Twitcher1958

I think it’s very difficult to give an accurate reassuring answer - there are so many variables to take into account. When we moved, our son entered Grade 7 of the local public school, did 2 years there, then to high school - there are no middle schools where we live in Ontario.
Our experience was positive - the school was helpful from the beginning, even when we contacted them from the UK. He seemed to have no particular problems settling in, and no great cultural shift. Academic wise, some people feel that Canadian schools may not measure up to UK standards but that wasn’t really our experience - although the teaching style seemed more relaxed, particularly at high school. We felt that kids needed to be more proactive, and if they were, they got a lot out of it - lots of opportunities to get involved in general school activities than had not been offered necessarily at the UK schools we had used.
My advice would be to contact the local schools to which you are likely to apply, and visit them if possible - as someone else commented, schools tend to reflect the area in which they are located and choosing a school is not the same issue as it can be in parts of the UK. I’m not aware of tests your children would need to take but that would be something to check direct with the school.

dbd33

The first thing that struck me about the school my children ultimately attended was that they had charts on the wall listing last year's graduates, and the all time successful graduates, in order of scholarship funds achieved. Admittedly some of the scholarships were for ice hockey and such, hardly Fulbright's, but a free ride at Brown is still a step up from paying to go to Ry High. I was intimidated by the obvious competitiveness of the place.

I accept that the streaming, SAT cramming and all the rest of it, benefits able pupils of a competitive nature at the expense of the other students. This may not be good use of state funds and may not provide the best outcome overall but, if you're trying to make doctors and lawyers and such, it's what you need.

I utterly reject scilly's idea that there is equality in schools in Canada and that there is such a public perception. We queued all night to put a child's name down for a specific state school before finding the one chosen. No one in that queue thought the school on the next block would do equally well.

LathaReddy

Thank you all so much for replying. Good to see different opinions on UK and Canada education.

Once we finalise the move and the location, i will contact the local schools to get more information.
Regarding the exams, it is good to know that they are not really to assess the child.

HGerchikov

There doesn't seem to be a huge focus on exams at all, even at University level, the mark is accumulated throughout the year based on assignments, quizzes and midterms. The final exam seems to be rarely more than 40 % of the total mark and sometimes only about 20%.

My experience of the education system in Ontario has been mostly positive. No drama about taking kids out for sporting activities, lots of extra curricular activites at the school and a mildly competitive atmosphere (with prizes for top marks at the end of the year).

I would say, assuming your child actually wants to make the move, then they will be absolutely fine.

Collie

As far as academic performance is concerned, the PISA studies show that Canadian 15-year-olds outperform UK 15 year olds in all 3 areas (maths, science, reading)... PISA - PISA

Novocastrian

Yup, that's right. But in fairness the system is a great deal less stressful for the student than my experience at a well known UK Uni is the early 70's.

Everything, your whole 3/4 year performance, depended on a week of six three hour written examinations.

Cruel and unusual torture.

HGerchikov

I think the all year assessment is much fairer than the final exam being the entire mark, although I sometimes do have to wonder when my two actually learn anything as they seem to be permanently doing exams.

Novocastrian

But it's not even all year (unless I misunderstand you). It's course by course. Undergrads on a full time curriculum typically do five or six courses every semester,

If they f*** up on a course they can usually just repeat it and have the f*** up wiped from their record.

It ain't how it used to be, but perhaps unsurprisingly, since a degree in Canada today is worth about the same as 5 O-levels in the 1970 's UK.

Collie

Yep but at least when you get someone in an exam room with an identity card on their desk you can be pretty sure that it is actually they who are demonstrating their skill at answering questions (rather than plagiarising or buying coursework from others)... and that they actually know some basics rather than cutting and pasting from Google and Wikipedia. Frustration with this sort of attitude is one of the reasons I retired from UK academia!

Farmboy1892

Good Morning,

I have read the above comments on both education systems here in Ontario and in the U.K.
I can only speak from experience with our kids. We moved from Northern Ireland where our kids attended an excellent primary school (Elementary). Our class sizes were not too big and the delivery of the curriculum was excellent.
I am sorry to say that fast forward after one year in Canada and it is a horrifying contrast. I have never heard so many accounts from my children of over crowded classrooms and kids with multiple issues. Frankly I wonder if all these so called issues are in fact real??? I feel sorry for the teachers in some way who get the blame for poor parenting who continue to wrap their children in cotton wool and blame the teacher for the way they turn out. When I did mathematics in school there was 24 hours in a day and only 6-7 of those were spent at school.
Whilst our children have managed to maintain good grades at school we will be looking for other options come the new year. Our town has continued to grow and apparently the school has an obligation to keep taking kids in. Three weeks after the pupils returned from summer recess the teachers came into the classrooms one day and told them not to contact their parents as they would be moving class. Apparently this was the local school boards decision and the school said their hands were tied. Children who had been friends with each other and had gotten used to their teachers and classes etc were moved in with completely new kids and a stressful mess ensued. Meetings with teachers and parents were held but we might as well have been talking to a brick wall. In one instance I questioned the way the boards were managing the future generation. Were our children being treated as purely statistics and number on a spread sheet or was there an actual focus on their individual development??
In summary disappointment and anger is what we have experienced to date which is very disheartening. I am sure this is not the case for every parent on here or at least I hope not. This forum is for sharing ones views and I thought it appropriate to post this.
My advice is measure twice cut once!!

