Moving to Switzerland with school-age children

The commune, not the school, and immediately on arrival. In canton Zurich, newly arrived children of compulsory-school age are admitted from the start of residency regardless of residence status or German proficiency, and if parents do not register, the authorities are obliged to compel attendance. In the city of Zug the office is the Schulverwaltung at Gubelstrasse 22, and it assigns the child to a school and confirms it to you in writing — you do not choose. In Basel-Stadt, Sekundarschule applications go to Volksschulen at Kohlenberg 27 or by email, with the child’s last two semester reports attached, and confirmation arrives at the latest two weeks before the start date. In Vaud you enrol at the school serving your address. In Geneva you telephone the school nearest your home for an appointment which the child must attend, with an unusually long document list.

Essentially no, in any of the cantons we checked, and this is worth knowing before you choose a flat. Vaud assigns by recruitment area. Geneva assigns to the nearest school in principle, subject to capacity. Basel-Stadt lets you name three preferred locations and says they will be considered if possible, guaranteeing nothing. Zug assigns and notifies in writing. Zurich assigns by commune and age cohort. The practical consequence is that in the Swiss system your address chooses your school, so the housing decision and the schooling decision are the same decision.

It varies, and Geneva is the most demanding of the cantons we checked: the child’s identity document, both parents’ identity documents, the child’s health insurance, residence attestations for the child and one parent, the rental agreement or property deed or land-registry extract, a recent utility bill, and school reports from the current and previous year. Falsified domiciliation results in immediate termination of enrolment. Basel-Stadt wants the last two semester reports specifically, because they determine which Leistungszug the child enters. Everywhere, bring more school reports than you think you need — placement is decided on them.

As a rule, no. Canton Zurich’s guidance is explicit that newly arrived pupils are assigned to their age-appropriate class, that placement a year below age level requires substantial pedagogical grounds, and — in terms — that a lack of German is not by itself a reason to hold a child back. Vaud places provisionally and reviews after three months, and for grades 1 to 8 the director may reassign after consulting parents if the placement proves wrong. If a school proposes a repeat year purely on language, that guidance is worth quoting back.

Real support, with published time limits, and this is where the general relocation guides are vaguest. In canton Zurich a part-time reception class runs for a maximum of two years, after which the child attends the regular class with additional German-as-a-second-language support; a full-time reception class runs for a maximum of one year; and initial intensive German is at least one lesson daily during the first semester. In the city of Zug, children from the first primary class whose mother tongue is not German attend a DaZ class for one year. In Vaud the intensive French provision — classes d’accueil, groupes d’accueil and cours intensifs de français — runs for one year, exceptionally two. In Geneva, non-francophone pupils at the cycle d’orientation attend classes d’accueil, and at primary level half-time welcome classes. Basel-Stadt offers German as a second language at every school and every level, plus heritage-language teaching in over 35 languages.

Often not, and we would rather say so on the page than in a sales call. The cantonal language provision is genuinely good and it is free. The two situations where tuition earns its cost are these. First, subject knowledge: the reception class teaches the language, but mathematics, science and history carry on in the regular class meanwhile, and a child can emerge linguistically competent and a year behind in content. Second, a hard deadline — a selection examination in March, or a mid-course international qualification that does not wait for anyone. If neither applies, give the school a term first.

Mid-August to late August everywhere. Canton Zurich started 2026/27 on 17 August 2026 and starts 2027/28 on 23 August 2027; Geneva started on 17 August 2026 and begins its 2027/28 year on 26 August 2027; Basel-Stadt starts 2027/28 on 16 August 2027. Mid-year arrival is handled rather than blocked: Zurich admits from the start of residency, Geneva enrols from mid-August to the end of June, and Vaud applies the same procedure at any point in the year with a three-month placement review. One quirk worth knowing in Zurich — for the Volksschule the communes set most of the holidays, and only the start of the year and the Christmas break are cantonally fixed, so two families in neighbouring communes can have different half-terms.

