Hello

My kids have been in school in Edmonton since January, and always complain about the number of tests they have in school.

In particular, my 14 year old says a lot of his lessons are spent copying from the board, reading text books or completing a worksheet - followed usually by a test a day or two later.

He says at his UK school, the teachers spent more time teaching the lesson and involved the students more. He really enjoyed school in the UK.

I just wondered what other's experiences/opinions were. I'm not saying this is necessarily bad, but probably mirrors my school days (which were a long time ago).

Either way, he's struggling to maintain any enthusiasm or focus on school and it's starting to become a cause for concern.

Many thanks.

Copying from the board and reading and working from text hardly sounds like fun, and yes where exactly is the teaching and learning happening. Tests in itself are not a bad thing but it should only take place once all children have been taught the subject matter and it is then used as a tool to gauge if they have understood what they were taught.

Your son is absolutely right teaching and learning should involve children by actively engaging them in all aspects of learning.

I am a high school teacher in the UK in an inner city secondary school and I know exactly what your son would like to see more of - as these are Ofsted guidelines. I am not sure if there is such a thing as OFsted in Alberta and how are standards and achievement monitored.

Ruby

Hi Ruby

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I value your professional opinion. I've just got to work out how to make things better for my son.

Other kids seem to settle well in to school here, may be it's just mine who don't like it!


Thanks

Maybe so, perhaps if you told me how old he is then maybe we could find a way around it.

Ruby

My boys have been at school since September - when we moved here. And one has settled in well -finds the work at just the right pace and is doing well. He found school in the UK quite challenging. The other one has completely switched off and says it is the most boring place EVER ( with an emphasis on the ER part of the word )he is quite bright and the school is just not pushing him to do more work in class. he gets it all done and then sits chatting - usually not a good idea! There doesn;t seem to be the same kind of differentiation as there was in the UK, where teacher s planned lessons with resources based on the children's ability.
MInd you, they don;t seem to have the same kind of access to resources here - ie internet, computers in the class, library resources, Smart/white boards, interactive teaching and learning.
SO, we are in the same situation that we were last year, but having swapped the children! Think the whole school thing takes time - adjusting to new ways of teaching and learning, making friends, timetables, tests etc. Am hopingthat soon it will become second nature to them

My (at the time) 9 year old started Gr 4 here and was bored rigid for nearly the whole of her first school year. Tears and tantrums, falling asleep in the class, several discussions with teachers to give her more to do (who were luckily approachable and receptive). Put simply, she was very bright anyway, was the oldest in her new Canadian class (and could have moved up a grade if she had been born 5 days earlier), was in the top of her class in the UK and had done most of the maths and literacy stuff anyway. Newer studies about Canada and Alberta, etc, were the only things she seemed interested in.

After Easter of that first year, her peers started to study the maths that she was doing when she left the UK and everyone was in the same place. Ah ha! Challenged again.

Another year on, and she loves school (Gr 5) - she remains a bright young thing and still seems very keen and concientious, but she rarely brings homework to do as she says she finishes it all in the class. She is miffed she isn't learning about Henry VIII but has loved presenting a project on British Columbia.

My other daughter - completely different. Again a bright young thing, but prone to laziness and the easiest route out! She settled in well (basically because she didn't really care if stuff was easy or not, or if she repeated stuff, which she was) and the transition has been much easier with her.

I do not think the average school is keen to push pupils to their highest levels of achievement, ie, dedicate resources to the best and brightest - however, if a child does excel or consistently does well, they are applauded and rewarded, and I don't see that there is a 'boffin' tag here so much. I considered moving my eldest daughter up one grade - but I did not get the impression that the school board would be keen - and I had my own reservations about her age anyway. Academically, she would have been fine - personally, she would have been so out of her depth.

If a child struggles, I think they are assisted pretty well here, and resources are directed, and if necessary, the child may be kept back a year - which again is not really regarded as a major issue or problem by the pupil themself, or laughed at by their peers.

In my humble opinion, if your child is young and has done some UK schooling, the likelihood is that they will be above their peers by about a year as the curriculums are run about a year later (on average).
But as your child gets older I think that gap lessens to nothing by about Gr 7, and in fact goes the opposite way as the Canadian kids get ahead in maths by High School age.

I was advised by both teachers and fellow forumites to hang tight, not fret too much and let the kids settle down for a year or so. This was hard to do at times, especially when they came home in a negative or tearful mood, but hindsight being that wonderful thing it is, I'm going to say the exact same thing to you too now!! Just make sure you keep in touch with the teacher and try to ensure that you, your child and the teacher have similar views on what is going on.

With regard to the copying off the board bit - approach the teacher (in a good way!) and try to ascertain if this is just their style or whether it is a common theme throughout that school. It's not a style of teaching I am familiar with where we live.

