Southcote

I've read a few comments about education at Canadian schools recently that seem to cast some doubt quality compared to that on offer in the UK. This has surprised me.

The two areas that we are considering are BC and NS. On a trip to BC last year we passed by a school in Squamish. On the off chance we popped in to see if there were any brochures that we could take away. We we spoke to the receptionist, she said if we gave it a few minutes the Principle would have a chat with us. This came as a complete surprise, as I couldn't see that happening at home.

The school was great, and the facilities were very impressive. The Principle was talking as if it was a 'done deal' and that my daughter could start at the school as soon as we moved over. I queried this, and mentioned that the class might be full by then and he said no problem, he'd get another teacher and put another class on. I nearly fell off my chair - this would never happen at home.

From the people I spoke to the school was rated quite highly also. All this left me with a very good impression of Canadian Schools, but as mentioned there have been some comments recently that appear to balance the arguement. For those of you that have experienced schools on both sides of the water, which do you prefer ?

scrubbedexpat074

I prefer the schools here (in Nova Scotia) to the UK (where I was a teacher) by far. There isn't quite the dedication to "curriculum" which is suffocating the schools in England. I think the pace is slower, so the kids "learn less" per year, but who cares whether they start uni (or work) when they are 18, 19 or 20?

My daughter started school here in September, and we got an apology for the large class size of 21. She loves it, we couldn't have hoped for a better start for her. Whenever I go into the school (quite often!) I feel so welcome and know I can walk into my daughter's classroom as I please (which I find strange!).

Any specific questions, PM me.

Mark

snowqueen

Both sides of the argument are right. Yes, the schools are amazingly accomodating and facilities very good. My kids of 11 and 9 (we moved to ontario last year) adore their school, loads of fun, trips etc. It has really committed young teachers, and they are also very approachable, and do plenty of sports and other stuff after hours (unheard of in Ireland, where they clock off on the dot!) We are very impressed with all of that, plus the whole character building thing. There is also a very 'holistic" approach to learning, interconnecting different subjects which is much more relevant to real life and more interesting for them.

However, they do not believe in correcting my daughters spelling mistakes (don't want to discourage her) don't seem too fussed when she can't be bothered to write neatly (even though I know she can!) and are way behind in doing things like cursive writing. Which means the appearance of my kids work has gone down the pan!! As far as the curriculum is concerned, it broadly carries on from what my kids had done before, but my guys are nevertheless considered a little ahead by their teachers.

So it all depends on what is important to you. Is the learning experience more important than the niceties of spelling etc, or do you need to feel they are getting a good old fashioned education? I'm still not sure how I feel, so I don't have any easy answers. However Canada does produce top quality doctors, lawyers etc, plus the young people you come across are almost uniformly nice, polite, helpful and decent human beings, so maybe standing back and looking at the big picture is the important thing.

Good luck
Snowqueen

Alberta_Rose

At some point they do seem to come back to spelling and grammar as a priority, as my son has found. He was turned down by two uni's as he had not studied enough English (in England!), and now he is at Calgary studying engineering he has to sit a use of language exam some time in his first year which is all about sentence construction, spelling and grammar from what I can tell.

My 15 year old, is really enjoying school, which is a marked change from how he was in the UK, and also seems well motivated to get good grades, which he did not seem to have cared less about in England, just doing the minimum amount of work to not get into trouble as far as I could tell!

montreal mike

You had mentioned cursive handwriting. I was lost. The word just didn't ring a bell. So I looked it up. I found this article to be informative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive

fan li yee

Ziggy 8080

how did you go about researching schools in NS? We are planning to move to NS in a couple of months and would love to have a rough idea of where the good schools are. I have had a look on lots of websites but can't find anthing like an HMIE inspection report that we have over here. any info on schools you can think of would be great.
kind regards
fan

wensamjam

Hi,
I totally agree with all you said. Our son started primary in September (in NS) he loves it, has settled really well. I used to go into the school and help out in his classroom. The whole school has a great friendly atmosphere. You can just walk through the main doors and down to the classroom, but it is polite to go to the office first and let them know you are there. Our son sings the national anthem every morning when they arrive in school, I would think that happens in every school.(tell me if i'm wrong anyone?). Can you imagine if that happened in Uk?
We didn't research schools as such when we moved here, but when we moved to fall river you only have chose of 2 schools and they have to go where you are in the catchment. We are very pleased with our son's school and his progress. He has become a very well rounded boy enjoys the reading ,writing side, but does love the the sports. Here there seems to be alot more sports for them to choose from, and when school is closed there is always some type of club(wether it be sports, art or drama etc.) for them to go in.
Sorry can't add anything about BC schools.

scrubbedexpat074

Like wensamjam we didn't research schools, I think we were so relieved the kids wouldn't be schooled in England it didn't matter at the time! Like anywhere "bad" schools go with the areas that feed them, stay away from Spryfield, North Preston and northern parts of the Halifax peninsula (Gottingen St/Agricola etc) and you should be fine. North Preston feeds Ross Road School incidentally as does parts of Lawrencetown - I wouldn't want my kids going there I must admit. Apart from that, the schools are a breathe of fresh air.

