The International School of Geneva (Ecolint) is the largest K-12 school in the area on three campuses around the city - La Chataignerie, Nations and La Grande Boissiere. I think it has a waiting list, but you can check  the website and call for information.

Institute International De Lancy, French and English section

British curriculum on the English side, academically rigorous, excellent results.

We came form New York  but I have a British education, not hard to get used to the U.K system, very pleased.

It too has a wait list, new building is under construction and will be open Sept. 2010.

Good Luck for the move, some great families to get to know here and a great place to live.

Warning: get used to living a little more simply here, things are not "BIG" like in the U.S, took some getting used to but there are loads of things to offset the tiny fridges and shopping hours (lack of).  Welcome to Switzerland...I think you're gonna like it here!

You can go and look http://www.agep.ch/. It's also in English

You'll find all necessary informations on private schools in Geneva. I know Institut International de Lancy is one of the best. See www.iil.ch.

Good luck!

A few years ago i would have said to u " keep your son or daughter away from Ecolint"...too much partying and not enough education...but now from what i hear it has improved a lot and its a bit more civilised. Better resources , BETTER TEACHERS (less prejudice) and basicaly a more friendly environment...

Good luck

There are two major options - Ecolint - the aformentioned campuses, and Collège du Léman - which is in Versoix (a suburb of Geneva). Ecolint is a very public sector crowd with a large number of kids from CERN families and UN & other int'l org people's kids (generally speaking) Collège du Léman also has some int'l org people but it has a LOT more private sector family kids - notably a great deal of kids from Oil rich countries - ex-ussr, middle east & africa - so on that level it's more diverse per say than ecolint (at least La Chataignerie which I attended) which is very anglo-saxon. They're both at around 25k swiss a year give or take, with CDL being a little cheaper then Ecolint and also providing the possibility to house kids (boarding school option) on campus. The other advantages are the following - CDL is well situated - 5 minutes from trains, geneva public transportation (buses) also stop right near the school on top of all the transport options that the school provides (their own buses). It's also near a tennis club / pool / football fields sports complex - http://tcversoix.ch/ Ecolint has several campuses as mentioned - LGB is in town with easy access to public transportation, La Chat is 2-3 minutes from the autoroute (highway) but is quite isolated which is a plus in terms of being close to nature and far from the city (in terms of keeping your kids isolated and without easy access to the city) BUT it's also the major weakness in that besides your car and the school's buses its VERY difficult to access via public transportation - with the train station a good 20-25 minute walk away, and an infrequent bus that passes on the main road, a good 10 minutes away.

I can recommend "La Chat"-have 2 children there,respectively in grade 5 and 9,and they love the school!!

BUT......the  waiting list for La Chat is long.

There is also a new school i Vich -international(near Nyon),but it´s just up to grade 6.

Good luck!!

Ecolint was very diverse  ..the problem with the school at that time:

1) Lousy teachers (most of them anyways)  ive got nice nicknames for most of them but since glocals is a respectable site.. i shall not get into the shakespear language here! 

2) The climate of the late 80's was not exactly "very friendly, make and kiss"  between certain nationalities.. 

 (certain) teachers  actualy found the whole thing quite amusing. In those days u couldnt really report teachers, so u just had 2 shut your mouth and do as you were told or go find another school! 

Things have changed though because times have changed (Im begining 2 sound like Obama!) -Thats why I think ecolint is a good place for kids - but do your research! Its true that Ecolint LGB is in town with very easy access to public transportation and from what ive been told "much better tools&resources for kids education" 

Cheers    

Welcome (in advance) to Geneva!

We just moved from the states 10 days ago and have one child in International School of Geneva (ISG) and one in College du Leman.

All of the schools are difficult to get into b/c of the waiting list - get on them as soon as possible and continue to contact them and ask for updates.  One thing we realized is that the proximity of the school to your house or your work is very important -- additionally, living near the tram can be very .  Traffic in geneva is proving quite challenging...even more than I thought (and I was warned). 

I am happy to give you more details, but let's say I have been stuck in the parking lot of ISG (BG location) for 30 minutes only to be met with 45 min of additional traffic.  This could be particular to my location but definitely something to consider.

I have been at the International School of Geneva - LGB Campus for nine years and have been very involved.  I have one daughter graduate in 2007 and another who will graduate this year.  All have done well assimilating into the school environment and have done well in the IB Curriculum.   I have also had interactions with the other three schools.  They are all terrific.  Yes, there are waiting lists, but the only way to move up them is to get on them.  LGB has about a 15 percent turnover every year depending on the greade entered.  Good luck and look me up when you get here....

Thanks so much for all the replies and information.  We are coming to Geneva next week and will visit the schools.  It's very exciting!

I am up at LGB quite a bit....if you are there and want to ask me a question please call my cell phone 079-263-6935.  Have a safe trip,

Vickie

Hi there,

I have read these thread postings with great interest.

We are arriving from the UK where my son is at a nursery. He is 2.5 years old and has been in nursery since 9 months. We are thinking about International Schools for him from the age of 4, and wondered whether there people had views about the differences between the different campuses of the Ecole International de Geneva, in particular between La Grande Boissière and Campus des Nations.  Any views or "inside" knowledge between these two would be most welcome.

In addition, we hope very much to find a place in a creche in January ass we feel it would be quite regressive for him to go from a busy nursery full of people and activities to a nanny or maman du jour. We are of course going through BIPE, but I wondered whether people had views between the Creche Providence, Creches des Morillons and Creches La Petite Maisonnee.

Thanks very much in advance for your responses!

All the best

Fred

I gave my kids the gift of a new language and the avoidance of high transit class/ friend disruptions. In the process of making that wiser choice I save over Chf 50,000 every year.  I do understand the counter-arguments to my view, and I've concluded that personal preference trumps all pros and cons to either option. 

Both Ecolint campuses you mentioned have informative websites, but your best bet would be to visit both schools, with your son, and get a feel for each one. I think they are different types of schools, but could be wrong.

I have to agree with Bookworm - Intstitute de Lancy is great - we have a 15 year old boy there (been a year) and we have been very pleased both with the school and his performance (not big on sport unfotunately but were spoilt in Melbourne !!). Not as big as ecolint or CDL which suited him and us ...suggest you have a look.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I think I need to carry out more research!! Do send any more ideas and feedback please!! All the best Fred

Hi Fred,

Try getting a copy of the new Education Guide Switzerland.   It outlines what all English-language options in Switzerland have to offer.

http://www.knowitall.ch/index.php/education-guide

And have your wife join the online communities for families before she arrives.   I founded, and run voluntarily, www.moms-in-vaud.com.  There are others, many of which are listed on the links page.

Having children at Ecolint (LGB campus) I have observed that the comment by the person who said there were bad teachers back in her/his day still holds true today (2013). That is not to say they are all bad, and no school can say ALL their teachers are excellent, but we have found that a BIG portion of the teaching body is either a) using rote memorization, b) lacking a clear methodology/direction to teach their subjects, or/and c) not that interested in teaching young people. I konw that my opinion is not isolated, every parent I mentioned this to was conscious of the problem and suggested we "shop and lobby" to have our kids be assigned to the "good" teachers. Apparently, people who have been there for while know who those are. It is known that Math in particualr is a department with clear deficiencies. We found the same for some of the science and French. People say it is a lottery to get a good teacher here.  At the price it commands, it shouldn't.