Originally Posted by JonboyE (Post 9323740)

Does this mean playing Mozart and reading Shakespeare to them in the womb?

Originally Posted by Zoe Bell (Post 9323754)

Do they orbit a cucumber sun ?:)

Originally Posted by JonboyE (Post 9322635)

misplacedheidi has given you a link to the Fraser Institute website. It is the only attempt at ranking schools in Canada. However, be aware that the Fraser Institute is not a disinterested body like Ofsted but a right wing think tank with an agenda to promote private over public services.

The BC government (who have been a fairly right wing lot for the last 10 years) recommend that you do not choose a school on the basis of the FI rankings and, from my limited experience of the school system here, I agree.

That said, I suppose you wouldn't be human if you didn't have a peek.

Around here the schools pretty much reflect the communities in which they are located. If you find somewhere that you would like to live the chances are that the local schools will suit your offspring just fine.

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 9323730)

I second this advice. The FI rankings are load of bollocks and are effectively a political statement. The main determinate of a child's educational 'success' is parental involvement/educational level and a child's peer group. So, if you can barely string a coherent sentence together yourself and you move into a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, your kids will be buggered.

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 9323833)

Instead of worrying about the schools, take the responsibility to enhance your child's educational experience with after and off school tutoring plus set specific goals of attainment.

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 9323833)

Instead of worrying about the schools, take the responsibility to enhance your child's educational experience with after and off school tutoring plus set specific goals of attainment.

Originally Posted by Oakvillian (Post 9325610)

Now, now, Mr Oink, play nicely with the other kids, don't lead them down the path of temptation - next you'll be advocating that parents should turn up to their kids' job interviews and step in to negotiate salary and benefits...

"A Nation of Wimps" by the wonderfully-named Hara Estroff Marano should be required reading for every parent tempted by the hothousing/helicopter parenting/private tutoring crap that the likes of Sylvan or Oxford Learning promote. It can do a whole load more harm than good.

Originally Posted by Laura_Wilson (Post 9322524)

Is there a school rating system that applies to regular schools rather than the privately funded schools that is similar to our Ofsted system?

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 9323730)

I second this advice. The FI rankings are load of bollocks and are effectively a political statement. The main determinate of a child's educational 'success' is parental involvement/educational level and a child's peer group. So, if you can barely string a coherent sentence together yourself and you move into a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, your kids will be buggered.

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 9326001)

So following your logic a schools PAT results (measuring educational "success") are an indicator of the collective parental involvement/educational level and potential childs peer group at that school?

Originally Posted by Zoe Bell (Post 9326130)

If they are anything like the NFER CAT tests in the UK then they are a test of the schools ability to play the system and fudge the results. My lack of anonymity meansi can't describe in detail how various schools I've worked in have played the system

Originally Posted by Zoe Bell (Post 9326321)

Actually with so called "baseline testing" it is completely the opposite
You want your intake cohort to perform as badly as possible.

Boosts your value added scores

Only amateurs concentrate on trying to improve sats and gcse results, real experts work on the baseline you are judged from