Re: HMIE inspections, I don't think they are worth the paper they are printed on anyway. When we inspected it was farcical, they school was redecorated, display boards were refitted and beautiful, inspiring posters suddenly appeared in them. Blinds were repairs, bulbs replaced, my desk which had been broken for four months was miraculously repaired. All observed lessons were carried out by young, recently qualified teachers using the latest teaching methods/guidelines whilst teachers known to favour more traditional methods were not seen... Anyway, it's easy to pass the inspections and pass well when you hide the bad stuff!

PM me any areas you are interested in and if I know any of the schools, I'll comment.

hot wasabi peas

From a university point of view (which might be relevent to some now or 15 years or so). I went to uni in BC and in England and worked as an essay writing tutor/proofreader ( ha! ) for other students. I have read many, many essays and MAs and helped students clarify their ideas and arguments (for papers) on both sides of the pond.

General observations:

I found that there was much more of an emphasis on theoretical work in the UK and the scope of study was much more focused and in depth. Students seemed to know their topic inside and out and were very good at wrapping theory through their arguments.

I found that students in Canada didn't use theory as much. Instead they related their topic to the real world and to other topics. The papers tended to be much more political and tended to offer possible solutions to problems.

Spelling and grammar were equally bad and great although, in the UK, I was surprised by the amount of txt n ppl put n2 an s.a., omg!

All the above were just generally observations, but even in my own studies... in BC I was encouraged to subvert and challenge the status quo and to be political in my work. Many of my professors would not take part in research unless it could benefit the people being researched. In the UK, I got slapped on the wrist and I had to rewrite a few essays and learn to toe the line. I gained a better appreciation for theory in the UK but I found it all too apolitical and 'ivory tower' for my liking.

But, most importantly, the pub crawls in the UK were cheaper and contained far more male nudity.

snowqueen

Glad to hear that it matters eventually! At roughly what stage do they come back to it? Glad your son is enjoying school BTW.

SQ


Aha... this betrays the fact that my kids were educated in littl'ole Ireland and not the UK. I had never heard it called cursive writing either until I got there, come to think of it. It is just joined up writing but more squigly and old fashioned!! (However it is meant to make for neater handwriting in later life....?)

SQ

daft batty

As a student at college in Ontario I have just had to take a course in "communications" this included three grammar exams and producing a short research paper. The college thinks this is necessary as the students often don't know how to spell or how to construct a sentence. I have worked with degree students in the UK, reading assignments for them, working clinically reading patient notes etc. They also had little idea of grammar, spelling and had a small working vocabulary. The difference may be that the university didnt think it was important. In Canada I work as a peer tutor and am amazed at the lack of general knowledge that the students have, but then I am tutoring failing students so that might explain why!

The Canadian students I am with are mostly happy, eager, pleasant people who turn up on time, the UK ones were mostly trying to get away with as little as possible. That said I can only really compare two educational establishments rather than a whole system.

I am very happy at my college and am enjoying school for the first time. Classes are scheduled between 8 am and 6pm. There may not be a lunch break so you take your food to class. The teachers treat their students with respect, there are no discipline problems to deal with, people help each other. Its a good place to be.

iaink

See, and I just though it was when you used words like *****, ****, ****, ******, ******, and ****.

Piff Poff

These are the things I REALLY like about my daughters school:

The teachers are approachable and have time for you as a parent and have time for the child.

The teachers are available before/after school and during if the child has problems with homework etc.

The teachers are available by e-mail.

There are up to date websites to look on for timetables/calendars etc.

The range of subjects to choose from.

The fact that the kids spend more than one afternoon learning a new subject - time is spent teaching the subject so the kids understand it more.

The kids can resit a test if they don't like their grade to try to improve it (I'm sure as she goes up a year that benefit will stop?)

She has learnt lovely cursive writing - she wasn't even doing 'joined up' in UK.

How well equipped the schools are.

Not so many Half Terms.

Class sizes.

Things I don't like:

The spellings not being checked - they stopped doing that in the UK too.

Parents evenings - so much hanging around - same as UK.

Lack of swimming lessons - I think thats pretty important - so many rivers and lakes around - Same as UK.

Early morning Band Practice - they do all their extra curricular sports teams/band practice etc at 7:30 am - would prefer it after school.

Every other Friday afternoon early finish. BUT if your kid is not keeping up with their work or needs detention (they call it something else here) they don't get to go home.

iaink

If it matters so much, there are numerous other sources...local authority, local military bases (nicer facilities, better price too we find), YMCA, Local heath clubs etc.

Piff Poff

I was lucky enough in the Uk to have gone to schools with their own pools and had swimming lessons in the summer months when the outside pools were warm enough to be able to stay in them for more than two seconds. My daughter wasn't so lucky and the school curriculum only devoted 6 weeks of half hour lessons in her last year of primary school. I had paid for her to have swimming lessons as soon as she stopped listening to me when I was trying to teach her so she is a competent swimmer. Not everybody can spare the money for swimming lessons and for parents who can't swim themselves this is a tricky situation. Every year we hear of people drowning for one reason or another, I would just like to see some more focus on this - same as all the other sports taught in schools - at least some survival techniques for kids who find themselves out of their comfort zones in the water, thats all.