We are planning a move to Zurich and trying to get familiar with the places to rent an apartment. We've already decided for the Silver Coast because of it's bigger international community. Our priority will be to find a neighborhood with good local schools that have a well established support system (with integration classes and high diversity) for foreign kids. Rents in Adliswil seem more affordable than the immediate coast. Could anyone share any feedback/experience/recommendation on Adliswil schools compared to Thalwil/Ruschlikon/Kilchberg? Thanks!
Hello,
Hi, I live in Adliswil and two of my kids have gone through one of the two local Sekundarschulen (secondary schools) while the third is in the other one at the moment.
Overall the experience has been and is good. The school administration are approachable and helpful (in both German and English). The teachers of my children's classes were also good at their job and helpful.
There have been a couple of cases of bullying, in which my children were involved, and these were handled swiftly and thoroughly (to the point of one bully being moved to the other secondary school campus and being made to give a public apology before the rest of the school).
They have a high level of support for children with German as a second (or third or fourth) language, with varying support depending on the level needed. If your child also needs extra support for a specific, diagnosed learning difficulty then they act on that right away. They are good at catering for and effectively responding to children with medical conditions as well (one of my children has Type 1 diabetes, and they set up a clear medical response plan and informed all staff who worked with that child on how to respond if there was a problem).
The secondary schools now have more of an online presence than they did for my older children, obviously, which includes all teachers listing homework on the school's intranet (at least at my youngests' campus - they have separate principals, obviously, so there might be different specifics). That way, if your child "can't remember" what their homework is, they can log in to check. Some homework can also be submitted through the intranet.
I haven't been involved in primary schools or kindergartens in the area, so can't help you there if you have younger children. I'm pretty sure they also have several school campuses for this age. Check the Adliswil schools' website , if you haven't already ...
Thanks! My kids are younger (3 and 6.5) with no German at all. I was wondering if you also have any knowledge on the gymnasium entrance rates for schools in Adliswil. Do kids get any support for the exam at schools? I read elsewhere that the schools vary a lot in terms of their support for Gymnasium exams. I am trying to get familiar with the Swiss system, which seems very different than what we are used to in US.
There is some help in Adliswil https://www.adliswil.ch/dienstleistungen/50774
But really with children that young stop worrying. Just move to where you find a nice apartment and let the kids be kids.
No one knows where you will live in 8 years time. So much can change until then
Thank you, I agree! Hopefully things will make more sense once we move.
For schools, Ruschlikon and Kilchberg are comparable. Some years Kilchberg is better and in other years, Ruschlikon comes out ahead. Both are better than Thalwil which is then better than Adliswil. Of course individual experience will vary and since picking a teacher isn't usually possible, we can really only talk about things based on statistics here.
https://pub.bista.zh.ch/de/zahlen-un...chulgemeinden/ is the official statistics for Zurich Canton and you can easily compare school districts here. The most interesting number is probably Quote: Übertritte öff. Primarschule / öff. Gymnasium (in %) which gives you the % of children who tested into the 6-year high school after 6th grade. In addition, the two numbers above this one (Quote: Übertritte öff. Sekundarschule / öff. Gymnasium ab 2. Sek and Quote: Übertritte öff. Sekundarschule / öff. Gymnasium ab 3. Sek) tell you the % students who test into the 4 year high school after spending 2 and respectively 3 years first in a middle school (Sekundarschule).
I'd check a few years of data as some of the school districts are rather small and therefore one year's data may not be representative.
In my opinion, the gymnasium entry rate is not a good indicator to compare schools as preparation is often done with private trainings - outside the school system.
Gymnasium entry rate is more closely connected to the socio-economic status / disposable income of the parents in the community than anything else ... as k_and_e says, lots of private/external training.
Also, getting into Gymnasium is not a guarantee of surviving the probation time, in which about a third of entering students are filtered out, nor is completing Gymnasium a guarantee of success in life (nor is it the only path into university, if that's your child's goal).
The Swiss education system has a whole heap of options for students, which can look daunting at first, but allows everyone to find something which suits them.
Fortunately, with children as young as yours, they've got time to sort out what they want well before they get to the end of primary school and have to decide.
Gymnasium is not everything either, by the way. For some kids it's great and for others it's terrible. If you don't enjoy learning and have the self-discipline at this age it can be terrible.
Some of my friends managed somehow to get through Gymnasium and hated it (they were mostly pressured by their academic parents to get in) only to then end up at a university being completely fed off and overwhelmed by the challenges presented at that level. Some of them are now very happy doing something that they could just have done an apprenticeship for. Others LOVED Gymnasium and university and going there was clearly the right choice.
Some that weren't great in school for various reasons made an apprenticeship, grew up, realized that they actually would enjoy getting a university degree and went back to university later in live.
There is not one perfect way. Happiness of the child is also very important. Being bottom 10% at a Gymnasium is much less fun and motivating than being top 10% in an apprenticeship. There are lots of options here and it can be quite complicated and a bit daunting, but it also gives the children the opportunity to find their own way to a good education and eventually a fulfilling occupation.