Gezza

My wife agrees with you.catholic district high schools in ontario, from grade 9 up,wear uniforms.Never been to NB or NS,but in some provs I.e.BC private RC elems have uniforms and their fees are very low comp to UK

Juliew

I wouldn't worry about the non-uniform day!! Your kids will adapt and will realize that wearing their own clothes is nothing special. If you do live in a very wealthy part you may find your kids requesting some expensive clothing brand names. On the whole, I have that teenagers in the Greater Vancouver area tend to wear jeans and a t-shirt to school!

Alan2005

So they have a nit nurse?

Ginger3710

Hi, because in Australia we start school in February, my 3 kids had to jump up to the next grade when they started in September, after only having done 4 months of the previous grade (we landed in June). My 2 eldest in Grades 6 and 9 are thriving, even with my Grade 9er doing academics levels, they're both getting up to 90% in some subjects. My son in grade 1 has a speech delay and is struggling with some subject concepts, especially maths. Our kids are in Catholic schools and my youngest will be getting a lot of extra help including speech therapy and extra assistance at school at no cost to us, much more than he would have ever received in a Catholic school in Australia. Reason being because here the Catholic (separate) schools are govt run and receive plenty of funding. My 3 kids love school here, they say the kids here are more friendly than those in Oz and even with my youngest struggling, he doesn't want to go back to Oz and wants to stay in his school.

As far as uniforms are concerned, Catholic high schools here have uniforms, our elementary school doesn't. At first I was quite disappointed as I was used to strict uniform guidelines at our old Sydney schools, however now we're used to the 2 young ones wearing regular clothes and actually I love it how they can jump out of bed and put on anything in their wardrobe, as opposed to worrying if I've washed and ironed the uniform, no more buttoned shirts and school ties, we've forgotten all about uniforms now. Even my son in high school has polo shirts he can just throw on, instead of his shirt, tie and blazer year round.

My Grade 6 son is learning a lot on Canadian studies and is really enjoying telling me all about Canada. He is also doing french every day and is doing well in that, having never learnt a second language before. I'd say maths is the only subject where you may find struggle simply because of the process, other subjects your child will just blend in. You can see the curriculum on the Ontario Ministry of Education website, we printed the maths curriculum before we left Sydney and showed it to our sons' teachers, however both older sons are excelling in maths, so it's an individual thing anyway.

All in all, our kids have blended in beautifully. My 2 youngest took a while longer to make friends, in fact the first week of school my 2 older boys hated it and I wondered what everyone on here was talking about how their kids loved school. Well now of course I have to agree, our boys are enjoying school more here than back in Australia, and they're seeing more local friends after school and on weekends than they ever did which is nice.

Gezza

So nice to hear your children mixing in well.you must be making the same climate change as us coming from Texas.Can I ask why you have moved from oz?-lots of Brits move there all the time.

jan the piglet

The transition was mot explained to us at all.
We arrived in Ontario, my son was 12, who had gone to an allboys Grammar school for a year in England was put ahead a year in Ontario as Brits start school a yr earlier, yet he was still at primary or Public school for grade 9 so he felt like he'd been demoted.
My daughter was 8 and also put up a grade.
Math and English are taught differnetly and science is just lumped together, no biology, chemistry or physics done separately, or at least where we live, near Lindsay. French of course is the second language and some schools do everything in French!!! they have to write history/geography/math/etc in french writing!!!
Catholic schools have uniforms, others do not, which was an eye-opener after our kids had blazers and ties in UK.
The teachers aren't as pompous in Canada, in fact Canadians aren't as pompous generally, they're quite down to earth and friendly.
School bus picking them up at the door's great, no driving in congestion to school or walking in the rain.
High school starts in Grade 9 -12 from ages 13 in our son's case, but in Canadian's cases 14yrs - 18 yrs is the norm.
There are no gcse's or cse's here. You earn credits, if you don't achieve 30 credits by the end of high school, then you have to stay back to get them. There are some kids at High school who are 19, 20 and 21 yrs old!!!!!!!!!

