International School in Zurich or Zug

Family, Education, Health and Pets
1
Hi Everyone,

I plan to move to Switzerland this Autumn with a 10 yr old girl from London.

Could anyone please suggest the best Bilingual and International schools available in and around Zurich or Zug? Also could you please suggest is it good to admit her in an International School or Bilingual? at this stage ...given that she does not know German at all...

Thanks

2

Um, do you have a pre-approved job offer here in Switzerland? Because if not, then you won’t be moving. As a non-EU national you need either a pre-approved job offer or to be sufficiently wealthy not to need to work at all. The non-EU hiring criteria is outlined here:

https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home…zulassung.html

If you can move here for how long do you plan to stay? If it’s long term then you may be better to put her into the local public school system. Swiss schools are well organised with helping foreign children to learn the relevant Swiss language. If it’s only going to be for a year or two then an international school would probably be better, but they are expensive - around CHF15,000-CHF20,000 a year.

3

Agreed. If you are only staying for a year or two then put her in the international school. Zurich is 3k per month.

If you intend to stay longer then at 10 she will learn very quickly and will get DATS (extra help with German for at least 3 years) so it’s a much better and cheaper option to integrate.

4
The ones around here are 25k for kindergarten and go up from there.

5
Thanks for the reply from all of you....well I am not working currently...but my better half is trying to get a Work Permit...which is not quite easy to get in Zurich as we see....however if somehow we get through this visa processing we will need a school for our daughter...Well yes I came to know International Schools are quite expensive as they are quite here in London...but here we do not have the language problem and so she goes to the Council school and I am quite happy with the British Education system.

Now we are in a dilemma as we do not exactly know how long would be our stay there.. till we get our Visa..we would like it to be around 3 to 4 years...

Could someone also tell me about the exam children appear in Swiss at the age of 12 or 13 to go to the University??? is it really tough to crack that...and do you think it is possible to go for it if we start now?

Thanks again...and have a great time..

6

If you want a uni chance, then it will be VERY difficult. Most students here don’t go the uni route, but do apprenticeships instead.

http://lenews.ch/2016/01/13/80-of-12…to-university/

Expect your daughter to have to repeat a year. This is fairly normal here and doesn’t affect future opportunities.

But unless your other half has an employer willing to go through the non-EU hiring process to get a permit on their behalf, the education question is moot.

7
Thanks for all the info....lets hope we get the WP and then we need to take a call...

8
We moved to Zurich in March this year. Our children aged 10 & 11 have thoroughly enjoyed attending ICS Zumikon. It was a very easy transition for all.

9
It is the international school with IB affiliation I believe. What do you think about the school? Do you live aswell near Zumikon?

10
Yes, it is an IB school. They do one hour of German lessons 4 days a week. As a non working parent, found all the clubs for parents that are held during school time an excellent way of meeting people from the school. We live near the school. Very happy.

11
You also have ZIS (Zurich International School) on the other side of the lake. Both ZIS/ICS cost about the same (not cheap, but I don't know what international schools generally cost elsewhere). I believe pricing info is on their sites, and also I know that it's not always easy getting your child in as they usually have more applicants than spots. Here's the ZIS website:

http://www.zis.ch/

ICS:

http://www.icsz.ch/

(Disclaimer: I have friends who work as teachers at both schools and they are really great people!!)

12
our children attended ISZL in Zug and we loved it. it is the more popular of the 2 (ISZL and ZIS) with many British expats, for what that might be worth.

good luck with the permit and the move!

13
If you are staying only for short span then definitely International school. My daughter is going to ISZN in Zurich and I am very happy.