The demand for day schools or all day educational programmes for children and adolescents in Switzerland and Western Europe is steadily increasing. Yet in contrast to Scandinavian countries, which are clearly leading figures in this domain, Switzerland lags behind, offering few schools with all day care. The OECD points out that all day educational programmes and schools in Switzerland are developing more hesitantly than in other OECD countries.

Not only in the German speaking region of Switzerland but in the all German speaking countries are day schools an important aspect of the political agenda concerning education and it is also a key feature of current trends in education. Due to the fact that the demand for day schools is high the discussions circulate around the quantity thereof, not their quality.

The PISA study identifies that day schools and all day educational programmes hold within them an enormous potential, for they allow children to be surrounded by a stimulating social and educational environment and enable parents to pursue a career (Lanfranchi 2004). Research studies show that all day care taking structures for children are important areas of socialisation and education (NICHD 1994; Lanfranchi 2002; Lanfranchi/Schrottmann 2004). These empirical findings were strengthened by two large scale studies regarding all day educational programmes and day schools in Germany and Switzerland – StEG-Study (Study focused on the development of day schools in Germany: Fischer/Kuhn/Klieme 2009) and EduCare-Study (Schüpbach 2010).

With regard to the current discussion on school quality and school development it is the goal of the study “Day Schools: Their Use and Pedagogical Quality from a multidimensional view” to focus on the pedagogical quality of day school programmes, thereby drawing upon the two largest studies in the German speaking region concerning this area. The study focuses on the pedagogical qualities of two specifically chosen day school models, namely schools which offer a compulsory whole day attendance for the children (day schools) and those which allow for a more flexible combination of attendance (so called school clubs). The aim is to collect empirical data which will enable the future development of both day schools models as well as all day educational programmes in the city of Zurich. The main focus of the study lies on the use of different supervised services offered by the school, the quality of pedagogical services and frameworks, different forms of cooperation, as well as the general comparison of the two day school models. 

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