GCSE's, arethe worth completing?
Aug 7th 2005 | 9:55 am
#16
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 490
From: montreal
Re: GCSE's, arethe worth completing?
hi.... i did 5 years in a british boarding school and completed my o levels then returned to canada and did my grade 13. from experience , i would say dont worry about your daughters exams . When i returned , my o level result s were hardly even glanced at and i recieved an automatic high school equivalency . in fact it was granted by my high school guidance counsellor . hope this helps sarah
Aug 7th 2005 | 10:43 am
#17
Now on Vancouver Island
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 6,935
From: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Re: GCSE's, arethe worth completing?
Originally Posted by zalaben
hi.... i did 5 years in a british boarding school and completed my o levels then returned to canada and did my grade 13. from experience , i would say dont worry about your daughters exams . When i returned , my o level result s were hardly even glanced at and i recieved an automatic high school equivalency . in fact it was granted by my high school guidance counsellor . hope this helps sarah
As far as I can tell, it doesn't matter what a Canadian high school guidance counsellor thinks or does. What counts, for a high school graduate who wants to do further education, is how the admissions officer of the Canadian tertiary institution assesses the graduate's high school results.
On this very forum, we've had Morwenna reporting that the University of Calgary rejected the application of her son who had a combination of A levels and O levels, because they deemed that his combined science course was not in sufficient depth for someone who wanted to study engineering at their institution.
All I can say to forum participants who ask for advice is that the responses you receive here, including my own responses, are worth what you paid for them. By all means use the answers as a jumping off point for your own research. Sometimes advice can help you get past a roadblock and keep going. However, please check with official sources.
Aug 7th 2005 | 6:40 pm
#18
Happy in Canada.
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,440
From: Winnipeg, manitoba
Re: GCSE's, arethe worth completing?
Don't forget folks as English kids they can go back to England and walk into any uni at 25+ as a mature student without any qualifications.
I know I did it at 32 got a grant and everything. so no real biggie on the uni at 18 degree by 21. Play have fun and then work for 30 -40 years
I know I did it at 32 got a grant and everything. so no real biggie on the uni at 18 degree by 21. Play have fun and then work for 30 -40 years
Aug 7th 2005 | 7:37 pm
#19
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 998
From: London Ontario
Re: GCSE's, arethe worth completing?
My half penny worth.
Our eldest has been deemed border line for entrance into Western. She got a scholorship entrance to Waterloo. She prefers Western and will wait.
The rules being thus....
Entrance to Western required at least and A and a B at A level on her academic A levels. The fact that she is heading for 2 A's, and 3B's and a total of 5 Alevels and 11 GSCE's which she already has did not get her an automatic entrance. She needs to convert one B into an A and we will go back or look back to Waterloo or elsewhere.
In short the higher the reputation of the Uni the harder to get in. Thats a global situation - not local. So whatever you can lay your hands on to help the process the better. If our child was so close to gaining qualifications we would wait. Its a hard world out there and no one is sure where our children will eventually land.
But....our youngest is just starting the 2 years of GCSE preparation so no loss there...better to get into High School asap and head for the courses at 16 that help entrance to Canadian Uni.
From what I can see at 16 the route taken in Canada is much more structured towards either work, or Uni, or college....the point being to prepare for a future life rather than release a teenager into the world with little guidance. And it is thought normal to stay onto 18 rather than the important age of 16 as in the UK.
So...it was the Uni's conditions that counted. Nothing else in our circumstances.
Our eldest has been deemed border line for entrance into Western. She got a scholorship entrance to Waterloo. She prefers Western and will wait.
The rules being thus....
Entrance to Western required at least and A and a B at A level on her academic A levels. The fact that she is heading for 2 A's, and 3B's and a total of 5 Alevels and 11 GSCE's which she already has did not get her an automatic entrance. She needs to convert one B into an A and we will go back or look back to Waterloo or elsewhere.
In short the higher the reputation of the Uni the harder to get in. Thats a global situation - not local. So whatever you can lay your hands on to help the process the better. If our child was so close to gaining qualifications we would wait. Its a hard world out there and no one is sure where our children will eventually land.
But....our youngest is just starting the 2 years of GCSE preparation so no loss there...better to get into High School asap and head for the courses at 16 that help entrance to Canadian Uni.