Ginger3710

Yes, and as far as I know Texas is much hotter than Sydney too! That's a big climate change for you!

We get asked continually why we've moved from Oz to Canada. It's something we've wanted to do for a long time, really just for different life experiences and give our boys opportunities for their future that don't just include Australia. We feel so far away from everywhere in Oz and I love the fact we can visit so many places in just a few hours from Toronto. I've always envied immigrants to Oz and people there who are able to live in other parts of the world. Another big factor is the heat, Sydney is so hot for a long time and we all don't like the heat, we prefer the colder weather so Canada so far is suiting us all very nicely. So far we love living here, on the 18th Nov we will have been here 5 months, still can't believe it, and I know it's still a short time, but there's nothing my OH and I don't miss at all.

I visit the Oz board here, and see many Brits seem to head to Perth and Queensland, I guess they're wanting the warmer and sunnier weather than Britain has to offer. It's great if you like it, but it's just not us.

Gezza

Agree about Canadas climat being comfortable.My roots are in poland so very much like to see my own breath when I'm outdoors. back in Texas when ur down toshorts aircon on still feeling hot there nowhere to run;if you r cold here just put on a jacket.still about uniforms my daughter took some light color last Friday came back with ink stains,ready 4 a bin.navy or dark green wd hv been ok.still.

Oink

In the UK and Australia there are certain standards and benchmarks that the children are expected to meet and teachers are thus required to follow the curriculum and demonstrate that have so, key stages etc. Teachers here play fast and loose with the curriculum and that’s unbelievable in this day and age. You only have to look at the difference when it comes to school reports between the UK and here, its like reading ones from the 1950s here. Canada had a brief fling with shoring up the standards when it was all the rage in the 1990s but as attention has waned they've sort just gone back to their old ways.
This is fine if you have an outstanding teacher, but the rest of them are not being held suitably accountable, the result being that children suffer without rigorous standards. I know there are some wonderful teachers here but even though Canada is a backwater the children deserve a decent educational standards and so there needs to be a much tighter Ministry control.
(IMO)

Gezza

The schools are as you say, laid back in meeting any levels of achievemnt Whether or not any government poking would help I would not be sure. From what I gather the consensus in Canada is not to try anything too hard. And most people are happy with that. It is fascinating to hear from you this European idea that to improve things you need to get a team from the government with additional perwork. I have visited areas in southern US where whole town would have all their state primary schools Blue Ribbon rated, without any input from the gogovernmen at all, exexcept for the funding. This would make me think it has more to do with to the social attitude in the community.

Hollis Family

Hi

We have two boys and they started grade 8 and grade 11 in Sept 09. The little one is streaks ahead in maths and although he has covered some of the other subject areas it seems to be much the same. He is definately one of the top in the class but he did very well in the UK too. The only area he has struggled is history as he obviously had never studied Canadian history. His teacher has been fantastic and has given him extra handouts and extra time for tests.

My eldest son hated school in the UK and he absolutely loves it here!! His reason for this is the respect that the kids give the teachers and then the kids in turn respect the teachers. He has excelled in all his subjects and is getting top marks, at a recent parent/teacher meeting the word used to describe him was 'inspirational!'

Both boys have gained in confidence and I can honestly say although we had grave concerns at moving them they have both fitted in so well and are embracing the experience far more than we could ever hoped for - 5 months in and loving every minute!

Michelle

Oink

The hackneyed teacher complaint about too much paper work never gets old.
Gone are the days when you can make it up on the spot. As in all work concerning the public there is accountability for your actions, and yes they may have to work after 5pm and on the occasional weekends, if they want to be considered professionals that’s what will be required.

ExKiwilass

Oink, do you have kids in the system?

Oink

Why do you ask?


I've lectured/advised many teachers and have provided administration training over many years in the BC system. I have been on many educational policy revue and recommendation groups in BC. But no, I don't have kids in any BC schools at the moment.

Gezza

With this type of government definition of "professionalism" there is just no limit to how much "work" people can do without doing anything.
Saying that you are right: where people have abandoned morals in their attitude to work the government has to step in.