ginaf

I just wanted to check in and say hi.

My name is Gina, I am married with 2 kiddies, 5 and 15 months. We hope to move to central Toronto in the summer of 2006 and plan on starting the process immediately.

We are not going out there with rose tinted spectacles, just annoyed with extortionate house prices and 3 1/2 hours of commuting that my husband does each day over here, and hope that Canada will give us more of a chance to be a slightly more relaxed and happy family. My biggest worry is getting my 5 year old settled in school.

I have a whole raft of questions I want to ask so any advice would be appreciated, I hope that in time I will be able to give some back.

My first question (sorry), is, does anyone know when the schools start back after the summer break. We hope to visit Toronto this summer at the end of august and I have heard that the schools are back by then but can't find anything concrete on the net.

Thanks
Gina

Tiaribbon

Hi Gina,

Welcome and I hope you find out a lot of answers to your questions on here. I moved out here in December with my 8 year old daughter and she has settled into school very well. Nice folks around this area. She has made a lot of friends both in and out of school.

Her school goes back after the summer in September - they may have different holidays in Toronto though.

Airseir

Hello Gina and Welcome.

Which side of the pond do you refer to when you ask about the schools? I can't say for Canada but over here in the UK it now depends on which area you live. Some LEA's now operate the 5 term year while other stick to the traditional 3 term year.

If you do refer to UK let me know which area (including city or county as these can also vary now) and I may be able to help

ginaf

Thanks Tiaribbon and Airseir, I meant the schoool terms in Toronto, sorry didn't really make myself clear.

Tiaribbon was it easy to get your daughter enrolled in school, do you need anything other than having the obvious Visa? I am worried that we are going to turn up without having my little boy a place in school and struggle to get him in somewhere, especially if we are in short term rental accomodation initially. Does it operate like in the U.K or was there anything vastly different, and is there anything I can do in the U.K to speed up the process. Do I need proof of permanent address as I do in my local LEA in the U.K at the moment, I know you are in a different area, but from your experience how was it?

Sorry, I did warn you there would be lots of questions!

Bsidebaby

Hi Gina

We too are in similar shoes to you guys. Applied May 04, AOR July 04 and now in limbo waiting to hear. Hopefully by the end of this year we will at least have had medicals.

We have 3 kids 8, 4 and nearly 2 and I completely share your worries about schooling etc. We are looking at Ontario and keeping changing our minds as to where to settle first Niagara Region , then Quinte region then back to Niagara/Hamilton but have been put off Hamilton by so many negative postings on here about it and now looking at London/St Thomas.

Where abouts in UK are you? We are in North Essex and have no-one to talk to about our immigration. Family havent mentioned it since we did so they are either blotting out the inevitable or dont think itll ever happen. Would be nice if they showed an interest though.

Do you guys have jobs to go to?

Lets stay in touch.

Tiaribbon

I don't have PR yet so I applied for a Study Permit for my daughter. I had to contact the school I wanted her to attend to get a Letter of Acceptance and I also had to contact the school board for the area and get a Letter of Acceptance from them also. This was done in the UK. Once I received these letters I applied to CHC for the Study Permit. The Permit only took a couple of days to arrive and then I moved to Canada within 2 days of it arriving. I had no problems with "landing" on Study Permit even bringing all my animals with me, LOL!!

I think it would be a similar situation if you are entering Canada on PR although the Letters of Acceptance are maybe not necessary in this case. We already had our house so we knew the school and it made it much easier if you have a firm location. Your best bet would be to contact the Education Board for the area you are hoping to move to. Actually your very best bet would be to visit the area and look around all the schools! Some schools are way better than others. We initially enrolled our daughter in the catchment school for our area, but having never been into any of the schools until my move in December I assumed one school was as good as the other - it is only a tiny place that I live in. Anyway as soon as we arrived here to live, I went into that school and it was definitely not the place for my daughter so I immediately went to the other school to see if they had a place, which they did. Then I called the school board again to see whether we could change schools - wasn't a problem so long as I ferried her back and forth to school.

My daughter has really settled in well, so I am happy and feel that I made the right decision to send her to the other school.

I think there is also a similar set-up as in the UK where you have to register your child into a school before a certain date, but as we came in mid-term it didn't seem to matter and she wasn't starting school for the first time in her life.

Bsidebaby

http://www.settlement.org/sys/faqs_d...faq_id=4000054

great info on enrolling into school and finding schools by region
hope this helps

ginaf

Hi Bsidebaby, I am in Cambridgeshire so not far away at all, my family are EXACTLY the same, not been mentioned since we bought it up.

Long story but husband works in London for a company that has a huge division in Toronto, he works there on a self employed basis but dream scenario would be that he could get a permanent position in London and then transfer over to Toronto, bit of a long shot but otherwise we will have to wing it, and hope that he can get work.

Do stay in touch, p.m me if you want, if not, good luck with it all!

Gina

ginaf

Thanks Tiariibon, sounds very like in the U.K then and at least I can get the ball rolling over here, or at least make myself feel better by doing something (anything!). We are bringing the dog too lol!

Thanks for the link Bsidebaby

Bsidebaby

Hi Gina

Thanks for your reply. what does pm you mean? sorry to be dim?

Similarly my husband works for a company that have offices in Mississauga but for some stupid reason hes not allowed a straight transfer over there, he has to re-apply for a job over there.

Ridiculous but if he w as to get a job there it could be something to start us off until we find something else.

Bsidebaby

http://www.settlement.org/sys/link_r...doc_id=1001972

school board year link

ginaf

p.m - personal mail me

ginaf

p.m private message even, just click on my username or you can send me an email that way.

ginaf

sorry, it's me being dim

Maple Leaf

Hello and welcome to the forum and the joys of preparing to move to a new country *VBS*~
I do not have children of my own, but i do have 2 Canadian Step Children. We are in the Okanagan in British Columbia. I am impressed with their schooling system here.
They have a meals program here which costs about $50 per month (they take theirs each day tho, homecooked biscuits-cookies, sandwich, fruit etc) Schooling hours is 8.30-2.30 for elementery and 9- 3.15pm for middle school.

People move and change schools all the time. I do not for-see you having any problems in enrolling your child mid term etc.

good luck and look forward to sharing more with you. There is lots of positive people here, who have done it, thinking about doing it, or are doing it. *S*