Zug Schools

Family, Education, Health and Pets
1
First of all hello everyone! This is my first post. First a little background about myself.

I am currently located in sunny Manchester in England. I am looking at potentially accepting an offer for a job based in Zurich and as a result have been looking at life in Switzerland.

I have a young family, an 11 year old daughter (born Jan 2011) and a 6 year old son (born Sept 2015). My wife (wont declare her age) is a secondary school English teacher in the UK but wont be looking to work initially, but is likely to once we are settled.

There is obviously lots to think about above and beyond the job offer itself and this is a big decision which involves emigrating my family. Initially I am researching as much as I can about the various cantons, schools and accommodation to prepare for a trip over to spend some time in Switzerland so I can get a feel for the country and its culture before I accept the role and this I how I stumbled across this forum which I have been searching for a few days now and found very helpful.

It is highly likely that I will look to live in Zug, it has its obvious tax benefits which is one reason but the 2nd is that some work colleagues would also live in Zug, so that would make integrating much easier, something I am keen on.

So I need to find accommodation and I need that accommodation to be near to public schools (I don't intent to use private) for my children and also public transport for my commute to Zurich.

I am aware that the school will be allocated to our children based on where we choose to live, so for me that makes it significantly important when choosing our accommodation to make sure its close to where good schools are.

It is highly likely that if I accept the role I will move over first and my family will follow in July at the end of the current academic year in the UK to avoid disruption to my children's education.

So I have a couple of questions

1) Can someone please help me confirm which school levels (Kindergarten/Primarschule/Oberstufenschule) my children would attend when the schools re-open after the summer break (I believe in August?). I have done some reading but its not clear as I think my children may be straddling school entry points at 6 and 11 years old.

2) Does anybody have any recommendations for schools in Zug?

I have tried searching for Zug specifically but not come across any threads, at least not recent ones.

I have drawn up a diagram of the school system based on Zurich (below) to help me understand. I would love it if someone could look at that and highlight any errors.

Thanks

Heple

2
[](https://ibb.co/TMMHWv4)

3

You need to know that it’s unlikely you’ll be able to do this. Why? Because as a non-EU national now, you’re expected to live in the same canton as your workplace is based in which is Zurich. It can be possible to change cantons, but this would require permission to do so from both Zurich and Zug cantons since Zurich granted your employer a permit for you and Zug would also need to grant you a new one.

This is the non-EU hiring criteria that has to be met for your employer to be granted a permit for you.

https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home…zulassung.html

4
It doesn’t really matter where you live, there will be a good school in walking distance. As for age/grade allocation, there is some flexibility. Your kids will be placed in an integration class to learn German and their skills will be assessed to see which grade to place them in. Age 6 would normally mean grade 1, age 11 grade 6. Kids are sometimes placed a grade lower, when they arrive without German, to give them time to learn the language, especially the 11 year old.

5
Thanks for the heads up on this, I didn't initially see from the website in your link any mention of this or differentiation between EU nationals and non EU, but i have only glanced through, will spend some more time looking through it tonight.

Its my potential employer that has suggested Zug so i will query back with them.

6
Thanks thats good to know they can be placed a grade lower, i would prefer that i think, so they get chance to focus on learning the language and integrate then focus on the syllabus later and gave a better chance of benchmarking with their peers.

I have been trying to find a list of schools but not found any, going to map them out in Google maps, would welcome feedback from anyone that has had a positive feedback from specific schools.

Thanks

7
Unless you go for international schools, you cannot choose a school. Where you live is where the kids go to school.

8
Hello, and welcome to the forum, and soon to Switzerland.

Yes! This is truly one of the blessings of the Swiss educational system. Although there are some differences between the wealthier areas and the poorer (in that there are more taxes available and the parents can contribute more to school activities), such differences are nowhere near as dramatic as those in some other countries.

Therefore, more or less anywhere you live, the school will be mostly fine. Different from what you're used to, of course, but still fine. I'm aware that this can sound almost impossible to believe, yet it is so.

And this is another such blessing.

9
On what do you (and others) base this claim?

School performance figures are not made public.

10
TBH, school performance figures do not exist. If anything is measured, it's the performance of other peoples' kids.

11
depending on the canton and the definition of "school performance", Zurich for example publishes gymnasium acceptance rate by gemeinde

12
I understand that your employer has suggested Zug as a place to live, but they might have forgotten that you as a non-EU person (since Brexit) would need special permission to do so. Often HR forgets about these things, so I wouldn't be surprised

For schools, there are some differences between Zurich and Zug. I'll cover both since it's not clear where you'd be living:

In Zurich, children who turn 4 by 31 July will start first year of Kindergarten in August that year. There are 2 years of mandatory kindergarten, KG1 and KG2. This is followed by 6 years of primary. You can count and figure out which year your children will be in based on this and their birthdays.

In Zug, it's a bit more complicated. The first year of Kindergarten is optional and mandatory school only starts in KG2. Children who turn 5 by 28 Feb will start KG2 in August that year. Parents whose children turn 5 by 31 May can decide if their children will start KG2 in August that year of if they will start only one year later. This is also followed by 6 years of primary.

