Schools Abroad: What I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before We Moved

My daughter has been in schools in two countries across three different systems — a bilingual Swedish-German private school in Vienna, a German-English bilingual private school in Switzerland, and next year the local Swiss public school. Every single one of those decisions was made deliberately, for specific reasons, with real trade-offs.

This week I'm talking about what I actually learned navigating school systems abroad — the real cost of international school versus local school, what the Swiss tracking system at grade six means and why it matters more than most expat content will tell you, and the questions you actually need to ask about your destination's school system before you move.

Also: what gifted identification in Austria taught us about Swiss education policy, and why we're moving our daughter to local school before sixth grade on purpose.