We are relocating to Switzerland last week of March to Vaud Canton .
We are pretty worried and confused for school for my 10 year old Girl. (I am not sure if I am the only one like this here .)
I will explain the situation . We are fixed on putting my daughter in an English speaking school. (Preferably IB .) As to start liking the place or to make friends we think English speaking environment will be good for her right now.We are completely new to French.
So after our research we found ISL to be best as per our preference .Now ISL doesn't have a place. (Our company not a sponsor).
So we have started thinking for Gems World Academy or La cote school .
Can someone here suggest or provide some feedback on these two schools.
My main query is if not ISL (because of long waiting list) where do parents like us put their kid ? Am I going in some wrong direction and not considering other factors for school hunting ? Am I missing out to consider few other good schools ?
House hunting we will do once the school is decided .Travel to work for us not an issue. Our preference is Kid's school.
Are you only staying for a short time? Is an English speaking school a must?
With the high turnover of kids in the international school your kid might not make many real friends, longer term friends are usually found in the local school, but hey.
You may be surprised at just how many English speakers there are in "local school". My daughters class has 5 or 6 ! Also how much help is provided by the local schools with extra FR classes etc, they are very accommodating.
International wise, you also have La Chat (La Chà‚taigneraie) in Coppet or a few in Geneva which are just as easy reach as GEMS would be really.
Nyon - Geneva - Coppet - right along that side of the lake.... Everybody speaks EN I wouldn't panic.
How long in Switzerland - We are unable to decide on this right now (may be we can have an answer after an year).
Also we think IB curriculum is good from university admission . (Not sure , I might be wrong on this)
Hmm..quite lot of people saying this , to consider Local schools . May be I am getting panic just to think how she will pick up French as a language .Also I feel scared if she wont understand the main language in school , She might start disliking the place /school .Also we are relocating from Dubai which is a contrast place to Switzerland , So with other things to adjust I am getting nervous to take additional tension for my daughter .
May be I am completely wrong on my thought and I am getting a bit more worried .
We were thinking about La Chà‚taigneraie - But there is no IB .
No help on the schools front... but from my experience you're cutting it a little fine with the house hunting. Do you have temporary accommodation sorted?
Company will provide a temporary accommodation for a month and a vehicle too .May be till the time we get our shipping stuffs . We are more worried for school right and seek help from community members .
According to school only we will hunt for a house and try to sort it out.
Choose IB if you are a family that will be moving around. IB is excellent for university entrance all over the world, which is why international schools follow this curriculum. Local school will only work if you are committing to Switzerland long term. Kids do make long term friends at international schools, some families stay for many years. Not all families in an international community are moving around every couple of years, there is a range of reasons why parents choose to educate their children in international schools.
I know nothing about La Cote. GEMs is a relatively new school and is still establishing itself, I think they have a new director this year. However, GEMS have well established, successful schools all over the world, it's probably worth a look. Look at the IB diploma point score to gauge the success of teaching and learning at any IB school. The qualification at the end of IB is the IB diploma. In diploma, 24 points is a pass, around 32 points will get a student into a good university.So, look for schools that have an average score of around 32.
Other alternatives are ECOLINT ( Geneva International school) which offers a range of curricula if you don't want IB . If you do want IB, then you may need to look further afield: Basel, Zurich and Bern all have established international schools offering the IB; all have good results. It just depends how feasible travelling is for you.
I don't know where you got this information, but it is incorrect. La Chat definitely has the IB and I think most of the graduates get the IB degree.
If you are looking around the Nyon area, I believe these schools offer IB: La Chat, College du Leman, La Cote, Le Rosey, GEMS, and Champittet. All easily reachable from Nyon.
If you move around the Geneva, Lausanne, Vevey, or Montreux areas, there are plenty more that I did not include above.
But here are the associations of private schools, Geneva, Vaud and Switzerland, many of them have english and some have IB, an easier way to search perhaps.
As to your specific question on GEMS or La cote, I think its best you visit and get a feel for yourself. I've known kids who been at both schools. Both are relatively new to the area and have built new purpose built facilities. My sense is La Cote has more of a british approach to schooling. GEMS appears to have a high bling, esp. advertising.
I cant thank you enough for this kind of knowledge sharing. So detailed and very much encouraging reply. Highly appreciate .
I guess ECOLINT has IB in one of the campuses , but thats in Geneva. The one closer to Nyon has IB from year 9 onwards i guess. And its a bilingual school.
Very much helpful reply for us .. and totally agree with you for Gems Advertising .
La Chat is a bilingual Thats what I understood. I am scared how my girl will be settled if not English . She is 10 years old and will join secondary now. La chat has IB from year 9 onwards
I understood you could choose english or french streams at some age/grade at la Chat but I don't know what age/grade that is. If you are worried about french, I would not be so concerned, it would be a soft entry into the language as everyone speaks english there. I also thought they had or were moving towards IB MYP but guess not there yet. Anyhow, I do understand the vast majority get IB diplomas and there is little turnover, so something in the middle years prepares them well as they have good IB rates. If you are at all interested in the school, I do suggest speaking to them personally, they are very approachable and could give better info. The ecolint Saconnex campus does indeed have IB programs from primary I believe, definitely MYP which your child would be. If considering living towards Geneva, that would indeed be an option to consider