Ontario Education System
 

Hi,
We have 2 boys, aged 9 and 11 (starting secondary school in UK in Sept 22), and are thinking about a move to Toronto. The biggest decision will be the boys education and ensuring they are not disadvantaged if they came back to the UK to study. We would hope to be there to see through the high school education, but this may not be possible. we will be looking at private education.
- Would you recommend the IB approach? or the Canadian credit route?
- As I understand the Canadian system is an educational year behind the UK - we have one very bright child, would they move them up a year?
- Is there a website that gives you the academic results comparisons?

Many thanks for any help, as we try and navigate such a big decision

Re: Ontario Education System
 

IB, innit.

My children went to an IB school in central Toronto. That worked out well. In the end they didn't need the portability of the qualification but having it did them no harm.

Re: Ontario Education System
 

Hi I am not sure if you are still on here but thought I could try and help as my kids are the same age. TDSB and TCDSB both offer IB but it is subject to exam results. If your bright child is able enough he should get in, it's decided around Grade 10 I believe.
At primary, there is much less testing than in the UK, they are much more relaxed for example about taking your kids out of school for a month (yes!) to travel but it does ramp up around Grade 7 and in the OECD results at least Canada ranks ahead of the UK. Compareschoolrankings.org will give you rankings by area (I'm afraid I can't do links as I haven't enough posts.!)
The children go to their local school depending on catchments, there are no tricky places to navigate so once you have found a house you go to that loccal school, they need to provide your child a place. There is an optional attendance option (to go to a school out of your catchment) but that is only available if they have places. The Grade your child goes into is determined by year of birth so 1st Jan-31 Dec, so a child born in February 2010 would go into Grade 7 in September 2022. I have only heard of a handful of people moving up/down a year but if they stay remember they will be graduating at 17 and having to decide what to do next.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, if you want them to go to British universities as UK students, they must be in the country 3 years before they apply otherwise they are classed as International Students and are subject to higher fees. It is done as residency not domicile. So you would need to be back when your eldest is 15, a tricky age to execute a move.
I am in Oakville but if I can help any more let me know, good luck whatever you decide.

Re: Ontario Education System
 

The trick there being that, if you want a state funded IB school and you want to keep things simple, you need to find the school and then buy a house nearby. The OP said they would go for a private school but, even then, you want it to be an easy commute so the choice of school determines the location of the house. If it's just about education, Leaside might be the best option, lots of educational facilities available by transit.