We still have a few years until our child reaches school age. But that probably coincides with the time we really have to decide about whether to buy a property.
Given these two facts, I have started to think about the criteria to choose an area to live (long term), a very important of which is the quality of schools.
I was wondering whether there is a significant variation among schools in different parts of the Canton Zürich (for now), and how can we get some feedback on these. Is it a bad idea to buy a property in a random rural area just because of the schools, compared to somewhere in Zürich city? Of course the lake coast are are the most expensive and must obviously offer the best education, but what about other parts of the canton? All the same?
Any feedback/experience is appreciated. Many thanks
While it would be useful to very good schooling for a short time it is hardly a criteria for the long term.
I would look at the nature of the community, the way they vote, public services, easy access to public transports, closeness to medical services, availability of doctors and so on.
For instance in our area house prices are reasonable, schools are good and access to public transport is fine. However finding a doctor is almost impossible as there is a big shortage and it is getting worse. Most new arrivals are either left with the clinic at the hospital which was set up to try and handle the shortage or travel say 20 mins on the train. As you get older not having easy access to medical services and so on becomes an issue.
Possibly. For us it was important that the majority of kids spoke German at home (<- tends to be a richer area), as we wanted our child to learn to speak it well.
Yes this. I have found its less about the school but the individual teachers. We have had amazing years and terrible ones at the same school. I would follow the advice above and don't forget availability of after school care (if you both work and need this) and access to children activities. As the kids grow older this is important.
In Vaud, kids seem to have one main teacher upto 12 years old and maybe after this too, i don't know (yet) meaning the teacher is far more important than the school itself and teachers come and go, as we do.
I have no idea about the system in other cantons though, it easily could be different.
I am talking about soccer clubs, music school, gymnastics, scouts (pfadi) etc. I would not know how to search for those outside of Zürich city - perhaps others know.
Its good to have something local your child can do without needing to drive them somewhere or take public transport as will enable them to integrate and with time go on their own.
Oh man, I'd love to groan this post and I'll tell you why. Schools strive to teach students fairly and equally, no matter their background or neighborhood. Thank God there is no school rating system here because it goes against the grain of offering quality education for all.
I would also like to add that the lakeside schools are NOT better than other schools although some communities may have more money to invest. In fact, I know of teachers who left those areas due to parent demands and the frustration of seeing how children were put under greater pressure than needed.
What you need to think about is the kind of neighborhood you would like to live in and if there is any possibility of buying property in that area.
Please remember, many of us didn't send our kids to lakeside schools or schools in more affluent neighborhoods and our kids turned out fine. Have a bit of faith in the system.
Written by someone whose kids went to a rural school and loved it. In fact, because the school was smaller, they got more individual attention and weren't exposed to as many in-class issues as many larger schools may have. In the end, it comes down to the teacher, which may change on a yearly basis.
A little fact from canton Aargau and Zürich that may drive public perception of education quality. Salaries are higher in ZH schools therefore teachers are competing to get a position there. Some teachers in AG want to go there only for the higher income, while others don't care about the difference. Theoretically the best are hired. In practice I don't know if the ones hired are the best in "selling themselves". Anyway, these are the economic realities incentivizing people to do things.
Another reality of Swiss school system in general is that the school years where the school choice depends 100% on where you live are 6 years, the duration of primarschule.
At the end of primarschule there's a voluntary test. If the kid passes the test, the kid is accepted to gymnasium which is a straight path to university. Caveats? About 20% of kids pass the test. From those about 30% do not finish gymnasium and get redirected to easier academic programs, other schools. So, about 14% of kids go to so-called elite academic programs.
The practical implication is that your decision to buy a home in X place, will only influence the choice of primarschule. From 11-12 years old and on, the choice of school depends on the kid's performance, skills and preferences. So buy the house where you like to live, because nothing guarantees the kid is going to the high-level school nearby.
I did not think of it, but this is also a good point. If your kids intend to stay here most seem to live in the area.
- My daughter is in the local band. She started when she was about 8 and is now 21. The community supplies the instruments, pays the conductor etc... and most of her friends come for school and from the band
- My son has been in the orienteering club for over 15 years now and over the past year or two he has started to get involved in running the club, being appointed one of the officers this year. And like my daughter most of his friends are either from school or his club.
The children don't just get taught, they also teach each other or hold each other back.
The better the general command of the local language the more the child will grasp of the curriculum and the better it will express what it knows. More grey matter remains free to grapple with the knowledge rather than being used to decipher what's said/written.
So, ironically, foreigners should look to settle in areas with few other foreigners (probably with the exception of speakers of the Lingua Franca as well as Germans, and French/Italians in latin CH).
I guess Uitikon would be one of the areas that satisfies the criteria - well earning parents whose mother tongue is German.
There was a very old statistics according to which Zollikon had the highest Gymnasium attendance (around 40%). Overall golden coast was the best and then the silver coast with a couple of other places.
I have no data at hand but I'd expect Rueschlikon area to be quite high now (though not necessarily German speaking as there are lots of high-earning expats living there).
I think OP's considerations are valid and if they want to live elsewhere once the kids are out of the relevant schools they can buy a property elsewhere and move. But it is possible that the child simply ends up with teachers that are not a good fit for whatever reason so wherever you do move you always take risk. Just there's a difference in the expected outcome
Thanks for your information. We are pretty inexperienced in the matter, but we have family living in the English-speaking world and they keep telling us how important it is where to send the kid to school and how there is a rating and there are websites where you can see reviews, etc.. etc..
So, naturally, I was wondering whether this is the case here in Switzerland as well, and what should we consider when looking for a property to buy in the future (which is indeed another obsession in the English-speaking work that apparently does not work in the same way in Switzerland. Maybe subject of another thread...)
That is the English speaking world. In Switzerland there is no rating available. The majority of Swiss families send their kids to the local public school, even the affluent ones. In more expensive areas there will naturally be more kids from families that have a higher level of education. That does have an impact on outcomes and expectations that these families bring to a school. Generally though all schools are good. In villages there often is only one school, where there are several, the towns make an effort to assign students to the schools, so that there is a good socio-economic mix.