I'm new in this forum and typing from phone so apologize in advance for inevitable typos.
We are moving to Switzerland shortly and currently looking at housing. After visiting the whole area and considering our preferences we have narrowed our choices to: Morges, Préverenges and St-Sulpice. We have seen acceptable flats/houses in each city that could work. We like Morges slightly better because of the town feeling it has and because of the train option to Geneva airport should we like to use it but I guess most important thing for us is having excellent public schooling for our kids Our thoughts may change as they do with every piece of new information but as of now this is where we are standing.
We have talked with couple of different Locals in the playgrounds and they advised us to rather choose St-Sulpice or Préverenges if we want to send our kids to the public schools. As Swiss people are, they were talking very politically correct and wouldn't point blank tell us that the Morges public schools are bad but rather saying that since these latter cities are more affluent, they benefit from more harmonious classes, which contributes to higher standards.
If it helps, our kids will be in primary school and only speak to English now. I appreciate people to honestly tell me if this is true. Not in political correct terminology but rather straight to the point.
- Does anyone agree or disagree with this view that Morges public school are not to the same standards as those I. St-Sulpice or Préverenges?
-What were your experience with putting your expat kids in Morges public schools?
- Are there social housing or rougher areas in Morges that could contribute to issues in the schools?
Please excuse my naive and straight forward tone. I'm not trying to be a snob or say kids from less rich families bring school down but rather heard something and trying to decipher it. I don't want this thread to become a discussion on this topic but rather appreciate to hear from people who know the schools in these areas and share their experiences with me. Thanks in advance for advice.
more likely they were saying that as st.sulpice and preverenges are smaller villages and morges is a bit bigger- which for some people means more diverse, etc. from what i have heard there is very little difference and i haven't heard any negative things about morges.
to be honest, it isn't like the u.s here, schools are quite similar across the board (especially in the same canton) and it certainly isn't anything extreme personally, i would go with the place you would like to live and the children will do fine- it's still switzerland
I'm new in this forum and typing from phone so apologize in advance for inevitable typos.
We are moving to Switzerland shortly and currently looking at housing. After visiting the whole area and considering our preferences we have narrowed our choices to: Morges, Préverenges and St-Sulpice.
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As mentioned above the ed. system is more or less the same and first you have to decide what you'd like: a city or a countryside, a small school or "grande usine - big plant" and sure how long are you going to stay/live here
If you're here not for a couple of years, it's better Préverenges as almost at the same place there is a primary school and a secondary one and kids can walk and come back home, moved to the secondary school having their primary school friends etc...., as for Morges and St.Sulpice - secondary schools are not at the same place but may be for you it's a +
if your children don't speak french it's not a problem at all as they will start their integration classes and in 2-3 months will speak french rather well or as minimum enough to study, sure you can have some additional intensive lessons of french, better to ask at school they have smth to offer or just look for using local ads sites
And one more thing- don't forget that according to the recent school regulations you can attend only a public school situated in the commune where you live – a private one where you want
Thanks Amaraya. It's good to know that the schools are similar.
Lolly; many thanks for your comprehensive response. You seem to have a solid idea about the schooling in the area and I was hoping to connect and hear from someone like you. As far as I understood you don't believe that there are problem pockets in Morges and I am happy to hear that. We have to wait couple of weeks now before visiting the area again but we will use your advice when looking at the areas.
I do have a new question; does anyone happen to know if the schools in Morges, Preverenges or St-Sulpice offer programs for the lunch hours or maybe after school programs?
The schools are now required by the Vaud government to offer lunch possibilities but it is rather expensive, is normally not available on Wednesday as the kids are off Wednesday afternoon and you need to see about available space. To my understanding it is limited.
There may be private options available as well with a "mama de jour" or day mother who will take the kids in for lunch and possibly after school.
The primary school in our area offers after school supervised homework sessions but not after school care that you are talking about. This may also be helpful to have a French speaking teacher's assistant help with the homework. This option is called "Leçons surveillées". Any baby sitting option would be private.
The school and other mothers would be able to offer suggestions about how to handle both of these issues. It is not as easy as other countries but everyone seems to find a solution.
