Thank you!
I am looking for some current information on TASIS [I can't find a recent post]. We are going to live in Lugano for only one year and return back to the United States; we currently live in Montana and my children are pretty innocent, open, and easy-going. Will they be OK in the TASIS environment? What is the reputation currently of TASIS and its students? Is there another option I am just not finding on the web? They only speak English and a very little bit of Italian.
How old are your kids? Any reason why they couldn't attend a local school?
For those who don't know...I had to Google it, TASIS is a school: http://switzerland.tasis.com/
My kids 14, 12, 9, 5 by the time we go.
We are only living there a year before returning home so they really need to be at an English-speaking school .
Firstly, why are you moving? Job related or what? Because private schools here are expensive and frankly I’d be suspicious of a school that doesn’t put its fees on its website. Here’s an example of fees from the International School of Lausanne.
http://www.isl.ch/page.cfm?p=370
If TASIS’ fees are similar you’re talking CHF111,600 for the 4 of them with another CHF20,000 just to be accepted! That’s without the Other Academic-Related Fees too.
I’d seriously look at the two younger ones going into a local school. They’ll pick up the language pretty quickly (always useful) and soon feel right at home.
Thanks, I hear what you are saying. But, we have lived abroad before for one year and put our kids into the local school because everyone said it would be great for them. It was a disaster for some of the kids emotionally and academically [one child lost a year of school because she spent her energy trying to play catch-up with the language]: I think we adults all assume that a smart kid not speaking a language will just pick it up ... they do, but it can be really a difficult time and takes many months. When you are living somewhere for only a year it feels harder to justify the emotional toll of the experience. Anyway, having done it before, they are not willing to go to a foreign school without English again and I don't blame them.
We will be in Lugano for my husband's work.
Any information about TASIS or any other English-speaking schools in the area?
Isn't this what every child is hoped to reach in a year, in a region with a foreign language?
(imho that counts much more than a year of school)
We have users who have or had children in tasis here. You might wait for their more precise answers.
Anyhow, fees are not what Medea was writing above, however not that far away from the mentioned amounts (maybe they have Special offers for more than one Family member?).
My major concern would be that they have a very bad reputation.
Yikes, TASIS has a very bad reputation?
Well, it was not a lost year from our perspective, but from hers: after a year playing catch-up with language she came home playing catch-up at school. It has taken two years to get her academic confidence back. As a whole she may understand the "bigger" picture, but I have to hear her anxiety about doing it all again.
I see your point,
and I admit that I'm no friend of neither anglo-saxon school education nor expat-bubble institutions.
However, I do understand that for somebody in your situation the dilemma is serious. A normal European is expected to speak fluently 3 plus languages, for the reason that the next linguistic border is over the fence. An American has to cope with other issues in another world.
I wouldn't know what I had to do if I were condemned to go to the US in a year and my children not talking any of the national languages.
But what I know is that I would never send them to tasis. I have personally known loads of students from that place, and not only students.
Oh you are so right! I am really struggling with this whole thing, really.
Could you expand on why you would never send your children there? I am so worried about my eldest, beautiful, girl, who is so innocent and sweet...Montana, need I say, is hardly cosmopolitan.
They had a guidance problem a couple of years ago.
For example.
Maybe I'm not the right person to make comments on anything linked to a US standard (which at that degree is far below the European average imho), which in my eyes is even the bigger minus.
TASIS is OK if you like spoiled kids. It'll be OK for a year.
I think it would be nuts to put kids in local schools for a year...if you can afford it, TASIS is a nice school with great amenities and travel programs, they'll meet kids from all over the world and broaden their horizons a bit...sure, lots of kids there are spoiled, but then again so are half the expat kids in Switzerland....
DaphneMontana, I certainly agree that for the older children it’s not worth it if they don’t speak the language. If you were going to be here for longer maybe because the Swiss schools are very good at providing extra language learning support, but for a year - no. However, I do think the 5 year old and possibly the 9 year old could do it. If the fees are no problem for you though then they may prefer to go to the same school as their siblings. Is your husband’s employer willing to help with school fees?
As for other international schools, well here’s Google to help:
Another possibility might be the European School of Varese. The kids attend classes primarily in their own European language. If you lived near the border, e.g., Mendrisio, it could be do-able. Would suggest contacting the school for their opinion and whether they would allow your kids to attend.
Overview:
http://www.eurscva.eu/scuolaeuropea-eng/
Transport services:
http://www.eurscva.eu/secondaria-eng...stici.php?id=9
This might be important:
http://www.eurscva.eu/scuolaeuropea-...ropea.php?id=1
Added:
You might wish to use this ViaMichelin link for a map and route planning:
I'm a Tasis parent with two children at the school. We have been there for a few years. I am happy to share our experience at the school and I believe you can e-mail me on the forum somewhere (sorry I am not terribly familiar with it and I post very rarely), if you still wish to receive information.
Anyhow, just to clarify on some of the things I have seen posted:
1) Tasis is an international school (though with an American heritage) and it does NOT follow strictly one American curriculum and it has not done so for a number of years (having said that, since you are from the US, you surely know there is no such thing as one US curriculum). At Elementary school there is Core Knowledge + Singapore Math + SRA + Italian. At Middle school there is Core Knowledge + British Curriculum for some subjects+ Italian (language and culture) + German. At High School there is IB (International Baccalaureate) + AP; though the great majority of the family I know have children in the IB program.
2) Even if I have been there with my children for considerably more than two years, I am not aware of a guidance problem that happened two years ago. Two years ago there was simply a change of headmaster. Previous one had been at the school for 8 years and wished to go back to the US and a new one came on board and is now in his second year.
3) The school fees are available on the website and you can find them there. Admittedly their level limits social diversity.
4) Reputation is so bad that in the last two years only Tasis students were admitted at Oxford University, King's college, London school of Economics, Warwick University, University College of London, Imperial College of London and Edinburgh University, to name just a few of the most selective UK Universities. I am sorry I cannot give you examples of the US University system as I am not familiar with that.
5) Major problem I see in your case is the fact the school is full in most grades and I have friends that have been wait listed for more than one year. So, if you have any interest you will probably need to contact the school sooner rather than later. It looks to me as if availability depends on a number of factors: nationality (there is a limit on the number of students the school takes from each nationality), mother tongue vs non mother tongue, academics and grades, but I am not really sure on this.
Please feel free to contact me if you wish to have information on my experience and advise. We had some friends from the US who stayed just one year last year as they wanted their daughter to try a large International school. They were coming from a really small High School in the US and we became good friends, so their experience would probably be relevant to your oldest daughter.
I hope this helps.
I was referring to tasis' reputation in Ticino, obviously, by comparison to local standards. Of course a judgement on Quality could change a bit if the comparison is public or even private education in an Anglo-saxon country.
The guidance problem mentioned above was one of a bunch of problems public schools in Switzerland normally wouldn't have to face, and it was not about shift to a new headmaster or anyhow personally linked to Ms Aeschlimann, but more about hr and overall Quality (which in comparison to Swiss standard is low. Btw. Franklin standard is not)
Of course I see the issue for expats willing to leave Switzerland after only a couple of months, being tasis one of the very few expat-bubble resorts.
They may be able to, but if they have to go back to a US education system after that one year, then it may not be worth it. The kids may lose a year and take time to re-adjust to the US system.
I am a great proponent of local schooling but only when it does not/ will not affect the child's education/ wellbeing. If it is for a year, I'd go with the mum's instinct, which is to make sure her kids do not feel the burden of a new language.
Private education for your kids, so they don't feel alienated - super expensive
Seeing their cute faces happy - priceless