We are (still!) looking at neighbourhoods in Tonto - and after having included Catholic schools in our school search we are now also looking at The Beaches.

It is important to us, that the local school has grades JK-08 - and in The Beaches this is only the case for the Catholic schools...

Do anyone in here by chance know of St. Johns (Upper Beaches) or St. Denis (The Beaches)?

St Denis has a significantly better rating with the Fraser Insitute - but I also believe that the demograhics of the two areas are very different And it is difficult to assess the rating for St Johns which seems to fluctuate a lot over the years, so insider knowledge of St Johns would really be appreciated, so I was hoping that perhaps someone in here knows something more than what I can determine from the rating...?

Are you Catholic?

We have catholic birthcertificates, at least

I lived in the Beach for donkey's. The kids commuted to school, in Cabbagetown.

I'm in the area but not close enough to know the schools. St.Dennis is in an area you could only describe as elite- the beaches is my favourite area in TO.

However I checked the catchment area for St.John and its northern boundary is the railway and it's north of there that the neighbourhoods get a little sketchier (yeah wrong side of the tracks). So in terms of demographics I'd have no concerns about St.John.

Why did they commute? Are the high schools in the beaches ok? We are not Catholic.

They commuted because they had the chance to attend a really excellent school (IMO, I assume it ranks poorly in the Fraser Institute rankings but academics were what mattered to us at the time, we didn't mind it being state funded). AFAIK there's no particular strength or weakness to the Beach schools, Malvern was thought rough at the time but it's a fair ways north from the Beach. (I expect it counts as "Beaches" but that's what estate agents call the area so they can stretch it to include most of Scarborough and the first three nautical miles of Lake Simcoe).

We have - as my original post suggests - only lived here for a short time and since my kids are not high school age I don't know much.

I do know, however, that people here are generally happy about sending their kids to Malvern. I also know that some kids are sent to Monarch Park even though Malvern i a lot closer, and they are not happy about that. Mainly - I think? - because of the commute.

So I guess it would probably be a good idea to check the school borders - and the potential commute - if moving here with kids at that age.

What is a catholic birth certificate?

Not as silly as it sounds se are from Denmark and here the Church issues a "certificate of birth and baptism." - so it is the same document

Ah I see...thanks. Just wondered because my husband is catholic...I am C of E and our birth certificates appear to be the same. Or at least from what I remember they are.