I think that when you move to a commune, if you opt to put your kid in public school, you have to accept whichever school the authorities allocate your kid to, say if you live 3 minutes from one school and they put your kid in the school which is 20 minutes away, that is your (kid's) problem. Same goes for classes, you won't have a say in which teacher will be teaching your child.
So make sure the choices you can make - which commune, public or private school - are made very carefully. Good luck.
For lunch hour programs/after school programs search for "Mittagstisch" and "Schülerhort" (whatever that is in French )
Thanks. We are searching for a house now and we are looking at these three villages. I thought I will see which school has better lunch/after school coverage to narrow housing area selection. However, the school admins are not returning my English emails. Probably they are not used to receiving emails from frantic working expat mothers trying to find out about school possibilities even before registering their kids... Lol. Sometimes I have to laugh at myself and being the frantic crazy mom. Every time we move (and oh we have been moving around like crazy!!) I go through the same routine: find out where the nice areas are; find good schools; a sensible family dr; a dentist; childcare; etc. etc. and somehow my husband manages to do NOTHING and just move in the nice house with all kids in school. I can't believe I am doing this to myself AGAIN!!
I'm sure they are used to it!! The problem is that without a place of residence it is difficult to put yourself on the waiting list for a place. The towns are divided up into a "network (réseau)", so depending on which town you live, you may be in a different network. Look for accueil parascolaire for the places you want to live, and you'll find the places to contact. Apparently the waiting lists are long, so look into alternative child care. The after-school care is managed separately from the actual school, so maybe why you've not got a reply if you've contacted the school.
Hello, we're moving to the Canton de Vaud and were wondering what you finally decided to choose. Are you happy with the public school system? What town did you end up picking? Thanks
Hi You might (if you are able to as a new member) want to contact the OP directly since the last time she was on the forum was back in November. Click on the OP's name and you will see some choices. Select "send an email to xxx". That way the question will arrive in their email inbox that they listed for EF when they signed up.
Hello, yes the public school system is fabulous. Having said that, despite what others had told me (not necessarily on this forums but in person) the public schools in the quaint villages are far better than in Morges. I looked very closely at school options before choosing our village and despite Morges being more vibrant we decided to avoid it. I'm not saying Morges is bad-not at all - but the public schools in the surrounding rich villages are far better in my humble opinion. All villages around Morges are good. If you want to find out where exactly I have ended up then PM me (due to privacy), Good luck
And I forgot, getting on the public school lists for after class is really complicated if you need that option. I am happy to hand hold as we really got burnt couple of times. Let me know
We actually decided to move to Morges, and not to a nearby village, as we assumed school environment would be more stimulating and richer (by "richer" I mean diverse inputs, experiences, cultures etc... not richer families!).
Anyway, our kid still goes to crèche, we have still some time to explore the new environment...
What is a case in nearby Lausanne and Crissier is that schools in workers districts *are* known to have issues with bullying, misbehavior etc.
Graduation rates from primary school to pre-gymnase (academic oriented stream) vary from 20% to 40% depending on area taxable income level.
For some reason some locals are in denial of these facts when talking to them directly, but ask any voie-general teacher and they will tell you what's like because they get to work with some of the more difficult students and they know the general situation best in the particular school.
Thanks for your answer. I wonder, where could you find these data? I tried to look for school-related indicators, but maybe my search was a bit superficial. I recall I found "something", but very general for CH, or maybe Canton - would you have any source by town, or even better, by school? You know, as expat is very important for me that my son feels welcomed and just like the others at school, so I would like to get to know better my new neighbourhood
There are no publicly released data at all on purpose to not stigmatize a school.
But for Lausanne and environments my rule of thumb is: the more modest, multistory apartment blocks are crammed together next to a highway, the worse is the school opinion. That holds true for the school between Ecublens and Crissier, and in north of Lausanne. Sad.
Thanks Yacek, that is really sad. At any rate, I am quite positive on the local school system, ultimately it is a lot about the individuals (teachers, students, families) you meet. Plus, I am going to torture my kids with our own language and literature- I am pretty sure they will be fine (and exhausted by mommy).
How old are your kids? If they are young, I think any of the public shools in villages you mentioned are OK. But when they grow up and have to go to college, it is a different story. Some villages are small and don't have their own college (after 8p) and kids have to go to the neighboring commune school which might not be a good one.