Here's the scenario, don't know exactly when I will get my LMO, probably around the start of June, which means I can move to BC the start of July.

My son is 8 years old, which in assume means 4th grade.
I have several properties in my short list, but over a widespread area and covering many different school boards. I know applications are being done now, but can't guarantee which board and even if we will definitely be there by start of term in September.

Any suggestions as to what we should do about school for my son?
What happens if we turn up in August and try to get my son into a school then?

Also, I have been looking at school ratings and some of them seem to be bloody awful! I mean scores of 1 and 2 out of 10 and I don't think I want my son to end up there!!

Worried

I cant help on schools unfortunately, as each school board seems to have their own procedure. Where we are, we had to register at the school board and they told us which schools were in our catchment area- it was a choice of two.

However, the reason for my reply was to touch on your comments about the ratings. My kids are both in french immersion, although we're discovering that they're not being as "immersed" as they perhaps should be.
eg. my youngest was "learning" about jungles yesterday. This involved watching the Jungle Book movie (Disney).. in English.
Is the Jungle Book considered to be a useful educational tool these days? Was an opportunity missed by showing it in English, instead of French?

One has to trust that the teachers know what they're doing, but I'm beginning to have concerns myself about the standard of "education" they're receiving at the moment.

Concerns here too. Plus you're right about the ratings, we put our son in the school with the "best" ratings choice of two, English stream as he was too late for French Immersion and I'm getting concerned about his schooling as well as settling issues which I've mentioned in another thread. We're in Ontario though so no knowledge of BC sorry.

My son was 8 in August that makes him grade 3. Schools are also pretty tight on catchment areas, so I guess you need to choose a home based on the catchment you want him to be in. Our school board did a bus route on the website so you could tell what school catchment a house fell into.

My experience was that you can't really do anything till you have proof of address then you can register for a place with the school board (some of them require your kids to be there as well), they then contact your catchment school and your told within 48hrs if you have a place or not. We did call a few schools in our preferred area ahead of having an address just to sound out how full they were and they were pretty helpful without giving any guarantees. Then it was a complete nightmare trying to find a place to rent in the area. It is very stressful though, so you have my sympathy!

My son is 8 ( 9 in Sept 2014 - going into grade 4 this Sept I believe) and daughter is 13. We live in UK but hoping to move to BC in August this year. I emailed a couple of middle schools, in the area we are moving to, for my daughter. The schools weren't that far away from each other but one will be our catchment school and the other isn't. I was encouraged by the other one to apply for the catchment school. There doesn't seem to be that much in it as far as rankings go so I applied to catchment school - all via email - office admin lady was really nice - answered all my questions, emailed me application forms and just told me to put a note on them that we won't actually be moving until August, so don't have a local address at present (we do have a house to move into but I don't want to be there more than a year as it's too far from town, so I know which would be our catchment schools when we first move). Apparently, we should hear confirmation of a place being offered in August.

My son - the catchment school doesn't do well in the Fraser institute rankings either - so I applied to another elementary school in town with a better ranking, near the school my daughter would be going to. Again, all by email and explained we weren't moving until August. They have put him on a waiting list for 'out of catchment' applicants - and, as before, we won't hear anything until August.

Just out of curiosity, would you mind telling me what area / schools?

I'm hoping to go to BC later this year, but the Daughter was not coming across till Christmas at the earliest.

Do they take students in partway through the year?

I will be moving to Cloverdale/Surrey area.

On the Island (in BC), they took our kids into school a week after we arrived. They would have taken them the next day if we'd wanted. If I remember the kids had 2 weeks before spring break, which meant they'd already made a few friends for playdates etc before the 2 weeks off.

Hi Eddmac, it's Chilliwack - schools are Mount Slesse middle and Cultus Lake Elementary is catchment school but I have applied to Unsworth Elementary

Thanks!