Regards

Farmboy

scilly

Class size and composition (number of special needs children per class) usually forms part of the contract negotiated between the teachers' union/college and the provincial government.

The school boards then have to work within that framework.


In this sense, yes, the local school board does have its hands tied.

IN BC, our school boards often state that class size, composition and even teacher may not be fully sorted until the end of September ....... and this may result in classes being combined or children being moved.

The problem is often two-fold ........

1) children who were not registered when the school began setting up its classes etc after the end of May and during the summer vacation. This is often due to families moving into the school area between May and September, and the children just turning up at the school on the first day or week of term. A school has to provide a place to all children living within its feeder area, and to siblings of the same family ....... and this often leads to the placing of portables on the campus to provide extra classrooms. It sometimes happens that children will be refused a place at the school and they have to cross the boundary to attend another school

2) inability by the school board to hire enough teachers to teach all classes, special education children, and subjects such as music or a librarian. That is usually due to a teacher shortage in the town or province.



One thing you might want to check is the class size and composition that is found in the province of interest.

Merely moving to another town in the same province will not change those two aspects

Just google class size and composition + province

I warn you ............... anything you find will be full of legaleses and "what fors" "in the event of", and with all kinds of "exceptions", etc etc

Snowy560

My experience of the Canadian school system (in BC) has been very positive. One child went into Grade 6 and the other into Grade 10. The older one is at a good university now and hasn't suffered from the lack of GCSEs. I thought the broad curriculum right up to age 18 was good.

I found the schools weren't very pushy or rigid in Elementary school, but as someone who thinks that kind of approach is detrimental to children's mental and physical health, I was quite pleased. Children get pushed far too early in the UK system in my opinion and I don't think it's helpful. I once met a parent at my child's primary school in the UK who expressed exasperation because they were having difficulty getting the 5 year old to do her homework. Before I could stop myself it came out of my mouth: "but she's only 5!".

I posted this article a few months ago on BE but I don't think on this thread:

How Canada became an education superpower - BBC News

la3morri

Just to let you my experience of growing up in the Ontario system, it was very similar in the 80s as it is now in that it was the same principle where everyone in the catchment had the right to join the class, even if it meant some years were quite big. I can't imagine the impact it had on the teacher, but as a child/student being the portable was really exciting. I don't think there were any long term effects!

The one big difference, which I can see is the case now, is the emphasis on "well roundedness" in Canada, especially in secondary schools. Universities in Canada look at what clubs you belonged to, what you've done with your spare time, rather than academic achievement alone. I think the single-minded focus on academic achievement here in the UK is really damaging to children. My relatives in Canada don't believe me when I tell them reception age children (age 4) already get homework, which has sadly been our experience.

Partially discharged

Our son is going through this now in his applications to university. He has applied to Waterloo, Queens and McMaster and the 1st two had a detailed submission required outlining what you have done in addition to your grades (i.e clubs you've been part of, sports activities you were involved in, academic competitions, part time jobs, travel, hobbies etc). This requirement is for programs that have high cut off marks to get in and likely get a lot more applicants than spaces and they could just give spaces to the ones with the highest marks. The one thing I'm not sure of is how the universities check the claims by the student that on a typical school day they go to class, work a part time job, are key members of the Mid East Peace Negotiation Team, write op-ed pieces for the Guardian, day trade, get picked for the World Cup etc.

dbd33

I'd forgotten this nightmare. The school suggested social resume development activities, youth councils and so on, to pad the documentation but we already needed spreadsheets to keep track of night school (the curriculum didn't fit in the school day), sailing, ice hockey, dance, yadda, yadda and none of that could be sacrificed without losing some of the "well rounded" sheen. Even with being award winning in academic activities in both official languages and a prize winner at sports the university application resume still had to be a masterpiece of creative writing; so outrageously distorted that it could be posted on linkedin. I admired the person described in the resulting document but I wouldn't have been able to guess who it was.