Visiting a Swiss Private School and the Admission Interview: What to Expect and What to Ask

A website shows what a school wants to show. A visit shows the rest, and the interview is where the school and the family decide about each other. No authority sets how either is done: each private school runs them in its own way.

This guide describes how visits and interviews usually go at Swiss private day and boarding schools, and how to get the most out of them.

The short version

• Visit before you apply if you can, and on a school day, while lessons are running.

• There are three kinds of visit: an Open House, an individual tour and a trial day. Each shows something different.

• The interview is a conversation with the child and the parents. The school wants to know whether the child will do well there, more than what the child already knows.

• Many schools also test the language of instruction and mathematics, to place the child in the right class.

• Families abroad can often start by video. See a boarding school in person before you accept a place.

When to visit

Private schools admit on their own calendar, and many take pupils during the year when they have a place. For a start after the summer, families usually visit in the autumn or winter before. Boarding schools often ask families to begin a year ahead. Our step-by-step registration guide gives a full timeline.

Go on a school day. An empty building on a Saturday tells you about the architecture.

Three kinds of visit

• Open House: the school opens to everyone on a set date. You see many teachers and families at once and can compare schools quickly, but there is little time for your own questions. The dates schools have announced are on our Open Houses page.

• Individual tour: an hour or two with the admissions office, often with the head. This is the place for your own questions. Ask to see a lesson and to meet a teacher of your child's year.

• Trial day: the child spends a day or more in the class. Many schools offer it. It is the best test for the child, and the school uses it to observe the child too.

What to look at

• How pupils and teachers speak to each other in the corridors, not in the lesson prepared for visitors.

• The class your child would join: its size, the languages spoken in it, and how many pupils are new each year.

• What hangs on the walls: recent work by pupils, or the display from the brochure.

• At a boarding school: the room the child would really have, the staff on duty in the evening and at weekends, and what boarders do on a Sunday.

• Lunch. Eat there if you are invited.

The admission interview

Most schools meet the child and the parents, together or one after the other. With a young child it is often a game or a short activity. With an older one it is a conversation about interests, the present school and the reasons for coming. The school is looking at fit: whether the child can follow lessons in the school's language, whether the child would be happy there, and whether parents and school expect the same things.

A child does not need to rehearse answers, and a rehearsed answer is easy to hear. It helps more that the child knows why you are visiting, has looked at the school's website and has one or two questions of their own. Bring the latest school reports. If the child has an assessment for a learning difference, bring it and say so: our guide to learning support at Swiss private schools explains why it is better raised at admission.

Many schools also test the language of instruction and mathematics, sometimes English. The purpose is usually to place the child in the right class or group. Ask beforehand what is tested, and whether the result can lead to a refusal or to a condition such as extra language lessons.

Questions to ask

• How many places are open in my child's year, and how many families are applying?

• What does the decision rest on, and when will we hear?

• Who would teach my child, and how long have they been at the school?

• How does the school tell parents how a child is doing, and how often?

• Where did last year's leavers go?

• What does a year cost with everything included, and what is due when we accept?

• At a boarding school: whom do I call on a Sunday evening?

Visiting from abroad

Schools with international families are used to a first conversation by video, and some offer a virtual tour. Both are useful for drawing up a shortlist. For a boarding school, visit in person before you accept: the child will live there. Plan two or three schools of the same region in one trip. Our guide to boarding schools by region groups them.

After the visit

Write down the same day what each of you noticed, the child included. Send the questions that remain by email: how quickly and how precisely a school answers is information too. When an offer comes, check what the deposit commits you to before you pay it.

Our fees guide shows what schools typically charge, by school type and by canton, and the directory lists every school with its programmes and languages.