Oakvillian

...whereas my youngest (December birthday) was sooooooo ready for JK three months before his fourth birthday. It would have driven everyone in the household absolutely nuts to have delayed his entry into full-time schooling for another year.

There are always going to be some children at the younger end of the year group, whenever the cutoff date is. In the UK that is August babies; in Ontario it's December babies. It's not usually a big deal by the time they're in Grade 3 or so, and if it is it's more likely because of the differences between individual children rather than because of the way the system works. In your case, Allie73, you mentioned that one of a pair of twins was fine while the other took a while to catch up... that illustrates the point perfectly, I think.

Phaedru5

I echo what others have said above, dont get hung up on the year/grade, its far more important for your child to be with peers of a similar age than worry about the effect in the first year or so of a move. My daughter who is 12 went from year 7 and secondary school in the UK to Grade 6 and in elementary here in BC this year. It was based simply on the year of her birth. She will have another year next year in Elementary in Grade 7 before then transferring to High School. We felt it was a step back and were initially disappointed but it actually allowed her to settle in more easily, having already covered much of the academia, concentrate on making new friends and fitting in to a smaller school, and subsequently have actually realised that since the schooling has much more to it here than the traditional (and in my opinion long outdated) academia focus in England that in some aspects she was actually behind. Kids here for example were producing detailed MS Powerpoint presentations in class to present their work which my daughter had never done before - a true life skill in many businesses!

HGerchikov

When you say 'second year of school' do you mean senior kindergarten? There is no requirement for children to attend school until Grade 1 which, as established above, doesnt happen until the year the child is 6.

We actually had the opposite situation with our youngest, he was 5, had just finished reception in the UK and was scheduled for SK here (which was part time then). He has a January birthday so he was put up a year into Grade 1 because we didn't think reverting to part time after a year of full time was a good idea. He has managed fine both academically and socially but, as also said above, all kids are different and need to be placed where it works best for them.

Ooplaaa

Siouxie

Take a look at Burlington if you don't need to be that close to Toronto! There's a regular train service into Toronto (and Go-bus for the times there aren't) and access to the highway - lots of events, waterfront, lots of parks, very family friendly... and it's cheaper (in the main) than Oakville / Mississauga. Or you could go in an Easterly direction towards Ajax..




Burlington repeatedly comes in the top 10 places to live in Canada - and the top 5 in Ontario https://www.moneysense.ca/canadas-be...ing/#region-on

Oakvillian

My lot are going through the FI system in the Halton District School Board region. It's worth noting that the implementation of FI varies between boards, let alone between provinces, so if you end up in the Beach and under the auspices of the TDSB, my experience may not be very relevant!

A couple of general points:

• There's a fair bit of politicking around the whole subject of FI. It can be seen as an expression of white, anglo, middle-class privilege. While it is nominally the case that FI is not academically selective, in practice the cohort self-selects for academic ability. My kids' school, for example, has very few ESL kids, very few on an Individual Education Plan for cognitive challenges, and beyond the first couple of grades those who struggle to take in information (especially in the social sciences, which are taught in French) will frequently "fall out" into the English stream. All of that makes me a little bit uncomfortable, but it all seems to come out in the wash in high school.
• There's a shortage of suitably qualified teachers and a surplus of applicants. Some boards run a lottery for FI places; HDSB's approach has been to change from Greade1 to Grade2 entry into FI, with a commensurate change in the amount of schooling delivered in French (up from around 50% to 55%) so that the total number of tuition hours in French meets the provincial mandate by the end of Grade8. None of mine were affected by that change so I can't comment on what it has meant for the learning environment.
• We've been very happy with our kids' school. Both teaching staff and administrators have largely been enthusiastic and helpful. Our eldest, now in high school, has taken enough French Immersion credits to gain the all-important Provincial certificate, so he's looking forward to getting a summer job in a National Park next year. I don't think he is fluent enough to carry that off wholly successfully in general conversation, but if somebody asks him about glaciation on the Canadian Shield, or First Nations involvement in the War of 1812, or the Nitrogen Cycle, he'll be able to reel off fact after fact after fact in French!