Maple Cupcakes

Have searched the forum and can't find anything on here about how secondary age children have adjusted into the Canadian Education system. Our eldest child is 13 and we are about to submit SW application, but will hopefully end up going down the WP route when she has completed GCSEs here in 3 years time. Can anyone help with info on secondary school qualifications gained in Canada, when is the best time to transfer into the Canadian system and how have children coped with the transfer? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks

philandhev

We are about to move to Canada. Our eldest son is 16 and doing his GCSES now , our other son is 13. They will both start their new school next term. Our eldest son will be going into Grade 12 I think and this is the 2 year of his 3 year high school diploma. If he were staying in the UK it wouyld be his 1st year of A levels.

He has missed the 1st year of his diplome so he will get what they call equivalenced into the streams aets depending upon his subject choices. We have the forms now for him to choose and submit to the school for the next term. We are assuming that he will take his GCSE results into school when he starts and he will get these over the internet via email as he will be in Canada.

Hope this helps.

I should also say that we will let you know how we get on, we are hoping that they will be ok in their new school and are at present very positive about it but time will tell.

Maple Cupcakes

Thanks for your information. Do you know of any good websites to look on to get more information about the High School Diploma? Have the children visited the school they are going to and what kind of what kind of policy does does the school have, if any to help immigrant children integrate into the system?

Hope everything goes well for you and good luck with the GCSEs!

Sue

Steve_P

Canada as a country doesn't have an education system, each province has its own education ministry so it would help if we knew which one you are planning on going to.

philandhev

Hi firstly apologies for all the spelling mistakes and errors I was in a bit if a rush!!

Our kids are going to BC Vancouver Island and each province has its own system. There is a thing called the Fraser Report which is available on the web somewhere. I hasten to add that we have found this to be detested by the teachers we have met and spoken to as they say it is not an accurate reflection of the quality of schools and education. It is basically a league tabel of results for BC and similar to that of the UK. So it was a good starting point for us.

We found an area and a school that looked good and had good reports from local people and older kids we spoke to. We have found local knowledge to be the best form of finding out things. You can look at league tables till you are blue in the face but it really depends on your kids and their immediate peers in our view as to how well they will be educated. Research trips are the best way once you know an approximate area in which to reside.

Eastbound

Hi
Totally agree with the above post we found the fraser report cards to be very helpful as a guideline tool and were nearly put of an area which had a low marking for its school but decided to visit it any way .Turns out the school was in a transition stage new broom and all that new teachers etc , from this we have no doubt that it will be upping its mark in the tables once the changes have bedded in

bananahammock

Hi Sue,
Our kids were 13 & 16 when we arrived here ~ the 13yr old went into grade 7 (1st yr of high school) & the 16yr old, grade 12 (She had completed her GCSE's) she wanted to make some friends to move on to Uni with. Eventually (no-one moves at any great speed here!!) she recieved 'credits' from her UK exam results, she was a little stressed as it took a while from both sides of the pond but it sorted itself out. Whilst in the UK we had looked at the Fraser report , had a good look at the school district website & shown the kids the virtual tours & had pretty much decided..........then we actually moved here & on talking to the locals our age with teenagers we got a better picture than from the UK ~ there are 5 high schools in this area but they all specialise in different things.................one has a fantastic music program, one is french immersion, one does particularly well in arts/drama etc etc

As for helping them to settle in............on the day we visited, the principal arranged for 2 kids to take my 2 around the school while I filled in the forms .......needless to say they came back smiling.
The first week or 2 at school were hard for them as the system is very different here (I worked in a school in UK & I work for the school district here) but once they felt more confident it got easier for them..........the older one is a girl & settled really quickly......my son took a little longer but isn't quite the 'social butterfly' that she is!!
Funnily enough I found that the kids settled much easier than their parents

simon876

Just been reading this post - very useful indeed. We are waiting for meds on a Dec '04 SW application and hope to head for Ontario. Our kids are 13 and 17.

Thanks for the info. We have also been looking at the Wiki - very helpful too.

Simon

dingbat

I assume you understand that you are moving your seventeen year old at a crucial stage of their education into education limbo land. The basic BC Grade 12 is not even accepted by Ontario as equivalent to their Grade 12, it is so poor academically on a like for like basis. My eldest is just completing Grade 12 in BC and had to do US Advanced Placement exams on top of the Grade 12 courses, just to get an equal footing with Ontarian Grade 12 students and A level students. Grade 12 from BC is not transportable anywhere other than BC. If your child is average or above at A level standard s/he will be bored out of her tree. This is not a personal opinion - this is fact, just try asking Universities outside BC what they think of the BC High School Diploma.

Moose Mug

We have moved to Ontario and have 2 children, aged 10 and 12. We have found they have settled very quickly and our oldest son is especially happy. I am sure this is because his school day is a lot shorter than in England where he was at a private school so the work load was quite heavy. I do have reservations as he is scoring very highly in tests (like 90%) but the work his school does seems pretty good. The science especially seems more relevant and topic based. He has admitted that the Maths he is doing now, he did cover last year but then he was building up to the common entrance in England. I have been told that the education system really isn't compatable but my children are doing OK. If you move your son at a cruicial time he could always have extra tuition, or, if it comes to it, do an extra year. The academic year here is the same as the calender year so he might find that he would be in a different year in Canada than he would be at home (it might buy him an extra year).

suebed

There have been threads on this topic before

for instance :http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=432234

Now that my 3 have almost finished their first year at school here they'd still say it was far easier than in the UK. Much less rigourous, much more casual but on the whole they've also had more fun. They particularly like how much better their classmates' behaviour is.

My younger son is going into Grade 9 next year and he has been accepted to a school that offers the International Baccalaureate even though he's out of area. He wants to do this because he likes the idea of going back to the UK for university and IB is accepted there. It also gives advanced standing in some university subjects. There are a lot of schools in Canada starting to offer the IB so it might be worth a look.

JulesinUK

Oh dear, That does sound worrying! We are hoping to move to BC in Summer 2008 with our children who will be aged 18 and 16 by then. They will both have finished their A Levels and GCSEs that summer. We realise that it is not ideal but, the visas have taken so long to come through. When we applied, we thought we would be out in Canada by now but it wasn't to be .
Its a case of 'now or never' really but your comment was worrying.

Juliew

I have to disagree with the above. As a certified teacher in both BC and Ontario, I can confirm that both systems have their merits and faults. Furthermore, grade twelve in BC is acceptable for university entrance to all universities in Canada and many international universities. You do need to take an academic stream in grades 11 and 12 in BC to qualify to get into to university.

I have plenty of friends and students from BC that have successfully received entrance into universities across Canada. I even had one that got into Harvard on Scholarship.

Also, you need to note that the grading is higher in Canada than the UK. Many universities will require a high 80% or low 90% average to enter directly from highschool. Thus, although a 90% grade is good it is not unusual.

JulesinUK

Great Juliew. That helps to put my mind at rest a little more!
Thanks
Jules