rich07

We are hoping to make the move before the start of the new school year in 2010 and we were just wondering how you have found the transition into the Canadian school system. Our daughter will be 12 when we move having just finished year 7 in the UK. We know that in Canada they are about a year behind, but what differences are there in the education system? Are there any subjects where we can expect her to struggle due to differences in the what is taught? How have your kids found the move?

Thanks in anticipation

snoopster

It depends on their birthdates as to whether they will transfer straight from year .... to grade..... over here. My daughter went from year 3 to grade 3 as she is a December baby, my son went from year 6 to grade 5 as he is March born. From what I can gather though, I think the dates differ from province to province.

Summing up educational differences for us
1. More PE here - an hour daily - thumbs up to this
2. More Music here - daily music lessons with a specialist teacher - thumbs up again!
3. Greater emphasis on citizenship, social and emotional education etc - thumbs up again!!
4. Mathematics here seems to be less well thought out, not such small steps to ensure quality of understanding before more advanced methods taught, which if your child is not a natural mathematician (as one of ours isn't) then it can be very frustrating.
5. Literacy seems to be very skills based and less creatively driven. Don't get me wrong, skills are important, but it can be 'death by worksheet' at times!
6. Science teaching is very thorough, and quite detailed. Better than the Uk by miles.

Coming from the point of view of being a UK trained teacher, the Canadian system is very good in many ways, and much better balanced, but key skills in the teaching of literacy and numeracy could do with an update (especially in light of the radical facelift given to these areas in the Uk in the last 5 years or so).
Having said that, our children have settled wonderfully well into the education system here, and are at a really good school which has a wonderful ethos and balance. There is a really good support system for struggling students and good resources too.

snowshoveller

it probably depends where you are, canada is a big place and has huge differences from city to city.
I'd echo the comments from snoopster though. My daughter went from grade 3 to grade 2 and found that she wasnt challenged by maths at all (in fairness she wasnt challenged by much across the board, but it gave her chance to relax into her new school - which was probably helpful.) But in grade three maths in particularly didnt move on much and she was bored. We found an afterschool maths club called "spirit of math" which I think operates over several citys. This was brilliant and gave my daughter confidence in other areas too.

French is often extremely well taught, my kids had 30 mins of french every day, and have learnt loads. Much better than the apology for french in UK schools

Lychee

Just a quick note, but there is no such thing as a universal "Canadian school system" and more than there is a universal "European school system".

So the answers you're seeking may or may not be relevant, because it will all come down to which province, but more specifically, which city/town you end up in.

Every province does schooling differently, including how grades are split up, the curriculum, graduation requirements, and so on.

A good overview is the this wikipedia article, which highlights the variance between provinces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Canada

rich07

Hi Thanks for your replies, we are visiting in December to try and narrow down where we want to be, we are looking at Ontario and Alberta on this visit.

With the exception of French which my daughter only has 1 hour per week, is there a great difference in any of the other subjects?

Oink

Absolutely, there is no "One Best System."
A child's educational success within Western Europe, North America, Australasia and Japan is mainly dependent on parental involvement. The biggest single variable is the level of parental education. To refine the model even further, 'success' is even more dependent on the mother's educational level.

Obviously there are isolated cases that don't fit this model, either exceptionally gifted students or parents that are actively involved with their child's academic work. It has little to do with ill-founded personal perceptions of educational institutions or systems, and everything to do with a child's home life.
I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but if there are no underlying developmental problems and if your child is failing in school, it is probably your life experiences that are holding them back and not the fault of school or the school system.

snoopster

over here, the humanities subjects tend to be grouped into a subject called 'social studies' and the emphasis is much more on Canadian history and geography. Our kids love social studies and have taught us loads so far!

snoopster

I think I'd pretty much agree with you there. Certainly it used to rile me when I would meet with parents of children who were struggling with their literacy, and they would say that it was 'the schools job to teach my kid to read'.....like they had no responsibility for playing an active role in their education too. Successful students usually come from families who understand that education is a partnership between home and school.

debbiem

Here in our particular school in rural Alberta there is no french. Or music.

My three went into the same 'grade/ year' because of when their birthdays fall, and whilst I would say that certainly K-3 is 'behind' what we would expect in UK schools, my daughter in G5 (who has been straight-A student/ G&T etc etc) is certainly being stretched beyond her ability. In the test at the beginning of term she came out 'acceptable' in addition and subtraction, and 'not acceptable' in multiplication and division.
Her homework in the last three weeks has been an eye opener for poor little old me. Admittedly I only did a year of A level maths (pure and stats lol) before deciding it wasn't really my bag, but my nine year old is really being put through the mill! Even my (masters educated engineer) husband is astonished at what they are expected to be able to do...

But other than that, they love social studies. I haven't quite got used to the teachers giving out candy in the class as motivational (!) but give it time...

Such a huge variety of schooling all over the place. Visit schools whilst you are recce-ing. You'll see the variety with your own eyes!

Gezza

I asked my wife about your post, we have 2 primary school girls in Ontario; both born and schooled for their first years in Epsom, Surrey. Here is our comment: your children will be ahead of the game here and will find it easy to adapt in AL,BC or ON. Teachers and children are happy and friendly. (Could not speak for Quebec, though)You should send them to a Catholic school if you want them to know about Christmas. RC schools in most provinces are free, except for BC.
They will find it less of a problem adapting here than they would in USA, where some Catholic schools, we had found, are very performnace oriented and ahead of UK.

From my own observation, what I miss here is the UK emphasis on nice and relatively tasteful uniforms. On the other hand what I do not miss is the problems with head-lice.

Merry

Just curious - do they not have head lice in Canada? Is it like parts of the US where the child has to stay home from school?

athena88

hi does anyone know what the schools are like in NS around the Colcester County area my daughter will be 7 in december and we are hoping to move out before the start of school sept 2010 is there anything we can do to help ease her into it she's doing so well at with her reading and maths at the moment.

Gezza

Unlucky or not our girls went through several elementaries in 3 provinces.None of these had head-lice.

Oink

Yes, they do have head lice here. They send the child home, the parents buy an over-the-counter special shampoo, the child has no more head lice and returns to school.

Head Lice in Canada

SNOWDUDE

Do any provinces have proper uniforms in their non-fee paying schools?

We looked round a couple of middle schools in NB and the kids, dresswise seemed to fall in two camps, those who just looked darn scruffy and those who looked like they were heading to a fashion show!

I'am really not looking forward to getting five kids off in the morning when they can wear what they like - a non-uniform day every day !!!