Tim Pickering

Hi everyone,

Currently we are staying in Essex and I am soon shifting base to Toronto with my wife and my six yrs old daughter. I was wondering if anyone could guide me regarding:

a. A friendly neighbourhood to rent an apartment (approx $1000-$1500 CND) which has excellent quality public schools as we are keen that our daughter attends a good school.

b. Most importantly - which ones are good public schools?

c. Also, how good are these private schools for girls like Branksome, Havergal or BSS? Are these better than the public schools?

I have got some basic info on the internet regarding the education system and school listings (by area in Toronto) but since there are no ratings for these public schools I am unsure about which ones to consider.

Any personal experiences of your children's education in Toronto are most welcome.

Thanks.

flatty38

As much as I love living here in Toronto, the schools and the (secondary) education system in general is something that I have found to be a disapointment, after experiencing a british education. I understand schools outside of the GTA maybe better - but I have no experience of them. Junior schools seem to be ok - but I dont quite know what happens to the education system when it comes to the high schools. Funding is a problem, as it is anywhere, and there always seems to be industrial action by the teachers over one thing or another!

I am not convinced there is such a thing as a "good" public school in Toronto. If I could afford to send my kids to a private school here I would, believe me!

Seems to be a total lack of discipline at the schools, and the general standard of education is deteriorating. I am lucky that my own kids work hard and are doing pretty well and I have to say that post-secondary education in Canada is superior to anything in Europe. The opportunites after that........well, that was one of the reasons we moved here.

Dont wish to sound a snob - but I honestly believe that the more expensive area you live in, the better everything is going to be - including schools!

Tim Pickering

Thanks for your reply.

I think universally we all want the best for our children and good education is one of the primary goals we have for them. I was half expecting this feedback on "excellent" public schools which I suspect don't exist.

I think that a great school can take a child forward and imbibe her with the values that will help her lead a more fulfilling life. For this reason I feel that we may enroll her in a good private school even if it is a substantial financial commitment.

If you know any private schools of merit please let me know.

Tim

Keith

You might be interested in this report.
Canada among top 5 in world education tests

Interested

Hi,

I know that Lawrence Park collegiate is supposed to be a very good high public high school...obviously you have to live in the catchment area...which is around Avenue/Lawrence, which is an expensive area. Also in this area is Havegal college, which is extremely exclusive...lots of daughters of millionaires etc.

There is also a very good elementary school in this area, can't remember what it is called right now, but when I remember I'll post. You could look at the TDSB (Toronto District School Board) website, I think they have league tables.

Int.

jamie_1002

Hi,

I graduated from Havergal College in Toronto. My sister also went there. It's really a great, all-rounded school; the sport teams there are excellent, there provide the students with many volunteer opportunities, and, above all, Havergal's extremely rigorous education system prepares its students well for the future.

The private schools in Toronto are, without a doubt, better than the public schools. Havergal is considered as the top private-girls-school in Toronto, and possibly even in Canada. Havergal is the girls-school equivalent to Upper Canada College. Havergal's reputation is tremendously good and a lot of its students go to top American universities.

dbd33

My daughters attended public high school in downtown Toronto and took the Bac, just as if they were in Europe, they took the SAT and as a result, the one who scored 100% in the English half of the test, received offers from minor Ivies as well McGill, King's, Queen's as so on. The school provided SAT coaching for students thought to be able to break 1500 and each year sends students on scholarships to top universities in the US and Canada.

While they were in high school (up to 2002) the children of my colleagues were attending UCC and Havergal and, as best I could tell, the academic education offered was about the same as at my children's school. I would not expect there to be a great difference so long as the course is based around the Bac as it's designed to be essentially the same course offered in many countries and languages.

The one big difference between my children's school and the fee paying ones is that a public school provides an awareness of the world not available to those who only have the company of other rich children, whereas a fee paying school provides networking opportunities that may be valuable in later life. (One can, of course, say the same about the universities above). At the fee paying schools the student body represents a tiny subset of the population, it's disproportionately white, Jewish and Canadian (as is the case at King's, Queen's, yadda yadda). The student body at the public schools reflects the population, the students are from everywhere but here and typically have parents of different non-Canadian nationalities. ("My Dad's from Sweden, my mom's from India, I'm Canadian"), parental income varies wildly.

