Harters

Hi Moses,

Europe would indeed be a whole lot easier for sure however the main reason we are looking at Canada is the education system is world-class (top 3) and will be in English with heavy french learning (or other way around. If we go to Europe schooling will not be in English unless we find an international school. I do speak French to a small degree and love trying to converse when in Paris / or on hols in France which we do most years so having my kids grow up in Canada with great schooling is appealing.... i current send them to private school because UK education is poor in general... the skiing, clean living, open space, English speaking friendly people and beautiful houses with beautiful views are all big bonuses for us so hopefully we can realise the dream before its too late

Moses2013

I understand what you mean but I really don't know if schooling is always better and it seems everyone will tell you something different these days. What's more important is the teacher and friends in my opinion rather than the whole judgement of an education system, or at least that's what some of my friends with kids also say who either returned or went elsewhere. I'm in Ireland myself but we have a small holiday home near Costa Brava, so often drive through France. With your skills and finances, places not too far from the Pyrenees have everything on offer and kids are still young enough to learn language. Even though Canada is English speaking, one shouldn't underestimate the challenges elderly people would have. At least from France you can still drive to the UK if the parents would end up unhappy and want to return to UK.

Harters

Yes, good points Moses... I love Ireland too...like a white Jamaica (without the weather) been on hols there a few times to Cork, Dublin and around the Ring of Kerry

Moses2013

White Jamaica, never heard that one. It certainly is more relaxed here compared to England (positive and negative if you want things done) and we are blessed with a lot of things. Last week we just drove out direction Westport, sun was out grabbed a coffee and walked along the stunning beaches. With the good ferry connection to France these days, we have the best of both worlds. I'm far from retirement though 40 and with Corona haven't been down to Girona for months.

bc2015

Unless your kids go to a French immersion school, there won't be a heavy French learning. Or possibly any French learning at all especially in places like Alberta. If your kids learning French is important then you need to go to Quebec or New Brunswick. But note that Canadian-French is it's own dialect (I spent quite a bit of time in France and speak French well but have trouble understanding people from Quebec). In terms of public education system, if you have your kids in private school in the UK then I would expect you to have to do the same in Canada. There's good and bad with each system and I have a long list of issues with the Canadian system.

Harters

thanks for the info...interesting about the French dialect difference...its not super important to learn french but a bonus...and thanks for the heads up ref public vs private schools...I'll take a more detailed look at the system

Will_PA

I've never heard anyone coming to Canada for the state education.

Jerseygirl

I can only speak for the Toronto area. My 6 yr old granddaughter has just entered her 3rd year at private school. The first 2 years are classed as kindergarten, this year she is in year 1 of school. Fees are expensive compared to the UK. She has been learning French from day 1.

scilly

I can speak from my BC experience of education.

One foreign language is required for entrance to university in both Arts and Sciences, consequently French will be taught as a core subject at least in secondary schools, but not always in elementary school where specialist teachers are often lacking. There may not even be specialist teachers for music, gym, or library, etc. An elementary teacher is basically expected to teach everything.

There is usually at least 1 immersion French programme at both elementary and secondary level offered within a school district, but this can be iffy when you get out into rural areas where schools are small, and students, especially high school age, may have to travel many miles by school bus to the nearest school for them. French immersion programmes are always over-subscribed, with students often unable to gain entrance to them. There is both a shortage of French teachers (whether Parisian or Quebec trained) and a shortage of money to staff such programmes.

So you need to look at how remote you might be moving to .................. it is not unknown in northern BC for students to have to bus it for 1 hour each way. I know of at least 2 School Districts where journeys are that long, one reason being a lack of pupils in a very small community or serving a very rural area. Alberta is possibly very much the same in those remoter areas.

My daughter went to a private school where they began teaching conversational French in Grade 1 (the first year, age 6), gradually moving into grammatical and writing, etc. She took French from Grade 1 to 12, easily passing the graduation exam and getting the required Pass Diploma for university. However, she was always taught Parisian French, and had great trouble understanding and being understood when we went to Quebec.

As far as cost for private schools goes, she went as a day girl and it was certainly affordable, although it took about 65% of my annual salary to pay the fees. Looking at a boarding school was different ................ for the cost of sending her to a top tier boarding school in BC we could have sent her to a school like Gordonstoun, with her spending the short vacations, half terms etc with grandparents or friends in England and coming home only for the summer. I think that a similar type of comparison would still apply.

Siouxie

I've moved the posts about schooling in Canada from your Immigration thread as they are not about immigration We try to keep the Immigration forum on topic