Manageable but real. A family from Australia, New Zealand or South Africa leaving a January-to-December year will almost always arrive mid-Swiss-year, and a child who has just completed a full local year in December lands in February into the second half of a Swiss one. That means half a year of overlap rather than a clean join, and it is the commonest reason we are asked for a term of catch-up. North American families have the easier calendar — a late-August start lines up well — but face the harder version of the next problem.

That the decisions which shape the next ten years are not taken in August. Canton Zurich’s gymnasium entrance examination is held in early March — Monday 8 March in 2027 — with registration open only between 1 January and 10 February and a fee of CHF 50. There is no recommendation route in Zurich; the examination is the only door. In Vaud, orientation at the end of the eighth year rests on cantonal tests taken in the spring, and admission examinations for the gymnase run in late May with a registration deadline of 31 January and no extensions. A family arriving in August, reasonably believing they have arrived at the start of things, can be a few months from an irreversible selection that nobody has mentioned to them.

It matters a great deal, and the names differ by canton. Zurich has Sekundarschule divisions A and B, sometimes C, with up to three achievement levels layered on top in mathematics, German, French and English. Bern has Realschulniveau and Sekundarschulniveau, with a third gymnasium-preparatory level in some communes and in the francophone part. Basel-Stadt has three tracks — A, E and P — where P is the gymnasium route, moving up requires a grade average of at least 5.25, and three or more failing grades moves a pupil down, with transfers after each semester. Zug has Werkschule, Realschule, Sekundarschule and the Langzeitgymnasium. Vaud has voie générale and voie prégymnasiale, with two ability levels inside VG in French, mathematics and German. Geneva has the cycle d’orientation with regroupements and sections, and is mid-reform — replacing section-based grouping with needs-based groups, piloted since 2025 and extended to five schools with a common core in the ninth year from August 2026.

The honest trade-off, with the numbers. International school fees in Switzerland for 2026/27 run roughly CHF 28,000 to CHF 40,000 a year: Zurich International School publishes CHF 32,800 for grades 1 to 5 rising to CHF 39,700 for grades 11 and 12, plus a CHF 500 application fee and a one-time CHF 5,000 infrastructure contribution; ISZL publishes CHF 33,200 to CHF 39,700 and states plainly that it offers no sibling discounts, financial aid or scholarships; International School Basel runs CHF 28,210 to CHF 38,000 with a one-time CHF 4,500 development fee. Cantonal schools are free. The international route buys continuity of curriculum and language, which is worth most to a family that will move again. The cantonal route buys integration, the local language and a Matura — which is the only qualification that opens a Swiss university without a threshold. Length of stay is the variable that decides it.

Yes, in two ways that catch people. Zug is not a HarmoS canton and its compulsory schooling is ten years rather than eleven — one mandatory kindergarten year, six primary years, then lower secondary — so a family moving from Zurich to Zug is dealing with a different year count for the same child. And entry to the Langzeitgymnasium has been exam-free, with the assignment decided jointly in conversation between the teacher, the parents and the child, and a commission to resolve disagreement. That is unusually consensual by Swiss standards. The canton has consulted on introducing an entrance test for the Langzeitgymnasium, so check the current position rather than relying on this paragraph.

We will not give you a number, because the honest answer is that it varies enormously by age, by previous languages and by how much of the day is spent with local children rather than with other new arrivals. What we can give you is what the cantons themselves plan for, which is the most useful proxy available: Zurich structures reception provision to end within one to two years, Zug plans for one year in a DaZ class, and Vaud plans for one year, exceptionally two. Those are the timescales the systems are built around, and they are a more reliable guide than any figure we could invent.

Three things, in this order. Register with the commune the week you arrive — in most cantons it is an obligation rather than an option, and placement is quicker than families expect. Ask the school one specific question: what selection or orientation decision falls in the next twelve months, and on what date. And send us the last two school reports if you would like a second opinion on where the gaps actually are. We will tell you honestly whether tuition is worth buying at all — for a great many arriving families the answer for the first term is no, and the cantonal provision does the job. Nothing is charged to enquire and nothing is charged to be assigned. Book a tutor, or send a WhatsApp message on +41 76 213 1843.