Compulsory pre-school attendance
For cantons which have joined the inter-cantonal agreement on the harmonisation of compulsory education (HarmoS Concordat; in effect since 1 August 2009; implementation by school year 2015 / 2016 at the latest), 2 years of pre-school attendance will become compulsory and thus part of compulsory education. The defined enrolment age is reached once the child has turned 4 (cut-off date: 31 July), although later enrolment may be possible in individual cases if requested by the parents. This corresponds to the cantons' tendency toward a transition from non-compulsory pre-school attendance to compulsory attendance.

School entry level: Grundstufe and Basisstufe
A general discussion is underway regarding a more flexible transition from pre-school to primary school and reform of the school entry level in terms of content and organisation. In pilot projects on school entry level (Grundstufe or Basisstufe), children of 4 to 8 years of age are being taught together. The pre-school years are being combined with the first years of the primary level (see compulsory education: school entry level).

Block teaching and all-day structures
Most cantons have schools with comprehensive block teaching (tuition on 5 mornings per week for at least 3½ hours, or during 4 lessons), although only in a minority of cantons does block teaching apply to all schools in the canton.
Less than 25% of pre-schools have supervised midday catering and there are few all-day pre-schools. The canton Ticino is an exception: here, a significant number of all-day schools and schools with midday catering are available.

Curricula
Teaching and learning methods in pre-school and the first school years have converged. Since the end of the 1990s, numerous cantons have introduced new pre-school curricula with binding learning objectives. The learning objectives for pre-school are being integrated into the linguistic regions' curricula, which are being developed in the course of the harmonisation of compulsory education (HarmoS).