cpu

Hi all, I'll be moving from London to Toronto in August of this year with two kids, two cats and as little stuff as I can get away with. Couple of questions:

- On schools, is there a school choice (for a 5 year old), or does your address determine the school? The Ontario School Board website seems to allocate a school to the address we'll be living. How far in advance do you have to register a child?
- I realise there's a wiki with a list of threads asking this question, but they're all from several years ago, and if anyone has recently shipped their house contents (by sea, doesn't matter if it takes a number of months), I welcome recommendations.
- Does anyone know the difference between accompanying pets on a plane vs having them sent by someone like PetAir? I think that if you go with them it's not technically an import and there are fewer hoops to jump through, but I can't find concrete details on this.

My COPR expires in May so I'll be popping over for a week in April to do a soft landing and then head back before the move in the summer. I think in that time I can open a bank account and maybe start the ball rolling on health insurance? If anyone can think of anything else useful I could do in that week, that would also be helpful.

Thank you!

dbd33

Address determines school. You'll often see houses advertised as being within the catchment area for specific schools or, in the case of houses on the fringe of being in the Beach, TDSB (as opposed to whatever education, if any, is offered in Scarborough).

Note that there are four public school boards; English language Catholic, English Other, French language Catholic, French Other. It is routine to adjust children's religion or language according to the relative quality of the local schools.

Loads of prior posts on pet transport, fewer on goods, but then we're British.

cpu

Guess where I'm staying with the in-laws for the first few months...

dbd33

Scarborough is huge and variable, it's not all housing projects where you don't let the kids sleep near the windows. The part at the bottom of Vic Park is similar to the Beach (which is adjacent but part of Toronto) and it's there that the school district really affects house prices. I hope the in-laws don't live at Morningside and Lawrence or in Tuxedo Court.

Partially discharged

Add Carabob Court or Glendower Circuit (north end) or parts of Bay Mills Blvd or parts of Malvern into that mix.

dbd33

I'm sure there are lots of shitty bits. I mentioned those two because I knew people who lived there and I was a frequent visitor to the Morningside/Lawrence housing project. It was a running joke that we had to drink on the balcony so we could watch the car but we had no idea what we'd do if someone started smashing it up. Ah, the Newfie years. I wonder it the Crossroads tavern is still there.

cpu

Nah it's fine, I've been there plenty of times and they live in a quiet suburb north of the 401 full of elderly Chinese people. My biggest worry is that I'm going to be there for 4-6 months and there's nothing resembling a pub within walking distance.

dbd33

I bet it's important to the residents that you call it Markham and not Scarborough!