Hi everyone,
long time reader first time poster! thank you all for all the invaluable information you are all sharing.
I will be moving with my wife and 2 kids ( 6 month and 5 year old) by the end of summer to Zurich. My older has been schooled in an international school in tokyo since she was 2, so she is fluent in english. Given the reputation of the swiss system, and looking for them to integrate in their community, we are looking for public schooling options in Zurich. My work will be in central Zurich, and I am willing to commute for up to 45min one way, and our rent budget is flexible ( ~ 4500chf ).
Having read through the forum and through zurich's education websites, some schools seem to offer DaZ classes and/or integration classes. I think my older one will be in KG1 or 2 when we arrive.
to my question :
Are there any specific "school districts", or schools per say, which any fellow expats have experienced personally or closely (friends kids?) and which you would recommend or NOT recommend.
I understand different schools offer different regimens, i.e: separate class for 1 year then integration to normal class, vs pulled from normal class for special german class....But it is still hard to pinpoint which school offers which type, and how did the kids/parents feel about it.
Thank you all for your help!
At the age of 5 she will get DAZ. The integration class is for older kids as far as I know.
At 5 she will be in Kindergarten. There is no reading or writting done at that age in Switzerland so she will have time to adapt to her new suroundings and the language.
Along both side of the lake are many expats. These schools are used to dealing with inernational kids. With your budget you will be able to find an apartment there. Its where I would start looking. Zumikon, Küsnacht, Meilen or Rüschlikon, Kilchberg, Thalwil, Horgen have probably the biggest expat communities. Adliswil might also be an option.
Thanks @irish_temptation!
>> Zumikon, Küsnacht, Meilen or Rüschlikon, Kilchberg, Thalwil, Horgen
I have been looking for these areas for a while now.
Just to confirm, when you say she will be offered Daz, will this be as an extra / pull out of normal class ? or a full time special class with other non-native kids?
Normally it's a pull out of normal class. But again. This is Kindergarten. There is very little formal learning. So things might be different. But she will be fine. It's a good age to learn German and she will pick it up quickly. But in the region mentionned above there is a good chance that there might be other children who speak or understand English. Just make sure she does not only spend time with them ;-)
, One of the main reasons we are looking forward for public schooling is to actually get the kids integrated in their local community and having neighbor kids as friends!
Thanks for the information!