scilly

Ross .................

We left the UK in 1967. In that time we have also spent several months at a time living in the US, in Australia and in New Zealand, but BC has been our permanent home for the last 50+ years.

Unlike many people, neither of us have ever felt homesick for the UK and would never go back to live there. We didn't even go back for holidays regularly, usually leaving 6-10 years between visits.

My advice would be to set your mind to the fact that you are coming to live in a different country. You are not moving to another version of England (or Wales) ................. foods will be different, sense of humour is different, tv shows are different, etc etc etc.

Come with an open mind to enjoy life, and don't keep looking back or comparing things to "back home".

As far as education is concerned .......... OH was involved with education at the university level, and we had 1 daughter who went through the education system here, ending up with 2 Bachelor degrees and 2 Masters degrees before she finally settled on her choice of work.

Yes, it is different from the UK system .................. but comparing my education in the UK with my daughter's here tells me that we were under far more stress to achieve from an early age than she ever was. She probably therefore enjoyed her schooldays far more than either of us ever did.

My experience from what OH has said is that first year undergraduate students in UK and in Canada are basically at the same level, and their degrees are comparable.

My BSC Hons degree from Liverpool was once rated as equivalent to a Masters degree from a major US university (something I still don't know whether to believe!). On the other hand I do know that it was equivalent to a BSc Hons degree in the same subject from several Canadian universities.

Jimbo2012

Welcome to the forum, Ross.

I am originally from the SE Wales area. Please feel free to PM me for any info/advice/moral support whatsoever.

Scilly nicely nails it with this: "My advice would be to set your mind to the fact that you are coming to live in a different country. You are not moving to another version of England (or Wales) ................. foods will be different, sense of humour is different, tv shows are different, etc etc etc. Come with an open mind to enjoy life, and don't keep looking back or comparing things to back home"

By the way, don't expect many Canadians to get the whole difference between the Welsh/English/Scots thing, unless they have direct connections to the countries in question. I've given up trying to explain it now, and just accept that everything is lumped together as "England" regardless ;-)

Good luck with everything.

Hurlabrick

Errr…. No.... Everything is lumped together as 'London'!

'Where are you from?'

'Lived for many years in Cheltenham'

[blank look]

'Well, halfway between Bristol and Birmingham'

[blank look]

'Oh, well 100 miles west of London'

'Aaaaahhhhhh' followed by [blank look]!

scilly

It's like going back to the UK, going into a store to buy, eg shoes, and the assistant says "You're not from around here. Where are you from?"

Me "We're living in Canada"

Sales assistant:- "My cousin lives in Toronto, You must know her."

True story ............. repeated several times over on every visit that we've had to the UK.

Exactly the same as those Canadians who don't recognise different parts of the UK

Partially discharged

A few weeks before my grandmother died in the UK (in a nursing home between Manchester and Warrington) she introduced me to some of the other ladies in the home..'this is my grandson he lives in Canada'. Old lady who lived there 'It's no use talking to me....I haven 't been in to the middle of Manchester since WW2 and never been past Preston other than a visit to Blackpool in the 50's'.

scilly

Not unusual in that generation!

dbd33

At a conference in New Orleans, I met a woman who said visiting New Orleans was the fulfilment of a life long dream. She was crazy with excitement and so grateful to the firm that had made it possible.

She was born and raised in Jackson, MS. It's three hours by road and there are buses.

neilcumming

I live in Calgary and have Welsh cousins if that is any help?

Mr Bean

Shwd mae bwt

rawsalad

I'm a bit surprised about the opportunities for the kids reasoning. I have experienced Canada and the UK and I feel the opposite. Here's why.

Schooling up to year 10 is very easy compared to the UK. My son gets worked hard in the UK but while he was in Canada he barely got any homework and what he got he was able to complete during class time - he would do his science homework in English class for example. One thing that he did like is the special programmes that are available to students entering Middle School (eg: international baccularate, music) and in high school with athletics, Uni, sci tech programmes. Where we are in the UK they don't really have any of this.

If your son is into clubs like football clubs - expect to pay a lot more and the quality of his peers to be much lower. It is much cheaper than ice hockey however! My son's track club was over $700 per year plus additional competition fees and the requirement to participate in fund raising. None of that at his track club in the UK where we pay £100 for the year and there are a lot more meets year round.

From my experience the UK has a lot more opportunities in media, science, industry, tech. & uni IMHO than Canada has. There is just too little money in Canada to make all of that happen. It's a nice place to live and there is so much space - but I'm not convinced that it offers more opportunity than the UK.

If you are looking to move abroad for opportunities for your son I'd say the USA is where I'd go.

rawsalad

UK students are the most tested kids in Europe and I personally believe it has a negative impact on kids. The system doesn't seem geared for kids that are late developers but just for clever kids. Luckily my son is clever but I also feel that he will get burnt out later and won't achieve full potential. There is something to nurturing the mind until it is ready to go full out that the politicians need to understand. Sadly all they care about is stats and a lot of schools just care about stats.

raindropsandroses

I'd have to disagree on that. My husband and I both have STEM professions, we've lived all over the world and I would definitely say Canada has the some of the best opportunities for STEM careers.

The school system? I've yet to find anywhere that has a school system I'm 100% pro, except Finland when we lived there, but we've found homeschooling works best for us.

scilly

What I particularly like about the Canadian education system over the UK is that children can keep their options wide open right to university, and can take music or art through high school even if they are leaning towards science.

I was a product of the English system, streamed in to grammar school, had to choose at 13/14 what I would take for GCE and then for A levels. Always had homework to do from primary school to the end of schooling.

I was also one of those children who changed their minds about what they wanted to do between the age of 14 and 16. I switched from wanting to do languages to science, and as a result had to spend an extra year in the 6th Form catching up on the chemistry I had dropped at 14.

I was lucky that my parents agreed to my staying at school until I was 19, and that I then got a local Education grant that covered all my costs at university ............... but it took me until I was 23 before I really found "my" subject, and I've not looked back since then.

On the other hand, my daughter could keep her options wide open, keep on doing art as well as a couple of sciences and her arts subjects such as history and geography, and did that right until finishing 2nd year of university.

The fact that she changed her mind completely at age 24 while doing a Masters' degree was something that was unforeseen ........ but again, she could make that change with little extra catch up except for 1 term of a Math course was a result of the wide range of subjects she was able to take at school and in the early years of university.

She came out of school and university as a far more rounded person than I did from the UK system.

dbd33

I don't know about that. The kid down the street who goes on to MIT has likely been sciencing since age two. How common is it for the child of immigrants to drift through high school taking music and end up as a doctor?

christmasoompa

Perhaps worth pointing out though that your experience of the UK system dates back decades. Things have changed hugely since I did my secondary schooling and must have changed even more since you were there. I certainly couldn't have done rock climbing, Mandarin, scuba diving or any of the other things my kids do when at school, it was all much more mainstream. And I remember having to take certain subjects for GCSE i.e. one language, one humanities subject - none of that for my kids, you can even take more vocational subjects rather than academic now i.e. LAMDA exams instead of a GCSE, or a BTEC instead of a GCSE. Times have definitely changed!