How ICS began

The Inter-Community School was the first international school in Zurich. It was set up in 1960 to provide a primary school where the growing number of English-speaking expatriates in the city could send their children. Over the intervening 50 years it has developed from being purely a primary school into a school that educates children from 3 to 19. And its numbers have increased ten-fold. ICS began with 80 students from 10 nationalities and today has 842 students from 48 nationalities. 

Parent power

ICS was the brainchild of parents from the American, British, Australian and Canadian communities. They had been brought to Zurich by employers like Swissair, Ford and Dow Chemicals but had found there was no English-language school for their children to attend. The parents banded together and recruited progressive British teachers Gerald and Kay Atkinson to found the school. With some ups and downs, ICS opened its doors on 20th September 1960. On 20th September 2010 we proudly celebrated our fiftieth birthday. Throughout the 2010-11 school year we marked our 50th Jubilee with many events to remember our past, celebrate our present and to look to our future.

ICS was based in a villa in Zurich during
the early 1960s.

Today ICS is in a purpose-built campus
in Zumikon.