Good luck with everything. My biggest concern was that daughter number one would be put off school for life. This has not happened and it has turned out to be a fun, kewl place

Thank you all for your advice.

My 12 year old seems quite happy in grade 6 and I have no concerns for her(except she complains at the number of tests). She has made friends and likes it here.

My 14 year old son, in grade 8, also says Junior High is boring. He too finishes the work in class and rarely has homework. He is quite bright, but also very lazy. He misses everything about the UK.

I know it takes time to settle to all things new, but I am conscious that in the UK he would have been starting his GCSE's in September. If things are still the same for him next year, I've screwed up his education and I really don't want that on my conscience! Starting to panic big time ....

So, I too have one happy and one unhappy child! I should go into school but I just think every other child gets on with it and this must just be the Canadian way of teaching.

Have you not yet had parent teacher interviews?

Have you spoken at all to the principal or any particular teachers?

You have to be an advocate for your child it's not a matter of him/her getting on with it.

Oh no the dreaded worksheet.

They use them ad nauseum in North America. It's very lazy teaching. Like Steve said, go to the school and talk to both the teacher and the principal.


The home-school fraternity are completely infected by these things, mainly because they pull their kids out of public school for religious reasons and have neither the skill, intellect or commitment to teach their children properly.

Snow Valley,

I am sorry I did not notice that you mentioned your son's age as 14. Now in my experience 14 is a rather difficult age both from a teacher and a parents point of view.

Clearly, the teacher is not stimulating the child adequately to hold his attention and this needs to change. Perhaps you should talk things through with your son to find out what he likes. From a Mums point of view I had a similar problem with my son here in the UK when he was 14. He enjoyed his English lessons but then the teacher left and he just did not enjoy English class anymore, so I asked him many searching questions and he told me that the new teacher was boring her teaching strategies were not what he enjoyed and one of the things he enjoyed was pair work and group work - we in the Uk are big on this sort of teaching were we cater for all needs - so perhaps you need to ask your little one what sort of things he enjoyed in the Uk and then go along to a Parent - Teacher meeting and ask and make suggestions in a non- threatening manner.

I hope this helps as we want your son back on track enjoying his work.

Ruby.

Thank you for some sound advice. I will make an appointment to have a chat with the school.

The parent teacher interviews were in January, and as we had only been here a couple of weeks then, I really didn't see the benefit at that time.

I agree, teenage years can be tricky! I will probe him further to try and get a clearer picture of his likes and dislikes. At the moment, he just wants to forget about school the minute he leaves the building.

Thanks.

I didn't go to school in Canada but California and thats how the teachers there taught, copy from the board, read some text, do a worksheet or 2 take a test and repeat.

Basically the same thing in college as well, all reading, very little teaching and the tests were the bulk of your grade.

The class I am taking right now in Canada is all reading from the text and then taking the final which accounts for 100% of the class grade.

This is not the experience we had with either of our two boys as they went through the entire school system from kindergarten to grade 12 here in Calgary.

My youngest is now a high school social studies teacher and that is certainly not how his classes work.

However there are other teachers in his school who do unfortunately teach in this manner, sadly they're mostly the burned out who are ready for retirement but don't quite have enough years in yet.

This is certainly not the "Canadian way of teaching" if there even is such a thing.

This is very likely the way of teaching for

a) that teacher, or
b) that particular grade at that particular school

Teaching methods vary drastically depending on the teacher, subject, grade, school, school district and province. It's best not to generalize. I have teaching experience here in British Columbia and while tests and worksheets are certainly a part of some curriculums, they are but one small part of a greater dynamic whole. They certainly are not the dominating part of any classroom that I've seen/experienced/taught at!

It's unfortunate that you're at such a school, but to assume it's somehow representative of Canadian teaching methods as a whole is erroneous anymore than one can make assumptions on all UK teaching methods based on a few months experience with one teacher at one school alone. I do hope it becomes more interesting for your children though!

I taught in inner city London for a number of years and am teaching here in Calgary. Can tell you that while you were under pressure in London to give it great guns with all the bells and whistles I despaired at the lack of substance to it all - constantly having to implement new strategies and justify strategies.
In Calgary I have been struck by the high quality of the teaching and the students. I cannot see how one can say the standard in the UK is higher, having spoken to a several students (Canadian) who spent some years in the UK at private school while their parents were posted abroad and they found that things and standards were better here.
Its hard to argue with things like the PISA report that has Canada scoring so much higher than the UK.
At any rate, you can't generalize because there will be disparities as you move from school board to school board just as there will be in the UK. I feel that here there is a great balance - you can have academic subjects alongside subjects like cabinet-making and there are a lot of sports / extra-curricular on offer.
Just know that here you can actually teach and now look back at my UK experience as some kind of purgatory to make me appreciate how fortunate I am to be here.