As in America, the Swiss are moving toward an educational system which will allow for greater flexibility and mobility for families within Switzerland. The Common Core Curriculum, that many states in America have adopted, has as one if its goals creating a more uniform educational system across states which would enable families to move from one state to another with easy transitions for school age children. Switzerland has cantons, which are similar to our states, in that they ultimately set their own educational guidelines, but uniformity is being considered across cantons now.

 

Parents can choose to send their children to state run schools, which are free, or private schools for which there are tuitions, often based on sliding scales. While we have an elementary school very close to our apartment, we opted to send our daughter to a school that is associated with ETH, the university at which my husband is working. Since we will only be here six months and we assumed there would be other English speaking students at this school because of its attachment to the university, we thought the transition to the school we chose would be easier for our daughter.

 

Kindergarten

Swiss kindergarten is much like kindergarten used to be when I was a kid. Most programs are half-day programs. The public kindergarten program runs from 8:30 – 11:30 each day. Our daughter’s program runs from 8:30 – 4:30 two days a week and from 8:30 – 1:15 or so three days a week. The students mostly spend time developing social skills and problem solving skills through peer interactions while playing outdoors or at centers set throughout the classroom (house, store, puzzles, library, art, climbing room – lined with gym pads, building, etc.). However, unlike kindergarten in New York, kindergarten is mandatory for all Swiss children who turn four by July 31^st, and children must attend kindergarten for two years.

 

Children eat snack in the morning, lunch and an afternoon snack together. The food is provided by the school and is very healthy. Snack usually consists of fruit, plain crackers and cheese. Lunch can be an entree made with eggs, cheese, meat or fish, a grain and vegetables. The students eat together and have jobs such as setting the table or cleaning up.

 

 

 

 

Swiss kindergartners are expected to be independent in many respects. They are expected to walk to school by themselves. In addition, they are expected to manage their own backpacks and take care of their own needs with regard to clothing (zipper jackets, change into indoor shoes and outdoor shoes, put on rain and snow clothing, etc.). Most of the students attending X’s school travel by tram or car, so unlike the general Swiss student, a parent accompanies each student in X's school. We walk or usually run (because we’re late) about a mile to her school. (This is one of my favorite times of day because we hold hands, sing songs, tell jokes, etc.)

We love these German building blocks. We checked out their price at a local toy store and they remained on the shelf.

Centers in the kindergarten

Center Time

More Centers

Daily outdoor play for kindergartners is a given, no matter what the weather. Fortunately, we read Heidi, a story set in the Swiss Alps, to X, and she is now inspired to be as outdoorsy as the heroine. WooHoo! She has already put a hole in her new rain pants, and her rain and snow gear need to be washed frequently because often they are covered in caked on mud. (such a sight made our hearts sing – seriously – “la, la, la…the hills are alive…”)

 

American parents would most likely be horrified to learn that spontaneous field trips, which are covered by a blanket field trip permission slip that the parents sign at the beginning of the year, are a weekly or at least a biweekly occurrence.  X’s class is studying the medieval times in Zurich, and they have walked or “trammed it” to several sites throughout the city including the center for archaeology which has a 3-D map of the city in the 1800s (Zurich was a super cool city with two walls and several man-made rivers protecting its perimeter.), a medieval neighborhood, and the site of a medieval sewer through which human excrement traveled to reach the river. (More about this stinky topic later.) Oh, and then there are the frequent visits to “the forest” where we are told hot soup is heated over a campfire.

 

Primary School

Primary Swiss school lasts for a period of six years which is broken into two groups of three years. Believe it or not, for each of those three-year cycles, the students have just one teacher who follows them. You better hope you get along with your teacher! The school day runs from 8:00 – 12:00, at which time children go home for lunch, and the day resumes at 1:00 and runs until 4:00. They miss out on having lunch and recess together. The staff may find this pleasant, but, I’d guess, the students probably wouldn’t.

 

The academic subjects include math, German, science, history, geography, physical education, music, and arts and crafts. In the second year, English is introduced, and French is introduced in fifth year. I really wish American students were exposed to a foreign language earlier than in middle school.

 

Secondary Schools

Now this is where things really differ from our system! At the end of the sixth year the teacher and parents of the student decide whether the student should attend the local secondary school for the next three years or take the entrance exams in math and German to qualify to attend the “Gymnasium” program which will prepare the student to attend college. Those students who attend the local secondary school receive instruction in most subjects for three years. After Year 9, the student can decide to continue attending school or attend a vocational school, which focuses on a particular profession, while completing an apprenticeship in which they learn a skilled career from masters in the field. The Swiss are very proud of this apprenticeship program and workers are proud of the quality of their work. The Swiss are known for the reliability of their infrastructure and engineering and, at the heart of this success, is the well-trained trades person.

 

I can’t imagine that the majority of citizens are ready to make a decision about what they want to be at such at the end of middle school. Even after graduating from college I did not know what I wanted to do for a career. Fortunately, there are ways of moving from the Swiss apprentice program to the college program. Oh, and did I mention, Swiss students do not pay tuition to attend Swiss universities. What a deal!