Hello, everyone!
We're planning to move from Bucharest to Zurich in one month and we have a 3 year-old kiddo. Just getting informed from many only sources about the family life there and I cannot refine the info alone.
I read in multiple sources that:
- the kindergarden is free until 4 y.o.
- it takes several months to be accepted
Then I searched on Google for kindergardens and I found only private ones which cost 2400-2500 CHF per month.
My questions are:
- is it true that in the public kindergardens you have to pay only after 4 y.o.?
- is there a list of private and public kindergardens?
- does it take you 3 months or 6 months to get in in both cases?
- should we start with the kindergarden and then rent? I kind of feel like it should be really close from home, not to use public transport daily to take him there
Thanks in advance for your kind answers!
Alexandra
Not sure what sources you were reading but there is no free pre-school care. Most are either fully private or some are subsidised by the City in the cases of low income families. Most have varying waiting lists.
Kindergarten is (in Zurich) from approx 4 years old, depending on birthday and is indeed free, unless you want after-school care and lunches. There are no waiting lists as attendance is compulsory as it is the start of formal schooling.
The Kindergarten your child will go to is nearly always within easy walking distance.
You are probably best to search this forum for some basic information, such as the difference between Kindergarten and pre-school care (Krippe/Creche, etc)
There is no such thing as free daycare for a 3yr old, and around 2.500,- a month is correct. However if your child does not speak German there are programs from the city where you are entitled to Subventionierte Kita-Plätze with certified daycare that provide extra language support and city will pay along (depending on your income and capital.)
And depending on where you seek it indeed might take 3 to 6 months. I decided that a little bit further away was no issue, and since we preferred a group that takes the kids everyday into the forest this was already needed anyway, it took us two days to find a group.
We signed up here: https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/sd/de/i...plattform.html , and the next day we already where contacted. Drove by the day after and a place was found.
Daycare = Kita, free of choice and paid by yourself tho some subsidies might happen and unto around 4 (or if your child lacks language/skills/development to roll into kindergarten one year longer)
Pre-School = Kindergarten, city will simply send you a letter on what day and where your kid is expected to start, this will be in your neighbourhood, this indeed is free (well some little costs do occure)
Isn't that only offered from Kindergarten onwards, though? If you want language help from pre-school nurseries, krippe, etc., you just have to send your little one to a bilingual one such as Globegarden or Little Star.
From Kindergarten, it's integrated into the curriculum for non-German speakers and falls under DaZ (Deutsch als Zweitsprache). Usually it's compulsory and FOC.
Nope, source: Me
We run an English household (I'm Dutch, My wife is Swedish and we both hardly use our mother languages) therefor our kid is lacking German language skills, our paediatrician asked us is she should sign us up for a program that Zürich has to offer extra language support for young children
We ended up with being entitled to financial support depending on our income for 3 full days a week if we would sign up in one of the daycares that is certified by the town in offering extra German language support.
We signed up with Güxi who have such certification and offer this extra language support, and they have a logopedist visiting regularly to keep track of progress and who advises us and the daycare team on how to handle teaching our kid in the best way, also they will do special practices with him during daytime if needed. So it is different than just simply being a bilingual group (The group is fully German based, even tho the employees like almost everybody in Zürich are able to speak English)
So we are entitled to a subsidy based on our income solely for the reason of helping our currently 3 yr old kid speak German. No clue about how much subsidy everybody would be entitled to but currently our household earns about a bit over 100K a year and they pay along 24% (which given the prices is on a yearly base a pretty decent amount)