dbd33

You need not look at the suburbs, my children attended a really good, state funded, high school at Jarvis and College which is in central Toronto. If you do want to live in a bedroom community then, more money usually means better schools, Oakville is commonly mentioned here. If you were in the UK and would choose Milton Keynes over Camden Town then Oakville might be your place in the Toronto region.

scilly

Something to go by???

NOPE

The Fraser Institute is a right-wing organisation, and I can tell you that its rankings for BC, especially Vancouver and suburbs, are far from accurate. I assume it is much the same for the other provinces.

Notice that almost all the top rankings are for private schools? Some of the private schools are top rate, some much better than in the UK, and provide a much wider education and "socialization" than there. Students don't come out of most of them with the "Eton" complex, but with an understanding of what real life is all about.

There are, of course, worse private schools ............. most of which are run by religious organisations, usually not Catholic or Anglican. Some of those get high rankings from the FI.

In the same way, there are superb public (state) schools that are down rated by the Fraser Institute because they don't agree or approve of certain aspects of the school.

One of the best but most under-rated primary schools is actually in a lower-income area of Vancouver. Why? Because the programmes at that school attracts teachers who care about the pupils.

We have watched the Fraser Institute reports for many years, and really truly, I advise you to ignore them for any practical purpose.

FWIW ................ our daughter is now in her late 40s, and we did send her to one of the private schools in Vancouver from age 6 to 18, but we had our own reasons for doing that, it had nothing to do with the quality of the public schools, most especially with the high schools.

You might also like to be aware of the fact that UK kids start kindergarten at age 3. Primary kindergarten in Canada starts at age 4, kindergarten for 1 more years, Grade 1 at age 6. Graduation from High School at age 18.

A Canadian student might be behind an English student who has been to college for the 2 years from 16 to 18, but only in certain subjects. That's because, as has been said, a Canadian student does not specialize in only 3 subjects for the last 2 or 3 years. BY the time they reach university graduation or before in some cases), Canadian and English students have reached the same level, and compete (usually) on equal terms if applying for the same further programme or position.

The Canadian student has taken a much wider range of subjects, which means that their options for future study are wider ............... think of the poor student who changes their mind about what they want to study at university, and the problems they can have.

I was one of those, asked to decide at 14 what I wanted to study, changed my mind at 16 from arts subjects to a science. Had to do much extra study to get the needed A levels (as it was then).

My daughter was another ............... changed her mind during the last year of a Master's degree, but only had to do 1 first year university course during that last year before she had all the credits for her new university degree in another province. She had done all the pre-requirements in high school.

dbd33

It is a right-wing organization but the pertinent point here is that it exists to promote certain types of schools ahead of others. It's deliberately not an objective source.

pac_les_man

Thank you. It's good to know about those rankings. I was actually looking at google reviews (again I won't give much weight on it's own) and couple of the top rated private schools had horrible reviews from some parents. We overall knew the kids would get a "better" education in Canada compared to UK, but it's great to get some specific advise like this.

pac_les_man

Comprehensive Ranking System formula grand total = 453
This with conservative IELTS scores - we are yet to do.
I chose yes for "8) Do you have a valid job offer supported by a Labour Market Impact Assessment (if needed)?" and skill level/type 0 -- my offer letter was from around November 2020 and this seem to give me 50 points. Do I have a case to get the ball rolling now (rather than wait till 1 year of experience completed in Feb2022)? Also please advice if I should switch to a different thread as I am going off topic here.

Thanks

HGerchikov

He needs to look in the distant surburbs to get a property in the price points he mentioned. The new townhouses in Erin start at $780k. To the OP Erin is a small rural town a good 75 minute from Toronto (assuming no traffic - rolls on the floor in fits of giggles). At this present point in time, the town does not have a waste water system and all properties are on septic systems. One is planned before the new developments go in, telling you this to give you an idea of the prices you will currently have to pay to get anywhere even close to Toronto. You are looking at over a million for a half decent townhouse in Oakville and at least $1.4mi for a small detached.

pac_les_man

Wow, Thanks for the references. So, this image of moving to an Ontario suburb will let us afford a big house compared to where we are now seems a bit of a reach.

HGerchikov

There will be suburbs in Ontario that are affordable, just not suburbs of Toronto.

dbd33

Erin's a bit snob. Brantford and Stratford have lots of new development aimed at commuters and are, er, not at all prestigious. See also Dundalk.

Siouxie

As suggested... post a new thread in our Canada Immigration forum for Immi advice, rather than this one

pac_les_man

Revisiting my old thread after a lot of reading here... further considerations and narrowing down our choices
We want to try Calgary!
No foreign buyers tax means we could look to buy directly, and can target a nice house itself (maybe for $700k)

I read through the wiki, school section, community crime stats etc. but a bit blank with an excitement of moving to a new City and a new life... we could be easily living in north east or south west. I am hoping to get some ideas from the community here.
if we can narrow down some decent elementary schools, then i feel it would automatically filter the choices for us in terms of decent neighbourhood and the rest.

Partially discharged

The thought of travelling from Brantford to anywhere like Mississauga or Toronto on a daily basis would make me seriously consider switching job locations. So many jobs are now going to work from home and good internet seems to be a driving force.

dbd33

If you lived in Brantford. the alternative to a long commute would be staying in Brantford ...

Partially discharged

Good point. I have members of my wife's family who lived there and about the only thing people could say positive about Brantford was its distance to other places. Not my favourite place.

dbd33

It has a large tack shop. The apparel tends to the "western tacky" end of the spectrum but the basic supplies, such as fly spray and blankets, are cheap and of good quality.