can somebody please explain the school system.

i have two children aged 4 and 2 years, who will be ready for school when we get our visa.

cheers

http://www.settlement.org/site/ED/elem_secondary.asp

http://www.settlement.org/site/ED/GUIDE/home.asp

The answer to this probably depends on where you are proposing to land.

hi there

what exactly did you want to know about the canadian school system? it does all depend on where you are landing. the main difference i found to the uk is that they start a year later over here.

my 2 were in year 1 and year 3 when we left the uk which meant as they start at 4 over in the uk, they were a year ahead of their age group here. my youngest really benefitted from it but my eldest who was put into grade 2 will be moved upto grade 4 in september as she is so far advanced than the other 8 year olds. as your 2 havent started school yet anyway this wont matter to you anyway.

the best ones to ask about the schooling here is the kids themselves. when i asked mine which they prefered they both said the school in canada because the class sizes were a lot smaller than back home so they could spend more time with teacher. they prefer the hours here as they start at 8 and finish at 2 but again that differs from school to school anyway. they seem to do a lot more hands on things here and they both have suddenly found a passion for science and technology. i must say though that accourding to last weeks report cards they have both come on fantastically and have both exceeded our expectations which i think is down to the teaching here.

its hard to compare the school to the uk as every school back home is different and every school here is different. how one works could be completely different to the one down the road. i did find though that we couldnt send the kids to a particular school and had to go to the nearest one to where we were living. obviously if i had found any problems in the past 6 months at their school then i would have fought to get them sent elsewhere but the norm is they go where they are told to go by the schoolboard. again that could be different in other provinces. which province are you hoping to settle in?

oh and we asked our youngest which he preferred, school here or in the uk? he answered very blase that the schools here were better as he had more friends and the girls were better looking. he's only 5!!!!!!!!!lol

Your post was very informative. We are hoping to move to the Okanagan Valley, BC early next year. Our son is due to take his GCSE's next May, so we may hold on for that. Our daughter is going into year 2 in primary this September. She's presently at a catholic school and doing very well. I am wondering how school's are 'rated' in BC. as here we have the Ofsted system, and exam results from each school. Are there any sites we could go on, to find some info.

Are you able to chose the school you want, or is it like here, (Essex) you have to go within the catchment? I know that catholic schools, for example, are fee paying in Canada.

Schooling is our main worry about moving, we just want them to do as well as they seem to be doing here.

Any info, good or bad, would be most welcome.

Calgary has two school systems - public and seperate (catholic) schools - you end up paying similar fees for both.

Have a look at the Fraser Institute - they have reports on Alberta & BC schools' performance.

How easy is it to enroll kids in school during term time? We are likely to arrive in october, and want to get our 8 year old into school asap. How long is it likely to take, based on other poeple's experience?

Thanks
Matt

All of the following is based on the CBE!

You need to find out from the Education Board which office to take your landing papers to, present them, sort out times and dates for any testing - after all of that they will give you a slip for each child which you take to the school.

Our son did not require testing so we were given our slip within a matter of minutes. We took it to the local school (where we had already determined there was space in his grade), filled in the form and were asked when we wanted him to start!

Easy! Quick and painless!

Saying that we arrived in October and moved to our own house in early December. Our son started school around December 10th. In hindsight I would wait until January as the Canadian pageant thingy was a bit too stressful for him on top of the new school bit. With what we know now it would have been worth waiting until January to start school.

So the answer to your question is that it is easy to get into the school but your time constraints will probably come from getting your new home. Its not feasible to get a school place until you have a home.

Just noticed the ages of your children. Testing will not be relevant if they are going into kindergarten. Testing, at least in Calgary, only applies to grade 1 upwards.

If you wait until your son has done his GCSE's, Grade 11 and 12 will be one long yawn for him. Grade 11 is just below GCSE standard, but BC school boards will try and tell you differently. It isn't, I have a child doing Grade 11 and 12 stuff in her Grade 10 class as she is bored out of her head 90% of the time. The Provincial Learning Assessment Test results for your school district will usually highlight the real lemon schools in the district. Catholic schools do cost but not very much at all - two of my four are in Catholic school as the local elementary was so dreadful. I pulled my Grade 4 (age 9) last year and put him into Catholic school; he was missing about 40% of the required modules the teachers in his split grade regular local elementary class just had not bothered to cover.