From what I can see at 16 the route taken in Canada is much more structured towards either work, or Uni, or college....the point being to prepare for a future life rather than release a teenager into the world with little guidance. And it is thought normal to stay onto 18 rather than the important age of 16 as in the UK.
So...it was the Uni's conditions that counted. Nothing else in our circumstances.
Last edited by SANDRAPAUL; Aug 7th 2005 at 7:45 pm.
Aug 8th 2005 | 1:31 am
#20
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 490
From: montreal
Re: GCSE's, arethe worth completing?
lets see, this would have been in 1987. are you sure that gr 13 no longer exists in ontario? i wasnt aware of that. I am no longer in ontario and my kids are of school age so i wouldnt know .
you are right about checking with sources. after i sent the post i regretted it as i felt it was not good advise.. just my experience. thanks sarah
you are right about checking with sources. after i sent the post i regretted it as i felt it was not good advise.. just my experience. thanks sarah
Aug 8th 2005 | 1:51 am
#21
Assimilated Pauper
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 40,070
From: Ontario
Re: GCSE's, arethe worth completing?
Originally Posted by zalaben
lets see, this would have been in 1987. are you sure that gr 13 no longer exists in ontario? i wasnt aware of that. I am no longer in ontario and my kids are of school age so i wouldnt know .
you are right about checking with sources. after i sent the post i regretted it as i felt it was not good advise.. just my experience. thanks sarah
you are right about checking with sources. after i sent the post i regretted it as i felt it was not good advise.. just my experience. thanks sarah
Aug 8th 2005 | 12:00 pm
#22
Retired
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 34,646
Re: GCSE's, are they worth completing?
Originally Posted by Judy in Calgary
I believe there would be merit in your daughter completing her GCSE's. As gooding said, she then would have a certificate that would be of use in the UK if she ever had to fall back on it.
Jeremy
Aug 13th 2005 | 11:32 pm
#23
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 353
Re: GCSE's, are they worth completing?
Originally Posted by Judy in Calgary
Hi ChattyTracy,
There would be advantages to your daughter's staying in the UK for long enough to complete her GCSE's and advantages to her moving over to Canada right away to start grade ten.
Every family's and every child's situation is different, so no one can tell you the right thing to do. At the end of the day the decision belongs to you and your daughter.
I just want to say that I think gooding made many valid points in one of the early posts in this thread. I believe there would be merit in your daughter completing her GCSE's. As gooding said, she then would have a certificate that would be of use in the UK if she ever had to fall back on it.
However, if your daughter stays on in the UK to complete her GCSE's, perhaps there is merit in changing schools if that's possible. Our older son was one of those sensitive kids who was vulnerable to bullying, and I know what a nightmare that can be. At one point we transferred him from one school to another within the same community, and it made all the difference in the world.
I know how difficult it is to move at a time that's critical to your children's high school education. We moved from Calgary to Houston to Melbourne and back to Calgary just around that phase of life, and it was awfully tricky. We arrived at different solutions for our two sons, because the moves hit them at slightly different points in their education.
Luckily our older son was able to walk out of Australia with a high school diploma in hand. Well it wasn't that lucky, because the University of Calgary rejected his application on the grounds that his marks were too low. He attended a Calgary college to upgrade his high school results before he went on to university, but that's another topic.
When we were getting ready to return to Calgary, our younger son had just one more year of high school left to do. By that time his education already had been messed around by two moves. If he'd returned to Calgary with an incomplete high school education, he would have been forced to acquire credits in what I call "nuisance subjects," like grade ten, grade eleven and grade twelve Canadian history, and a couple of others whose names I've forgotten. On the other hand, if he returned to Calgary with a completed Australian high school diploma, the University of Calgary would accept it, provided his marks were good enough of course.
Our younger son asked us to let him stay on in Australia for his last year of high school, and we agreed. He boarded with the lovely family of one of his classmates. The minute my husband and I left Australia, our son became an "international student" and his school fees tripled. Tuition and board for that year cost us 20,000 CAD.
Fortunately that son graduated with excellent marks, and the University of Calgary had no hesitation in accepting him. Because his particular situation was so complex, my husband and I have no regrets about supporting his desired solution to his dilemma.
What we found during the whole process was that our kids really appreciated having some sense of control during situations that were largely out of their control. For example, when our son was being bullied in one school in Houston, he seemed to appreciate our efforts to find him an alternative school, and he actively participated in his application to that other school.
