swiss kindergarten

[beresh]

Hi, dh has the option to relocate to Zurich from London at Easter. My main concern is schools for 5 yr old DD1 - she's very happy in reception, enjoying learning to read and write and making lots of friends. International schools would be just too expensive - could swiss kindergarten work for her? Is it really possible for english kids to pick up the swiss german language and make friends? If we came back to England in a couple of years is it necessary to do some home schooling so she'd keep up academically?
Sorry lots of questions - any help much appreciated! Thanks.

[Niftyblue]

We put Ds in swiss school at 4 He didnt speak french at all<br /> By the xmas he had friends invited to parties etc etc and a grasp of French<br /> Hes 8 now<br /> He is at an international school now <strong>BUT</strong> only because he has special needs and the swiss school hadnt the support he needed.It was a small school

He still plays with the friends that he met at swiss school and is fleunt in french now like a local

[Gipfeli]

ds (5 in April) is at a Swiss Kindergarten. It's different for him, since he was born here and has been attending Swiss-speaking daycare since before he could talk.
However there is another boy in his class that spoke only English at the start of Kindergarten in August and seems to be getting on quite well.

You may get some additional help for her to learn German in the Kindergarten setting.

Also, there may be some additional language tuition that you can pay for that might help. In Basel, there is this I don't about Zuerich but since it's bigger than here, there's probably something like it.

Also here there are a number of places that offer after-school/weekend English languages classes for children who are native English speakers. Again I presume there's even more of this kind of thing in Zuerich.

Have you discovered any of the Yahoo groups for parents in Switzerland? You may also get some more direct advice there.

[LIZS]

I'd suggest it could work but only if you time it carefully. if you don't speak it either you could also struggle to keep up with what is going on and support her lcoal friendships. Evenn a very fluent friend, committed to the local system, found the parent information meetings a trial.

The first year of formal school is quite intense academically and for many comes as a shock. You may be able to argue for skipping the 2nd Kindergarten year and going straight into the first class but it depends on when her birthday falls (cut off can be April to July depending on area) and you'd need to get reports to back it up and argue your case with the local Gemeinde. She will learn minimal academically in Kindergarten but may well absorb the local language formthe activities and play. In school they learn high German which is more useful beyond globally. There are usually German lessons provided for non native speakers to help. tbh there are no guarantees of maintaining academic parity in the International school either - ds was way off being taught at same level when we returned at Year 3. Agree with recommendation of the yahoo groups for advice !

[beresh]

Thank you very much for your replies, all very helpful. I'll get in touch with the yahoo groups too. I hadn't even thought of out of school English classes/integration programmes, that would be ideal.

We have a couple of weeks to decide on the move so I'll let you know if we do decide to go for it! Thanks again.

[beresh]

Just wanted to let you know that we did end up moving to Zurich and my DD1 has started kindergarten and is really enjoying it so far.

She says they do much more fun stuff than in reception at school! A few of the children speak english and she seems to be making friends.

I also found her a local english reading and writing class and that's going well too.

Thanks again for all your suggestions, the advice was so helpful.