Swiss schools

Our youngest daughter, Paige, starts school again tomorrow.  She’s twelve and is beginning the seventh grade.   Since she was only three when we moved here we put her in the Swiss school system from the beginning.   In the “How to assimilate” guide book, this would be recommendation #1.   Saves quite a bit of money too.  The primary alternative is the International School of Basel, aka the Expat Cocoon.  We experienced this option as well since our son, who was thirteen and without German when we arrived, graduated there.  In 2013, the Basel public schools implemented a “harmonization” program and Paige’s school year was the first affected.  In a way, it was comforting to be involved in something in which we were as much in the dark as the local parents.  The most immediate impact was that Primary School was extended two years,  to and including sixth grade, meaning the tracking determination was delayed two years.  The program’s goal is to bring all of the cantons into pedagogical harmony.  Common Core comes to Switzerland, minus the NEA bitching.  The details are beyond a mere blog but for anyone who’s interested I recommend “Going Local – your guide to Swiss schooling” by Margaret Oertig.  Here in Basel, it’s available at Bergli books (http://www.bergli.ch/100/con_liste.asp?prono=72) but can be found elsewhere, including Amazon.   For our daughter, the significance of seventh grade is that she’s now moved onto the next step, what would be called Middle School in the US.  What makes it different from the US is that she’s now been tracked.  Again, I leave it to Margaret to explain what this means but Paige is feeling pretty grown up right now.