information about Coquitlam BC
 

Hi everybody


We have been in Calgary for 3 years now. I read so many posts of people who loves Calgary and are settling in so well. It makes me feel like I am the only person who just can't seems to settle here in Calgary. We are considering to make a move to Vancouver and will appreciate it to get some feedback from you guys living there already.


The area that we are considering is Coquitlam. How commutable is Burnaby from Coquitlam? This is where husband's possible new job will be.
We have 2 kids aged 10 and 8. Can anybody give me some personal experience of schools in Coquitlam? To be honest at this moment I am mainly interested to hear about schools. When I google for information about schools I do not get a good impression. Teachers who are on strike. And somewhere I read that public schools are not very good and that a lot of people send their kids to private schools. Is there anybody who have moved from Calgary to Vancouver area who can compare the 2 education systems?


This is a very stressful time at the moment with lots of questions. Calgary was a very disappointing move for us. We haven't been to Vancouver yet. Are planning a visit in the next couple of weeks. But what we see from the internet and talking to other people it seems to be more the kind of place we would like to be. The biggest 2 things that I worry about the most is that the education is worst than the already disappointing education my kids are getting here in Calgary. And that everybody keeps on saying how expensive it is to live in Vancouver area.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

Hi
Coquitlam to Burnaby commute should not be to bad, and next year the new evergreen skytrain line is supposed to be finished.
The 160 bus is a frequent route.
There is also the west coast express, but it goes to downtown, then you would have to go back to burnaby
All depends on where you start in coquitlam and where you finish in burnaby i suppose

I think all schools here are not the same as the UK, but the impression i get is the kids are not pushed to work, so it is down to the individual and the effort they put in.
Cheers
Jerry

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

# 160 is only frequent during weekday rush hour, the rest of the time it runs roughly 2 times per hour.

It's also has limited stops so one has to keep that in mind, it's not a good route to go local between suburbs, so if not working downtown, it's not the best route to take to get to Burnaby.

But all depends where in Burnaby one is going, the # 160 only skims the northern part of Burnaby on it's way into Vancouver.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

We have lived in Coquitlam for two years now and are very happy overall. My husband commutes downtown on the West Coast express M-F and I drive to work 3 days a week into the city. The Evergreen skytrain will make a big difference when it opens late next year. Burnaby wouldn't be that bad asa commute if you avoid the highway.
We have a 7 year old who attends Walton Elementary. she will be going into Grade 3 in the Autumn. She enjoys school, and our relationship with her teachers and the principal has been excellent. there is a strong PAC.
Locally there are good facilities for kids, plenty of sports, a good library, cinema etc. Shopping is pretty good, the local Mall has all the big name stores and there are plenty of supermarkets to choose from.
Prices for houses have risen quickly and things sell quickly so be prepared for that.
We are happy here, although if i could persuade the other half to move I would like to move to Anmore for a little more land!

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

What kind of problems did you experience in the Calgary school system? Perhaps it is Canadian vs British rather than Alberta vs BC that is the problem? Strikes happen everywhere so that shouldn't be a main concern. Coquitlam is a family oriented place and relatively affordable for Vancouver.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

:goodpost:

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

Thank you very much for the replies. I know there are plenty of threads on the forums about education so I will try my best not to go on about it too much. My oldest only did Reception in England and then we spend 3 years in Austin Texas before moving here. When we researched Canada it always says Canada is in the top 5 in the world regarding education etc while the American and British education have a bad reputation. My kids in Texas had great schools. Even the youngest one in pre-school did more than what they do here in KG or grade 1. My disappointments about the education system is that there is no structure at all. The teachers do not motivate kids to finish uncompleted work. In the first year when my son was here in school I keep on asking him when is he bringing some of his school stuff home for me to see what he is doing. (In Texas on a friday he will bring home a folder full of worksheets to see what he worked on that week.) I arranged a meeting with the teacher to come into the classroom and have a look at his books at school. I was shocked to see that most of his work was incomplete. He did a page then skipped a few. When I showed it to the teacher he was all surprised and said he does check the books once a week. And the lack of communication. Every year I ask the teacher please let me know as soon as the kids are not completeting their work in class or just let me know if there is any issues but they never communicate with us. Every 2 weeks I make them bring home a few folders so that I can go through their work and make them finish all the work they didn't finish in class.They do not even have a reading program. Luckily son #2 learned to read with hooked on phonics in pre-school in Texas. The teacher test them to see what level they at in the beginning of the year and give them a book to read each week and that is it. He doesn't read to the teacher or a parent volunteer it is up to us to work on his progress. We have to teach the basic maths at home as at school they only learn about the different math strategies and then even they do not give the kids enough pratice to apply all these different strategies. A couple of teachers have told me at parent/teacher meetings that the parent is the main educator and the school support the learning. Some nonsense like that. Both boys this year had teachers who was more on personal leave than at school and the teachers must not like the subject Maths. As they hardly did any in class. With the older one in the beginning of the year I asked for an extra Math textbook as the teacher took a month before she actually started working on Maths. The text book have 8 units and the whole year they only did 4 units. I am struggling a lot to get my head around this system as i haven't seen much teaching happening.

