Neuchatel with kids

Welcome and Introductions
1
Im considering a job in Neuchatel. I’m married with 2 kids (5 and 12) and I’m wandering what costs to consider in this region. Key concern is how much is a private school for the older one and if we consider public preschool for the younger if this is free of charge or how much approx it costs. Please share your experience.

2
Public school is free.

3
Actually not free, but provided without additional costs to residents. We all pay for the education costs.

4

Private schools will vary, but probably around 20k to 30k a year.

To be honest a quick google doesn’t show many private schools at all. One I found only goes up to age 12 and the other is Catholic run.

5
I remember when someone in the US proposed free college education, and the right wingers were making the same "point". I think it's clear that it's "free at the point of use". Like the NHS in the UK. Mostly.

6
The younger one will be in first grade primary school and that won’t cost you anything if you choose the public school. If they are not french speaking already the school will provide extra french tuition for them to help them with the language.

There would be costs for lunch and after school care if you needed that.

There are private Montessori schools for that age group and the Ecole Catholique which is private but follows the Swiss curriculum for the canton. Both of these options provide full day options and are popular with working parents.

As for the older child it will depend on what sort of school you are looking for.

As things stand at the moment there is no international English speaking school in Neuchâtel for that age so if you want your child to have their schooling in English the nearest schools would be in either Lausanne or Bern. There were plans to open one here but I think Covid might have messed up those plans a bit.

There is a private secondary school called Ecole Moderne which does offer some sort of bilingual programme but I don’t really know how it works. The fees are around 20000chf per year I think.

https://ecole-moderne.ch/

There are very good secondary schools here and they will provide extra language support for children who don’t have a good level of french.

7
Private education in Neuchâtel is just not popular. Only one Catholic one. Another (St George) tried to establish a base here but closed a couple of years later.

There are good schools available for free all over the Canton. Posts crossed BM.