UK Year 2 = Klasse 1?

thanks

2
Yes just as you wrote it's usually minus one. What is 5 in the UK is 4 in Switzerland.

3
Depends where you live.

In the Harmos system adopted by many Cantons

year 1 age 4

year 2 age 5

year 3 age 6 (the old year 1)

year 4 age 7

year 5 age 8

year 6 age 9

4
Thanks to you both!

This is why we are a little confused. Likely to be in either in Thurgau canton (Frauenfeld area maybe) or Zurich canton (Winterthur area).

5
You'll soon get used to the fact there is no 'Swiss system' about anything ... which is why so many Cantons, mostly in French speaking area- have agreed to join the Harmos system, to facilitate movement from one Canton to another.

6
Because your kids have summer Birthdays you may given a choice wich class they will enter. The cut-off has slowly moved from end of May to end July in the last few years. Your 10 year old could either enter Class 4 or 5. I would speak to the school regarding their level. In class 5 your child should be comfortable operating in Math with large numbers for instance ( up to 1 Million). When we moved here, from Canada, my daughter struggled with this a bit, even though we had her repeat class 4 when we arrived.

7
In Zurich your 10 year old's "correct" year to start in August by birthdate would be the 4th class. The usual cut off date for starting school would have been 30th April for your older daughter, with some flexibility for may/june born children to start early. If your daughter doesn't speak German this would be a good starting point as all of the children move teacher in the 4th class and start a 3 year middle primary school programme. This would give your daughter time to catch up in German before the secondary school selection process.