May 2008

By May, C is making progress on the maths front, which is a relief.

We decide that we really ought to see if we can visit the other Swiss village school, so we do. This one we like even more than the first one. The Headteacher here speaks excellent English and also happens to be chairman of the board of Headteachers within the Gemeinde, so he knows all the schools very well and is able to explain a number of things, including :

• that they follow the Kanton Zurich policy of block timetabling - good.


• He would be able to ensure that the children end up in the same school as each other (which isn’t always the case in Switzerland – family members are often separated) and that he will get them into his school as it’s much smaller (c.240 pupils) and probably would be better for them.


• that they have a policy of not keeping auslander children back a year as it has repercussions at puberty when they are then not with their immediate peer group.


• The boys would be placed in the main class but would get extra German tuition (rather than being in a special class until their German is good enough for them to join the main class.)
  

We express our concern that if either of the boys is to have a fighting chance of achieving gymnasium entrance (which is by no means a prerequisite for us, but if they are academic it would be a good opportunity), would they have sufficient time to catch up to the required level in German ? After all, J is 9 and only has 3 years left in primary school, so time is of the essence for him. The headteacher explains that there are two opportunites for Gymnase entrance in Kanton Zurich, the Kurz Gymnase (short Gymnase – lasts 3 years) and the Lang Gymnase (all 6 years).

Finally, he gives us a DVD which explains, in English, among other languages, how the school system works in Kanton Zurich, three copies of the Gemeinde School Magazine (which is excellent) and the home phone number of one of his members of staff who is American – he tells us to ring her if we have any more questions – not because he doesn’t want to field them himself, but he realises that it might be easier for us to talk to someone who also speaks the same mother tongue.

Wow.

We come out of the meeting thoroughly cheered: this is clearly a very sensible option for us. They really do seem genuinely happy to welcome us auslanders and they seem happy to help us integrate.

The icing on the cake is that I then get home and bump into the Swiss Italian neighbour again – it turns out that this is the school where her youngest son is. The one who has been on 3 school camps this year.

We're still a bit concerned about the secondary level of schooling but have decided that if they don’t get into the Gymnase – and therefore have the opportunity to do the university entrance standard Swiss Matura - we can consider putting them into an international school at 15 to complete the IB diploma. Hopefully by this time I’ll be earning again, and they will be able to get themselves to school independently.

OH contacts the Schulsekretariat by email, copying in the Headteacher, who then emails back, within a couple of hours, allocating the boys to his school, and naming which classes they will be in.

It’s done: we're going Swiss.