Taking two days off from kindergarten in Switzerland

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
Hi,

My family and I just moved to Zurich. Our children attend at the kindergarten nearby our flat, everything is good.

Yesterday I told teacher that we're planning for a family trip so I would like to take two days off from kindergarten in the next month. The teacher told me we can only take 1.5 days off for the whole year. That's something new to me, so I asked what should I do if I want to take two days off, she said I should apply for it to the government.

This morning I sent a mail to a governor, and she asked me to write another mail and she'll send it to school masters. If all of them agree, then I can take my vacation, otherwise don't do it. She told me there will be a meeting at end of this month, and all school masters will discuss my case, and then make the decisions.

I told the story to my colleagues, they feel this is a bit over and insane. One colleague told me there used to be a case that a parent didn't apply for family vacation and they were stopped at the airport because of it.

This is the best culture shock I'd so far, very impressive!

2
School attendance it taken very seriously, if you take your kids out of school without permission you can get some quite massive fines imposed. Most kantons do provide 2 joker days so you can use these anytime the school agrees.

3
I suppose you have not read several threads on this issue:

Truancy can be expensive...

Taking my son out of school for vacation

Taking a kid out school for a day

Vacation during School days

How to request school absence before school starts

Public school holidays

Fine the parents if the children aren't fit for school?

4
Very strange indeed. As far as I know, in Zurich, you are allowed two full "joker" days per year (with sufficient notice given to the teachers and their agreement).

The application form on this link (it's the last link on the page) even has two different boxes in which to specify the two joker days you wish to take.

http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/...formulare.html

And besides I used up my two kids' joker days at the start of the year, and the teachers didn't kick up a fuss whatsoever.

btw. the link above is for Schulkreis Glattal, perhaps yours is different?

5
Our local schools are okay about letting children have a lot more than two days off if the time off can be seen as beneficial to the child's general education (and is possibly a family event such as a wedding).

For example, a wedding in the Philippines would be allowed but a trip to Disneyland or the beach would not be.

Taking a vacation outside of school holidays just to save money would not be granted.

6
Tell them they're sick those 2 days, both of them. Norovirus is pretty prevalent right now, that's a good one to use.

7
They really shouldn't be travelling if they've got norovirus.

(Dumb blond answer posted so no one suffers the embarrassment of actually posting it)

8
That's too easy, they wouldn't trust her mostly now that they know the situation.

9
I find this so silly.. it's not like kids under high school age learn anything aside from "socializing" in school anyway.

10
I think it more that their parents get to learn how serious schooling is taken here.

11
The more and more I hear about everyday life in Kt. and Stadt Zuerich, the less and less I ever want to even stop for a pee in that Canton, if and when I visit Switzerland.

Actually, the more and more I am on this forum, the less and less I want to visit any Cantons over than Bern, Solothurn, Graubunden/Ticino and the Romandie (well maybe Schaffenhausen, not sure).

Truancy laws are important, but a 4000 CHFs fine is outrageous for taking your kid out of school a day before official vacation in order to accommodate a vacation.