Thanks for your help.
Suffolk
Hi everyone, my son is 11 and I'm weighing up a few different public and private school options where we live in Vaud. Does anyone know how I can get the school stats for the area we live for things like exam results, Swiss Maturité results etc for public schools? Also are there any school inspections here, like the ones in the UK, where schools are rated according to a variety of KPI's?
No, kids go to the schools that they are assigned to.
I was confused by this initially at first last year when we were looking into this.
Overall, schools here in Vaud are good. We also have the option to send our child to La Cote, La Chat, or the various international schools in Lausanne.
For several reasons, we chose the public, your reasons may be different.
A. our kid is nine - a 5p in Switzerland or a 3rd grader in the US/Japan and most international schools. Being nearer to home made more sense for us as she is new here.
B. We wanted her to learn French. We expect to be here a while. She has an ear for languages. The schools in Vaud tend to have a very good language entry program, free, for two years.
C. We wanted her to befriend kids in the neighborhood. She has been. She can find friends at the local park and walk or bike to their homes.
D. Overall, the public schools are good and the teachers and other kids and their families have been quite accepting and welcoming.
E. We have no problem with the international schools in the region, and our daughter is friends with several kids from a few of them, as are we. International schools work better for some, public works better for others.
As for the middle schools available in our neighbourhood, we've been told by some that one is better than another, and we will get a choice, but we've met others who contradict that, and say in their opinion, there's little difference. But this choice is a quirk of our geography and the local school set up, and it's odd that we actually get a choice. When our kid is finished with 8p, we will have that decision, but there is a chance that her choices will change at that point, or that we will decide that she will go to international school, or we may have moved to a different neighborhood or even country.
Interesting that you get a choice. That would definitely be the exception rather than the rule.
That's a view often held by forum members. Utter tosh.
This is why I mentioned it. I only recently found out that there were three different schools that the older neighborhood kids were attending. It's partially because our community doesn't have the school for older kids, but three of our neighbouring communities do, and at least one of those communities sends children to our local elementary school, as they don't have an elementary school big enough for all of their kids. It's weird. It's also why my kid gets a school bus she'd like and attends school in a neighbouring community, but since that school is about a kilometer from our house, and the walk to the bus stop is about six hundred meters the other way, she often walks.
Thanks everyone for your replies. I specifically want to get some objective and transparent metrics for the local public school so I can get a better idea of what its performance is like. I live in Pully and the schools are reputed to be good according to "hear say" but I have never seen any evidence by way of actual results and/or the results of school inspections.
Does anyone know where exam results are published and where the results of school inspections can be found, if indeed they are carried out?
Cheers
Suffolk
no, and no.
They’re not. Exam results are never published.
There may be school inspections but usually only if an issue has been flagged up, they are not routine.
Exams at 15/16, as in GCSEs in the UK, don't exist anyhow.
Thanks for the replies. Wow, I find that genuinely shocking - so the schools here are not held to public account for either the results they achieve or inspections which they may merit, despite being funded by our taxes?
That seems like a stunning lack of transparency - if no one is measuring performance, then how can it ever be improved?
Suffolk
Nobody said that they aren’t measuring performance it’s just that results are not made available to the general public.
The education boards in the cantons are well aware of what is happening in the schools here.
Yes, very different to the UK. Mind you, this is only fairly recent in the UK too btw. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the UK is unique in doing this- and is not part at all of any European country.
The concept of school choice does not exist in Switzerland- neither the one of applying for school places and being accepted and refused. Completely different mindset. Pully is a very affluent area, so many children are likely to attend private schools in the area. Unlike in the UK, where private and grammar schools (in areas where they still exist- I am so glad I taught and my children went to school in a County where they didnt) cream the 'best' (again, how does one define this?!?)- in Switzerland I don't think it would have such an effect.
Why, it is done differently to what you maybe used to in the UK, but i expect you'll find education isd bettter here than UK, smaller classes to stret with, no archaic uniform polices, no "woke" bollocks.
Children here nearly all speak 2 languages, fluently at least. Childeren who don'tr speak a national language get accelerated language teaching, unemployment is low, casual violence and disruptive behavior is low, knife crime almost non exisitant, kids can go outside, go to school alone by foot or by bus.
There are more ways to improve than just a box ticking exercise.
Does any other country do it the way the UK does?
Interesting question and I'd be very interested in the answer. The USA perhaps?
I don’t know but perhaps a question for a different thread?
Why, 100% related to OP and would be interesting to have the answer.
I think much of N. America is divided into individual school districts. I don’t know if students can pick and choose their district, or schools within their district. But who knows?
and testing, and school league tables?