I am just wondering is the BC school system also this student/parent led curriculum or do they do a bit more teaching and have an interest into developing the child over the school year.

Thanks for any feed back.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

Maybe just a bad school or bad teachers in Calgary? Like all professions there are good and bad teachers.

Ask 100 people in BC about their kids school and you will get all sorts of different answers, all depends on the individual teacher and school more then anything else.

Find a neighborhood you like and research the specific schools in that neighborhood your kids would be going to, no point in researching Vancouver if your going to live in Coquitlam, and schools and quality will vary even within the same city.

BC teachers just had a strike, so I imagine there will be a few years of strike free school years now, but don't expect to go from K to 12 without a strike, one will happen again, there is just relative peace at the moment from the fairly new contract.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

Thanks for the detailed reply tiptree. I agree with what JS has written above. I do think that line "the parent is the main educator" is BS from that particular school/teacher.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

I do apologise for my detailed reply but I was trying to give you examples of what my worries are and that I am not trying to find a British or Texan equivalent education here in Canada. I am trying to find a school that still teach and not leave most of the educating to the parents. They say that each province's education is different from eachother so I am trying to get an idea what the system is like in Coquitlam area. Teachers here are quick to tell me that Alberta have the best education system in the country and so far I am not impressed.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

I don't know how accurate these rankings are, but they might be a start for you so narrow down some area's and research specific schools.

Looks like the best elementary public school is ranked 7.2 out of 10, high ranked private school is a 9.

Compare academic rankings and ratings of British Columbia schools

Secondary Schools

http://britishcolumbia.compareschool...ationName.aspx


I know there are some education types on here, so maybe they will chime me, I know some on here have kids, not sure if any are in Coquitlam however.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

This is only my experience but I have found the staff at my daughter's school very approachable. I was concerned I was being pushy and even asked the teacher, but they assured me they were happy to discuss her progress. Caitlin reached all the targets expected of her grade and the teacher was happy to push her further in reading and writing.
I'm more than happy with the school!

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

You must have had a bad school because in the 3 months my son has been in (catholic) junior high we've had far better teachers than in 10 years of his schools in England (we had two great teachers in all of that time to be fair). The teachers have been approachable (they actually speak to you!) and have given us extra work to help DS adapt to senior high (although he has the ability as luckily he is very intelligent the difference in teaching methods threw him (he is ADD) and the teachers have even said we can contact them at a later date). He went to one of the best schools in Hampshire (not private) and they fell very short of what I expect a good school to be. I just wish he could have gone to his Calgary school from grade 7 (thanks immigration for taking nearly 5 years to process our visa!). Yes they may be behind UK at the same age but everything catches up eventually. His school actually managed to get him to do homework (without having a fight over it, very stressful for family life) but also taught him to revise. Even better as far as he's concerned no French which he was forced to do under the English curriculum. And they teach him life skills (ie resume writing, applying for jobs etc) which his friends have still not done at the end of year 10. All in all Canadian teachers all the way for us.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

Are catholic schools in Alberta public or private?

Pretty sure in BC they are all private and no public catholic schools available.

Re: information about Coquitlam BC
 

Can anybody recommend a website to look for rental properties in the Coquitlam area? I read on another thread about bidding wars for rental properties in Vancouver. Is it the same in Coquitlam?