squarepants

Should I be hitting the karma button for this?

iaink

No, definitely not If someone has to tell you to give Karma, or if you have to beg for it, then what is the point eh?

Iain

stavex

Interesting thread!

For what it's worth, our story.

My wife and I always wanted to go to North America, neither of us have liked the UK, and we have just seen progressive decline in education, crime prevention, yob culture, loss of respect etc. Not to mention dreadful traffic problems, soaring costs etc. We initially thought about going 10 years ago; but at that time I was not established, and had no financial reserve. Then our first kid was born, and the prospect of going to another country to train was just unthinkable. So we waited until I had fully trained. Then my father got ill, and it was not the time to go. Only in the last year have we been able to consider moving away from the UK.

In truth, I think we would rather be anywhere than the UK. We considered France, but the idea of working in a another language does not appeal to me. And it had to be somewhere where it was not hot, neither of us can stand the heat. So we came back to Canada. We looked critically at it, found that I was able to work (with some particular restrictions geographically) and so started looking in earnest.

To be fair, everything has just fallen into place. We have found an ideal place where we want our children to grow up. The pace of life is slower, the people are so much nicer, costs are less and earnings are more. People appear to have a lot more disposable income, and larger houses with more land. A small town is truly a small town.

Yes it can get cold in winter, the politics are never satisfactory (wherever you go), taxes are high, bureaucracy rife and then you have to add all the potential problems of emigrating, putting the kids into an unfamiliar school system, and trying to understand the many differences. We think it is worth it for us, and would not be doing this unless we truly believed we would have a better life!

Lapsed Canuck

Hi ya! I see that you are moving to Dawson Creek in BC. What's it like? We have been looking at the map and considering that area. I am in a dilemma as my family is in Ontario and I feel I should and would like to move back there to be closer to them but am being tempted by the scenery and adventure of Alberta and BC.....

What's made you choose that area in particular?

MikeUK

I’ve been to Dawson creek once.. we were coming back from Hay River in the NWT and stopped there before we set off on the Alaskan highway…
It’s very beautiful around there but isolated I believe the nearest major city is Edmonton at around 600km away.

We when you get there I have one weekend outing I can suggest. Take the Alaskan highway north its worth the drive for the scenery alone but spend the weekend or at least over night at the provincial park at Laird Hot springs…

http://www.explorenorth.com/articles/liard.html

and if ever get the urge for a long drive go to Prince Rupert IMHO the most beautiful town in BC.

stavex

Dawson Creek is a smallish town, pop c.13000, with a trading area of around 60k. 45 mins to the north is Fort St John, pop. 15k, and 1hr 15mins to the SE is Grande Prairie pop 50k. IT is mainly agricultural, being part of the Peace River Valley, about 1 hour north of the upper end of the Rockies. To the north are oil and gas fields, and this is part of the reason why the population is increasing.

We found the area to be just what we were after, small, but possessing most of the things we would need or want on a day to day basis. Yes, we would have to travel to GP or Edmonton (4.5 hours away) for anything unusual or entensive, but otherwise, they are fairly self-sufficient.

Housing is dirt-cheap compared to the UK. What we bought over there would cost the best part of £750k over here for less than a third of that.

The people are great; even friendlier than most Canadians I have personally found.

Weather... +25 in summer, -30 in winter.

the area covers many different land types, it is not all plains or forest or mountains. A bit of everything!

We like it!

willmore

If I could add my 2 cents......I have my masters degree in marine biology- born and educated in Canada. I'm part of a successful consulting firm. We do a large number of consulting projects internationally and our credentials stand up against any others in the world. We have won projects competing against other firms from the UK, Europe, States and others.

The Canadian education system stands up well internationally believe me. We just won a project to consult on a water treatment system that Jordan/Turkey want to build and there was alot of competition believe me.

MikeUK

Quoting specifics against a generalist point is rather irrelevant is it not?

We can all provide examples of those that have done well… people like that are highly visible to us all.. it’s the ones left at the bottom that we should attempt to count..
The brilliant amongst us will do well regardless of the academic environment, it’s the children with the IQ’s on the low side of 100 that need a good system, and its their successes that indicate a good or a bad educational system..

And for what its worth.. I was re-quoting a group of Canadian teacher’s opinions when directly comparing two educational systems in which the majority had recent experience in both systems…

willmore

You're an intelligent person....surely you must have realized that to make a sweeping statement that the UK system is better than the Canadian would cause some questions to be asked.

Every kid whether smart/challenged needs guidance, discipline, direction to succeed in whatever goal (no matter how small) they have in life.

It isn't just the challenged kids that need this extra attention (.....it's also the other end of spectrum - the highly clever kids. Just because you're clever doesn't guarantee you success in life. We have friends who work in the education system who tell us some very sad stories about brilliant kids who for whatever reason - decided to leave school and live on the street or whatever. Every kid needs a good education system to give them a good start in life. The highly clever kids have just as many problems as the challenged ones.

For example, my little guy is 4 - he has been assessed as being very advanced and needs to be in a structured environment where he will be stimulated physically, mentally and emotionally. We are having a devil of a time trying to find this type of environment for him. He was in pre-kindergarten for the past 2 years and was bored out of his mind because he was so......far ahead of the rest of the kids and ended up helping them. He decided at xmas last year he didn't want to go back, but he did. We have enrolled him in a Montesorri(?) school this fall - to try to keep him interested until he can start full time at school next fall, at which time he hopefully will start at a university school which goes from grade 1-12.Who knows if this type of school system would have been available in another country?


We have friends who have worked all over the world at teachers - sometimes volunteers, some paid jobs - there are so many factors involved in assessing one country's school system from another.....that they tell me it's really unfair to do so. Everyone has their preference of school systems and how to educate their kids.

If you and your family prefer the UK school system to the one in Canada - so be it......i wish you the best of luck.....but I think it unwise not to give the educational system in Canada a chance!!!

MikeUK

My wife's the experienced Canadian teacher… I’ll defer to her judgement…

Both of us came out quite well rounded...and she's the expert in the particular subject..

willmore

Well, I'm very grateful that you both came out well-rounded - if you're wife's a teacher she's in a great profession.

I guess I came out well-rounded as well......although I'm sure the nuns were sure I'd end up in hell!!!!

Glaswegian

Better cut back on the visits to Tim Hortons then

willmore

Well, looks who back....missed that Scottish sense of humour. Been getting the boys ready for school???