I think the public school system provided my children with an excellent high school education both academically and in the terms of social and sporting activities. It wasn't an accident though, working the public school system is a bit of a game. Some schools have a first registered policy, that caused me to spend two frigid nights in a sleeping bag outside one school (Holy Name of Someone or Other) before registration day. Other schools have lotteries which are, of course, fixed, so bribery and scheming is needed. The first thing is to choose a school board, as there are four sets of public schools in each area, generally in Toronto and Mississauga the quality of education declines as follows :

French Catholic schools
French other schools
English Catholic schools

<big drop>

English other schools

we declared our children to be French Catholics so as to benefit from what amounts to an affirmitive action program. In the end they ended up at a secular French language school, Le Collège Français. In order to attend French language schools one parent must be able to speak French, in order to attend Catholic schools one parent must be Catholic. I suggest finding a school with a good reputation, moving near it and then lying shamelessly so as to avoid being "English other". I don't think it much matters if the language of the school is English or French, French itself has little value unless one works for the government (or moves to France) but knowing a second language makes it easier to learn a third. Religion means nothing to me, the government gives more money to Catholics so we're Catholics, what you might call taxational Catholics.

tallperson

.....lying shamelessly ....

Nice advice - not!

dbd33

Suit yourself but lots of children in the French school system do not have francophone parents; the people who run the local roti shop even send their kids to French school. I don't think you can be more Jamaican than running a roti shop. At the Catholic school near us there are many children wearing the hajib and a few burqua wearing mothers, how Catholic do you think these families are ?

By all means send your children to UCC or Branksome; that's what people who have scruples do.

dbd33

This site list exam results by school :

http://www.eqao.com/

a dedicated person could create an academic ranking by school for the four school boards in Toronto and then compare the results to those for the private schools listed here :

http://privateschool.about.com/od/topschltoronto/

Fluffy Boogie

Your'e right: my step-father and mother send one of my half-sisters to a French Immersion Catholic school in Brampton, Ontario - half the classes are in French, half in English. I wish I had had that. Now I do have a 2nd language, but that's only from living here in Holland for almost 6 years!
They do it primarily for her future - having a 2nd language in Canada is such an asset, for so many reasons. I may even consider it for my children one day, and I'm not even Catholic! I think they'll do that for my youngest sister, too, but wait till she's a bit older.
Fluffy

jameslei

Not sure if I am using this correctly - my first visit to the site. I taught in Secondary schools in Toronto for about a decade - at the private UTS (University of Toronto Schools) and in the public system. I'm Scottish educated, and don't speak well of the public system in Toronto... I have a 7 year old daughter and there is no question that if I could afford it, she'd go to a private school here in Toronto. Havergal is excellent (but expensive) - I supply taught there a few times. A girls' school. Can you imagine that the girls stand up when the teacher comes into the classroom. By way of contrast, in public schools, many teachers wouldn't break up fights between pupils lest one had a weapon! Administration is useless - the head of English in the last school I was in said if there was a problem and the front office wouldn't do anything, call the police!
Elementary schools seem decent enough, but there is a problem in the secondary system... Can you imagine that in a Grade 13 (final class before going to college or etc) English class all they had to study was one novel (Stone Angel), one play (Man for all Seasons) and anout 20 rhetorical devices.
That was it!
James.

brummie_babe

...Are you sure the people in your local roti shop are Jamaican? 'Roti' is not Jamaican cuisine, however have you just presumed or have you even considered that they may be French Caribbean people. Not every black person is Jamaican!

dbd33

Yeah, mon. I know where they came from, when they came and what a tough job they had not being stereotyped as gangsters. I knew them first when they opened the shop and later from seeing them at school plays and the like; we people who can't follow the plot stick together. There are plenty of francophone black people around here, mainly Haitians and people who insist they come from the Belgian Congo but they're not Jamaicans. Roti, jerk, acki, saltfish, are usual items in Jamaican restaurants here, other Caribbean restaurants tend more to pigs feet. I think it fair to say roti is Jamaican even if it''s really American, like Chow Mein or pizza.

brummie_babe

Your ignorance is quite amusing...