Similarly, when we moved to Melbourne, my husband and I identified about half a dozen schools that would have been acceptable to us, and we let our kids choose from amongst them. Since one of our sons was introverted and the other extroverted, and one was a computer nerd and the other loved sports, we expected them to choose different schools. We were surprised when they chose the same school and both loved it, but for somewhat different reasons.
So I would say that, if it was possible for you to give your daughter the option of moving schools or staying at her present school, that might help her. If she stayed on at her present school because that was her choice, she probably would be motivated to make it work out. If, on the other hand, she chose to change schools, she probably would be motivated to make that measure work out too. Well that is what I would guess would be the case, based on what I've seen of my own kids when they were around that age.
Hope that helps.
There would be advantages to your daughter's staying in the UK for long enough to complete her GCSE's and advantages to her moving over to Canada right away to start grade ten.
Every family's and every child's situation is different, so no one can tell you the right thing to do. At the end of the day the decision belongs to you and your daughter.
I just want to say that I think gooding made many valid points in one of the early posts in this thread. I believe there would be merit in your daughter completing her GCSE's. As gooding said, she then would have a certificate that would be of use in the UK if she ever had to fall back on it.
However, if your daughter stays on in the UK to complete her GCSE's, perhaps there is merit in changing schools if that's possible. Our older son was one of those sensitive kids who was vulnerable to bullying, and I know what a nightmare that can be. At one point we transferred him from one school to another within the same community, and it made all the difference in the world.
I know how difficult it is to move at a time that's critical to your children's high school education. We moved from Calgary to Houston to Melbourne and back to Calgary just around that phase of life, and it was awfully tricky. We arrived at different solutions for our two sons, because the moves hit them at slightly different points in their education.
Luckily our older son was able to walk out of Australia with a high school diploma in hand. Well it wasn't that lucky, because the University of Calgary rejected his application on the grounds that his marks were too low. He attended a Calgary college to upgrade his high school results before he went on to university, but that's another topic.
When we were getting ready to return to Calgary, our younger son had just one more year of high school left to do. By that time his education already had been messed around by two moves. If he'd returned to Calgary with an incomplete high school education, he would have been forced to acquire credits in what I call "nuisance subjects," like grade ten, grade eleven and grade twelve Canadian history, and a couple of others whose names I've forgotten. On the other hand, if he returned to Calgary with a completed Australian high school diploma, the University of Calgary would accept it, provided his marks were good enough of course.
Our younger son asked us to let him stay on in Australia for his last year of high school, and we agreed. He boarded with the lovely family of one of his classmates. The minute my husband and I left Australia, our son became an "international student" and his school fees tripled. Tuition and board for that year cost us 20,000 CAD.
Fortunately that son graduated with excellent marks, and the University of Calgary had no hesitation in accepting him. Because his particular situation was so complex, my husband and I have no regrets about supporting his desired solution to his dilemma.
What we found during the whole process was that our kids really appreciated having some sense of control during situations that were largely out of their control. For example, when our son was being bullied in one school in Houston, he seemed to appreciate our efforts to find him an alternative school, and he actively participated in his application to that other school.
Similarly, when we moved to Melbourne, my husband and I identified about half a dozen schools that would have been acceptable to us, and we let our kids choose from amongst them. Since one of our sons was introverted and the other extroverted, and one was a computer nerd and the other loved sports, we expected them to choose different schools. We were surprised when they chose the same school and both loved it, but for somewhat different reasons.
So I would say that, if it was possible for you to give your daughter the option of moving schools or staying at her present school, that might help her. If she stayed on at her present school because that was her choice, she probably would be motivated to make it work out. If, on the other hand, she chose to change schools, she probably would be motivated to make that measure work out too. Well that is what I would guess would be the case, based on what I've seen of my own kids when they were around that age.
Hope that helps.
Thanks
Aug 13th 2005 | 11:51 pm
#24
little snowy owl
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,921
Re: GCSE's, are they worth completing?
Originally Posted by Patsy
What is the Uk equivalent to canadian grade 10. What age?
Thanks
Thanks
My younger lad is 14 and just finished year 9 in UK. He will go into 9th grade and have a year at junior high before starting 10th grade (senior high / serious stuff :scared: )
