Tempest14

We are am soon moving to Ontario, possibly in Jan/Feb 20. We have two children - 4-year-old (Reception year) and 9-year-old (year 5). It is very important for us that children go to an excellent state school. I am hoping to get some advice on the following:

a. Will my kids be admitted to Reception and Year 5?
b. Which neighborhood should we live to get the best state school education? I don't mind paying a higher rent for a good education.
c. What can I do now on the school front - can I call schools? How to get a place in the school before we actually land there?
d. Most importantly - which ones are good public schools?

I have tried to get some basic info on the internet regarding the education system and school listings but I am not very clear. I will continue to do more research. Any advice from you will help.

Thanks for your help.

scilly

Have you realised that schooling in Canada goes from age 6 to age 18, ie Grades 1-12?

Children age 5 in the year they start school (September) go into Kindergarten. Children age 4 go into Pre-Kindergarten (sometimes called Kindergarten 1) IF it is offered in their district.

Secondly, there is not the huge distinction between the public schools that you experience in the UK ............. in most cases, your children will go to the school that serves the area where your house is.

Best advice is .......... find a house that you like in an area that you like, THEN start looking at schools that serve that area. You may not get the one that you might prefer eg, because it is full, the school district will decide.

An immigrant child will usually be tested by the school district to determine which grade they enter.

You are arriving in January, which means that will be the second term of the school year .............. that usually begins around January 3-5. Arriving later than that, means the term will be at least one month into the session. Your older child may well have difficulty a) getting into the rhythm of a different schooling system (much more relaxed), and b) making friends in the class room

dbd33

I would look for a school that offers the IB program and I would move to live near it (I didn't follow this advice and my children had to commute to school in Toronto from almost Oakville; that's a terrible thing to do to anyone). It depends a bit where you're moving to though, Toronto offers a choice of schools, Sarnia not so much.

sharkus

The boundary thing can be a problem when finding a school. I think most school boards should have an address lookup that allows you to see the boundary of a school. It is possible to make a cross boundary request if the school you want your child to attend is outside of your addresses boundary, however, I'm not sure if that applies to someone new to the school. We had to submit one to allow my son to stay at the school he was already at when we both moved out of it's boundary. The school boards do tend to have lookups for the boundaries, so you can see where they are, and also wether the school is accepting out of boundary requests

Siouxie

Hello and welcome to BE

You will find the wiki invaluable for information about schooling
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Categ...ucation-Canada

For school / district boundaries - https://blog.remax.ca/get-home-search-new-school-tool/

For school boards/ districts School Districts | OASDI / https://www.ocsta.on.ca/school-directory-5/ / http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/sbinfo/boardList.html


Edited to add - when you arrive, ask for Visitor Records for the children (if you are not / won't be Permanent Residents) - this will enable them to attend school.

Allie73

We moved to Ontario when our twins were nearly 5 and our eldest was 6. In Ontario, there are 2 years of kindergarten, Junior and Senior. Kids start Junior kindergarten the September of the year they turn 4. So kids with September-December birthdays actually start Junior Kindergarten at 3 years old. My twins are December babies so they were put into Senior Kindergarten, even though they had been in Reception in the UK. They esssentially skipped a year of school. My eldest was 6 and was in Year 2 in the UK and was put into Grade 1 in Ontario because of his birth year. Kids are placed in a grade based on birth year. They won't make acceptions if your kid is ahead or behind the rest of the class. You don't apply for schools here, which is nice. You live in a catchement area and that determines where your kids will go to school. If the kids or at least one parent is baptised Catholic, Catholic school is an option. You likely won't be able to do anything about school placement until you can show proof of address. We had to show proof of address and proof the kids were legally in Canada before we could register them. Also, make sure you have copies of their vaccination records because you'll be asked for them at some point. Good luck with your move.