lisadd

Hello there

I am looking for a little help and some friendly advice really.

We are hopefully moving out to Calgary within the next 6-8 months time, my husband is a QS and has been told that there is lots of work out there, and has been contacted by few companies now and he is hoping to get a interview with in the next week.

I have been at home bringing up our family and dont work. We have three children 11, 8, 5 and live life as a happy family, the thought of moving overseas makes me very excited and cant wait to find out more .

I dont hate where i live but the UK is going one way and thats downhill. I want a better life for my children and want to know that they have a good future.

Can anyone tell me please how hard it is to settle in a new country and how the children adjust to it.

We will be bringing our two dogs with us and was wondering if anyone had any experiences of flying dogs out.

Any advice would be good, need a nice friendly area with good schools, i also need a good gymnastics club for my daughter who is a elite gymnast.

Thanks very much

Lisa

Butch Cassidy

How far along is your application??

lisadd

we are on the fast track application - job couldnt be filled within canada so company goes overseas to fill it, company has visas in place.

Butch Cassidy

Sweet deal, well a lot of us on here settled pretty well, some obviously didnt (see moving back to UK forum etc).
Flying dogs over? If you go to main forum there's a thread recently started.
Gymnastics clubs? I'm sure Judy will have a link somewhere.

Good luck and welcome to the site.

Judy in Calgary

Hello, Lisa, and welcome to the BE forum.

There are nine Wiki articles about Calgary.

The Calgary Fun article has a section called Children's Extra-curricular Activities, and that has a link to two gymnastics clubs.

There is a whole section in the Wiki about Children (psychology of moving, etc.).

There's a Wiki about Transporting Pets.

There are lots of Wiki articles about Canadian Schooling in the Education section. In light of your questions about good schools, the article called Assessment of Schools-Canada probably is particularly relevant.

There also are articles about Calgary Residential Areas and Calgary Schooling.

As all those articles (the ones about Canada in general and the ones about Calgary in particular) will tell you, there is a high level of correlation amongst "nicer" residential neighbourhoods (where people keep their lawns mowed, where there are children playing in the playgrounds and where there are people walking their dogs), the Calgary Police Service's community crime statistics, and the quality of the schools.

Read the articles to get a general sense of the better quadrants of Calgary, and then walk around your short listed neighbourhoods yourself. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to do this. You will pick up each neighbourhood's "vibe." It's useful to visit a given neighbourhood during the daytime and then again in the evening. The evening is when you'll see kids playing in playgrounds, people walking dogs, and that type of thing. And don't just drive through a neighbourhood in your car. Get out and walk.

I suggest you read the Canada Challenges section of the Wiki, for the sake of due diligence.

If you're sure you want to come to Canada, go to the next step and read Moving Logistics.

Oh yes, the Wiki section also has some Alberta-specific articles, e.g., about driver's licences (as long as you're not from Northern Ireland or the Channel Isles, you can exchange your UK driver's licence without a test) and provincial health care insurance (you'll be eligible for coverage from Day One in Alberta -- but be sure you understand what it includes and excludes).

Well, I guess what I was trying to say was, "Read the Wiki."

Hope that helps.
x

lisadd

thanks very much - great information

Nicola N-A

Hi Lisadd and welcome to BE.

Can't help you much on the area you are looking at but my Hubby, myself and our 3 children moved over to Nova Scotia last year and I have to say that the children settled exceptionally well.

In fact, it's like they've always lived here. The oldest, 9 yr old boy, was worried about leaving his friends but when we moved it was still the summer holidays so he started a new school year out here only a few weeks late and fitted right in.

I'm sure you'll find lots of helpful info on here!! Good luck xx

lisadd

Thanks very much theres so much to take in and it makes it a lot better if you know the kids are going to be ok.

x

lisadd

Just a update, CVS have been received in Calgary and the guy there will be contacting my husband soon, he said that we should have more details towards the end of the week.

As anyone had any luck selling there house quickly here in the the UK?