Hello , we are a family of 5 moving to Canada next summer( Petawawa) . My husband has a job with the military. I would really appreciate advice on education. My 15 year old daughter (16 nov) will have just finished her gcse's , has anyone had a teen go through this transition? And how it effects them educationally ? Has anyone moved to Petawawa ??? My youngest will be 11 yrs Will he move straight to high school? My eldest son will be 18 yrs and wants to take a year out before uni, has anyone had a child start uni after moving to Canada ? Lots of questions sorry !!! Hope someone can help

Having gone through the process with similar aged children to your two youngest, I suggest you speak to the relevant schools and they will advise you what you need to do.
My daughter had just done GCSEs when we moved 2 years ago - the high school guidance office put us in touch with the right people who assessed those results and gave her official credits for them. This was required because of the different system here, where a student needs 30 credits to graduate from school - these are gained in each of the 4 high school years, rather than GCSEs and A Levels as in the UK. My daughter ended up with sufficient credits to go straight into Grade 12 (last year of high school) but we put her into Grade 11, which was the right age group for her and gave her 2 years at school before moving to university.

Your 11 year old - I think will go into Grade 6 (public school), so another 3 years before high school.

Your oldest child - bear in mind that if you don't have PR, you would pay international fees to go to university which would make it very expensive! This was another reason for my daughter to do 2 years at school as we now have PR and that means she's treated as a Canadian from that point of view.

The above information was correct for us two years ago in Ontario and I'm not aware it has changed but please check.
The only other thing I would advise is to bring as full records as you can regarding immunisations for your children - the schools did want this info and I was put in touch with the immunisation office who co-ordinated those records. Their system of immunisations and ages things are done is slightly different to the UK.

I hope this helps - please get back to me if you need more information.

My son will be doing the same as Twitchers daughter. He is 16 and just finished his GCSE's and joing me here in August. The school in Ontario gave him the credits but we also wanted him to start in Grade 11 which is his age group and also 2 years to settle down here before finishing high school.

The schools I contacted were all very helpful so Id contact them and get what information you can so you have time to get it from the UK school before they close for summer.

Schools do finish in the next week or so and most won't answer the phone until the last week or so in august, so get on the phone! They are mostly very helpful.

I'll echo that your 11 year old will go to Middle or Junior High school (depends on where you to what they call it). Don't view your kids 'going down a year or grade level' as a bad thing as they will be learning how Canadian schools work in general and some Canadian/North American history that they wouldn't necessarily know.

Mine was in middle school in the UK and went down to elementary here, she was ten. This September she goes into Grade 12, so the uni prep gets really serious for us now

Thank you for your help, great advice, really helpful . Great heads up on the immunisation front x

One other thing to consider is that, depending on your husband's job and the visas you will all be on, your children may not be able to work at all. Presumably not a problem for the 11 year old, but often 15 year olds like to have a part-time or Saturday job for extra money, and the 18 year old may well want to work, so that's something else to consider and look in to.

Good luck.

Just a quick question (hopefully!!!)
My two children will be 12 and 6 when we land in February. Their birthdays are August and July respectively which means in England they are the younger end of their forms (Sept 1-Aug 31) Is it the same in Canada?
Thanks Karen

Most (but not all) boards here work on a calender year, so December birthdays would be young and Jan old in any given grade.

But you had best check policy wherever it is you are heading to.

Thanks iaink