School districts ... As others have said, some area (usually with lower tax and richer population) tend to have better schools than others. However the differences are nowhere as dramatic as in the US or UK; well, maybe with few exceptions in Zurich that I can think of In canton Zug, school performance data isn't published, so no real objective way to judge school performance there. However, Zurich does publishes all the gymnasium acceptance rates by school district. I can share more about this if you end up moving to Zurich. But very generally speaking, along both sides of the lake (up to a certain point from the city, aka, not all the way down) and above Uni Zurich in the Zurichberg area are good for schools

13
I base it on years of living in Switzerland, and of knowing many people who went to school here and observing that they went on, whether by way of university or an apprenticeship, to make their way in the world, just fine.

I base it upon the very small numbers of reports, whether public or private, of disastrous situations in schools. There is nothing here like the USA city school in which a friend taught, where a security company had to be hired to frisk the school-children to remove guns and knives, nor where another friend worked in a school in Malawi, where there was no electricity, no water and no paper. Nor do children attending Swiss schools regularly get beaten by their teachers, as is still the case in some other countries. The level of functional illiteracy amongst those who have completed school in Switzerland is very low, and their maths skills are good enough to cope with everyday life, unlike many school-leavers in, for example, South Africa.

Sure, in the USA there are many schools which do not run on that fear, just as there are first-class schools in both Malawi and South Africa. However, what makes the difference there is typically money and place of residence.

I'm not saying there are no gaps here. Indeed, I said that there are, and that the schools in wealthier areas typically have more funds. But still, for the vast majority of the population attending school in Switzerland "just the local school to which they were assigned, down the road" really does seem to achieve adequate education and some life-skills. Compared to countries like the UK or at least parts of it, for example, which are highly competitive to get into a "good" school, or other countries where being doomed to attend a "bad" school also means you effectively have no future, but for later exceeding good fortune and mammoth person effort, I think the Swiss system, not perfect, but which just works, is quite a relief.

14
Not here but in other places. A school can be turned around by a new headperson with new staff.

Everything else remains the same - children from the same catchment area with the same socio-economic status, funds the same, etc etc.

The school can go from a low performer to a high one in just a few years.

In the same manner, it can go the other way.

To say the same cannot happen in any country is pretty naive.

Everyone has their own experiences but without figures to back it up, it is just hearsay.

15
Yes, let's compare Swiss schools with ones in Malawi. That's an excellent comparison.

You couldn't make this up...

16
Hi, would it be possible to you to olaborate on why its unlikely. I have read all the guidance and it appears to just be a process of requesting from the Zug canton that i can live there after the Visa is granted from Zurich. I have spoken to my potential employer (a large bank) and they are not concerned with this. So i am interested as to why you think the Zug Canton would have an issue, do you have previous experience of issues?

Thanks

Craig

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Because Kanton Zug gave you the permit and therefore wants to have your taxes. It is possible only if both Kantons agree to that.

18
Your tax is deducted at source, similar to PAYE, but your tax rates are determined by the canton of residence and they receive the payments as well. So your ZH employer will deduct your tax and then transfer it to Zug.

You are asking ZH to give you a permit but hand over the income to Zug...can you see why they may not want to do that? In addition, cantons hand out limited numbers of non-EU permits. So why would they give you one and then let you move away?

Please take everything your HR contacts tell you with a grain of salt. Even people who should be familiar and deal with the requirements frequently get it wrong.

19
Just wanted to note that the comments above about not being able to live in Zug if your job is in Zurich, and you're a non-EU person are just wrong...

How do I know? Because I've just moved from the US to Switzerland, settled right away in Zug, and I work in Zurich. No problems with registering here and getting my B-permit.

Basically, once you're in Switzerland under a B-permit, you have the right to move to any canton you like. There's a process involved, and technically you have to ask permission from your current canton, but in practice approval is automatic. Beyond that, you can choose to initially settle in a canton other than the one which granted you initial approval to move to Switzerland. I get the impression there's a bit more paperwork behind the scenes, but it works just fine.

Good luck!

20
BTW Craig, how's your move going? We also moved here with two non-German speaking kids, aged 8 and 11 and are putting them in local schools. In the Zug school system, kids who don't speak German are placed in special classes separate from the regular schools. They learn German intensively there until they are ready to integrate into the regular school system. These classes would be called Aufnahmeklasse in Zurich, but are just called DaZ here (Deutsch als Zweitsprache). We liked the idea of having a year to focus on German learning, but we'll see how it goes. The DaZ classes for primary school age kids are in different places depending on age. Grades 2 and 3 will be at Oberwil next year. Grades 4, 5, and 6 are at Kirchmatt. Once they graduate from DaZ, they'll go to whatever local school the city assigns them to, based approximately on where you live. On that note, you also might have heard that the supply of accommodation here is pretty thin. You can find temporary corporate housing fairly easily, but it's likely to be smaller than you want and more expensive. But most people relocating from overseas start there and then try to find something permanent. We've heard of people taking many months to do that. The competition is less fierce as you move up the price ladder, but the available properties are also scarcer.