My husband & I are planning on moving with my 3 boys in the beginning of 2010 to Zurich. They are all currently in a Elementary schools(grades 1-5) in the USA & I am looking for an international school where they will be pushed & motivated to learn. The boys are very sporty & I would like them to have strong sports opportunities, particularly in soccer but also focus on the basics of reading, writing & spelling.
My husband & I are English & like aspects of both the British & American education systems.
There are a few international schools in Zürich, as well as some other 'local' schools that cater to English-speaking families (such as having bilingual classes, with German-speaking & English-speaking teachers).
The key to finding the right sort of school for your kids is where you intend for them to study in high school - Switzerland or an English-speaking country?
Once that's answered, then you'll be better able to choose a school for your children. For sport, there are plenty of local football clubs - just sign up with your local, if the school doesn't have a good team, and your boys will also get the benefit of knowing some kids who live close to home.
Thank you, I am looking forward to it. We are planning on only being in Switzerland 2-3 years & doing High school either in the US or UK. I have googled several of the international schools, but it is hard to understand the reputation of one versus another, of course the marketing information sounds great for all of them.
My Understanding on ranking of the International Schools in Zurich is
1: Zurich International School
2 : Inter Community School
3: International School Winterthur
I believe the Admission in Zurich International School requires some waiting as it is overbooked , the fee per child would come to arround 30,000 CHF per year
Also, note that there is very little funding from the government for 'private' schools, and teachers here are well-paid - two reasons why the fees are so high...
Don't discount the International School of Zug and Lucern, their website is www.iszl.ch - I have two children there, they are very happy, loads of sports offered as well as the International Baccalaureate (IB) www.ibo.org . As you plan on having the children go to UK or US schools after Switzerland you'll find the IB is the way to go. We live close to the Zurich lake, the bus (small, private) picks the kids up from our door every day, and drops them back in the afternoon. You may find housing a struggle and need to search father afield - Zug is 25 minutes by train to Zurich - www.sbb.ch is the national train website, in English. Fell free to PM me if you have further question.
One big concern is whether the schools in Zürich have space. Some families have found this to be a problem and have had to look outside Zürich. ZIS has a campus in Baden where many families originally intending to live in Zürich have ended up. So first ask about space....I don't think you want your children split between different schools. If you have an opportunity to visit the schools, this will certainly be more useful than just looking on the website. Moving in the middle of the school year is not easy for chilren, as most of the new students joined at the start of the school year.
When I think of a reputation of a school, I ask about their IB statistics. What percentage of their IB candidates are successful, what is the school's ranking? But reputation means different things to different people. I think no matter what school you look at you will always hear of parents who are unhappy and feel the school falls below their expectations.
A common criticism of international schools is that students who attend them are not at all integrated in their local community, and neither are the parents, and that they learn very little German to get by in the world outside school, making involvement in local sports activities, for example, somewhat of a challenge.
Hope you find a good solution and good luck with the move.
First you need to decide where you will live which will most likely depend on where the office is located. Then check out the local schools.
As already mentioned, there are several schools in and around Zurich. One new international school that has opened up and I can highly recommend is: http://www.internationalschoolswitzerland.ch/
This is located in Cham which is close to Zug and not far from Zurich.
Zug and Schwyz offer some of the lowest tax rates as well. I know many people who live in these areas and commute to Zurich.
ZIS and ICS are the two longest established schools and both are good. ICS has been offering the IB a little longer. ZIS doesn't do the IB Middle Years Programme but it offers AP courses as well as the IB Diploma. This probably won't affect your children as they are primary age. If you can get your children in to one of these two schools you can be sure they will be fine and the choice between the two really comes down to location - on which side of the lake you'll be living.
Otherwise there are a number of other newer schools in Winterthur, Schaffhausen, and schools even further away in Zug etc. These are all non-profit, externally governed schools and are worth visiting if the locations are OK for you.
ISZN (in Wallisellen, Zurich) is a small private school (actually a limited liability company with no external governance). It's located in an office building in a busy industrial/shopping/office area. The primary classrooms and teachers are OK but the facilities beyond that are not nearly as good as the other schools' especially when it comes to the library, sports facilities and the playground. (A friend who worked for a relocation company used to be embarrassed to take people to ISZN because it was so different from the other schools.)