Geneva · time the lake
Geneva is UN weather and a French-speaking city. The school people mean first is often three sites, not one château. Read which campus offers which diploma before you fall in love with the view.
Geneva is not a boarding château on a postcard. The day-school conversation starts with the International School of Geneva (Ecolint) — a foundation, ages 3–18, three campuses, and a school that helped invent the IB.
Use the portraits for Swiss-franc fees and which diploma sits where. This note is the city around them. The Switzerland country page is the wider walking map — including Collège Champittet on the Vaud side, Pully and Nyon, a lake door that is not a Geneva campus.
Ecolint is not “the lake school.” It is La Grande Boissière, Campus des Nations, and La Châtaigneraie in Founex.
The portrait is specific: Nations holds PYP, MYP, DP and CP. Grande Boissière holds a Universal Learning Programme and the IB DP. Châtaigneraie holds PYP, MYP-aligned middle years, then IGCSE and IB DP or the Swiss maturité fédérale. English and French live on the pages. Ask which campus this child would actually sit on. A brochure that says “Geneva” is not an address.
Time the lake, not the postcard. Grand-Saconnex and Founex are not the same 7:40.
Families who visit Ecolint often also walk Collège du Léman in Versoix — Nord Anglia, day and boarding, five published diplomas — or Institut Florimont in Petit-Lancy, a 1905 privé with Swiss Maturité, French Bac and IB. Collège Champittet is the official Vaud-side door: Pully, optional boarding, Swiss Maturité, French Bac and IB. Time that drive. Those houses share a lake and almost no Monday.
Read each house’s own franc PDF. We printed the 2026–27 tables we could open. Confirm them there.
Boarding is a different Geneva-adjacent childhood. Institut Le Rosey and Aiglon College live on the boarding map, not on this city hub. Go on a Sunday evening if that is the conversation.
Geneva is a French-speaking city. An English-medium classroom does not make the tram English. Ask how much French a shy eleven-year-old will really have by the second spring. Ask who translates the joke in the first month. The language of the yard is that test.
If you might stay, the Swiss maturité and a bilingual private are not optional colour. If you will leave, the portable IB may be the kindness. Write which.
The city hub is the short map. The Ecolint portrait is the long one. Zurich is another Swiss Tuesday; do not flatten it into “near Geneva.”
Friendly orientation, not formal admissions advice. Always confirm dates with the school.
A Nord Anglia day-and-boarding campus in Versoix, not the UN quarter. High school offers IB, IBCP, an American diploma, the French Bac and the Swiss Maturité. The 2026–27 boarding year is a published CHF 117,500.
GenevaA Geneva private in Petit-Lancy since 1905, francophone or bilingual from kindergarten, then three leaving papers. The 2026–27 tariff is a published PDF in francs, VAT included. It is not Ecolint and not Versoix boarding.
Geneva, Le Grand-Saconnex, and FounexEcolint is a day school for ages 3–18. “Private” here means a foundation with published fees, not a château. Read which campus offers which diploma before you fall in love with the lake view.
Chesières, Villars-sur-OllonChesières sits above Villars at about 1,200 metres. The school will send a tuition document. We will not borrow a number from a directory.
The letters on the leaver’s certificate matter. They are not the whole child. Here is how to tell them apart without a headache, and without pretending every door stays open.
16 minYou do not need a perfect algorithm. You need a few true things about your child, a boring list on the fridge, and the courage to ignore a beautiful campus that does not fit.
15 minTuition is the number on the homepage. The PDF is the number that arrives in March. Here is how to read the second one, without inventing a euro, a krona, or a deadline.
12 minSkip the question about last year’s average. Ask the ones that make a teacher’s face change. Then look at the corridor while they answer.