Hi all,

An article was printed today in the Calgary Herald.. stating how well calgary schools have done... this is of course great news to the hard working teachers and of course to parents.

Our dilemma starts with of course wanting the best education we can get for our daughter...

We are catholic and have been told that generally the catholic schools are better?? not sure on what level they are better... I can only go on that in the UK secondary catholic schools were considered 'better'!

my daughter has just turned 6 and can read almost anything and can write on a similar but lesser level.. I am concerned that we may be told that she will start back in Kindergarten for a few hrs per day..

We will be living in SE and could do with a bit of advice as to make this decision?

Any Teachers out there ( if you have time between marking and lesson planning) your help would be great..

Many thanks once again


Top Cat

My step son is 12, regardless of the fact that my fiance has been paying taxes to education for God knows how long, the kids have been told that the school cannot afford to waste the electric.

Any child arriving at school before 8:30am, must wait outside even if it is pissing down, and boy does it rain in a rain forest, as they wont put the lights on until 8:30.

The one thing I find here is that the government is not willing to spend money on anything that does the general public any good.

Hi Top Cat
Which grade your daughter will enter will depend on when you plan to move out here, and her age at the time. I'm not sure about rules in Calgary, but in the Foothills School District (just south of Calgary) the cut off date is end of Feb. So if your daughter turned 6 after March 1st this year, then if she went to a Foothills Public School right now she would go into Kindergarten, which is indeed part time. If her birthday was before March 1st, then she would be in Grade 1 right now, in school full time.
There are plenty of Catholic schools both in and out of the city, and if it is important to you that your daughter receives some sort of RE in school then this would be the route to choose as the public system doesn't teach RE at all. The Catholic and Public schools are equally well thought of here (or at least that seems to be our impression).
A lot of British immigrants find the thought of adaption into the Canadian school system a worrying one before they get here, and often many have the same concerns as you regarding brighter children being somehow 'held back' by the fact that Canadian children start school later and are eased into full time schooling at a slower rate. However, although some parents push for their children to enter the Canadian school system at a higher grade than their chronological age recommends, it doesn't always work out to be the right choice. I know of a couple who did this and regretted it, one family choosing to change their child back to the original grade after a couple of weeks.
Because of the way my children's birthdays fall, one of them went in at the same grade level as in the UK, and one went in a grade lower. It so happened that the brighter of my two children (already working above grade expectations in the UK) was the one to go in a grade lower. However, it ended up working out really well, as it gave him a chance to consolidate his learning, eased up the pressure to achieve for a bit and allowed him to settle into his new school life and concentrate on building his social circle back up. One year down the line, we can safely say it hasn't hurt his education a bit as he is now being extended with extra work to 'stretch' his skills.
A good teacher (and there are many here) will always try to meet the needs of their students, including very bright children. My message I guess would be not to worry about it unduly and go with what the school suggests.

Hope this helps

Just to add to Snoopster....We are in the Calgary Board of Education and the cut off is end of Feb so depends when your daughter turned six. CBE has a good website - www.cbe.ab.ca

Good luck with it all
Lisa

Choose a place to live and send your child to the local school. You will then only have to choose between the Catholic or Public school in that particular area. There will likely be one of each (even if that means your daughter will have to be bussed due to a school not having been built in a new development).

The only people in Calgary that "worry about the local school" are British Expats or people rich enough to have to worry about sending their children to the "right" school. The British obsession with schooling simply does not exist over here

I don't think the catholic schools in Calgary are better than the public.

CBE, I read somewhere, is often best school board in the country.

Plus some of the public are better funded for extra activities as they are allowed to 'do casinos'. Our school gets around $75K per 18 months from casinos.

Others may disagree but I found it very useful to go to a local school, where most kids are not bussed. That way I got to meet other parents and build a social life.

I agree.

Local school, local kids as friends (really important to a child trying to settle down in a new country.)

Just be a bit "snobby" about the area you choose - as general rule of thumb the more expensive the houses the better the local school!

At risk of being wholly berated by others on here, check out the Fraser Institute report - I know people hate school "tables" but you have to start somewhere. I know I wouldn't want to move to an area where my local school came 637 out of 637 (or even in the lower 3/4!) The bottom schools may be doing a brilliant job with the kids they have but if you're honest you'd want your child to go to a school with a better score.

Oh, as a by the by, our local public schools' did way better than the local Catholic school, so make sure you do your homework on that front.

Couldn't agree more!!! Very well said
L

"Judy from Calgary" did some good postings on schools in Calgary a couple of years ago. If you do a search I'm sure the threads will pop up. I tend to agree with her conclusions - nicer areas have schools with better FI scores and help identify areas to short list - not exactly radical but very sensible. The FI scores are useful but not the be all and end all.

I've no idea about the rc schools other than some appear near the top, middle and some near the bottom of the provincial list, as would be the case for the equivalent in England.

For us easy walking distance to elementary and junior high schools was important. The very new areas on the fringe of the city are unlikely to offer this as the building of schools tends to lag the house construction by a few years.

Just to point out, whether or not you are a frasercard fan, that many calgarian elementary schools are simply not included anywhere because they are K-3 or K-4, not the K-6 required by frasercard.

You can get an idea of their comparative performance from their PAT tests.

I think it would be a shame to disregard some of these early years schools, on the basis of not being on the frasercard, doing so would rule out some excellent schools which are a lovely start for young children.

Thank you JimF and gryphea... Great help and advice as usual. Keeping an open mind and taking everyones advice.

Just wondering what part of my life you guys can sort out next as you are far better than me at the moment.. he he

Top Car

You should also consider that older areas quite often have their schools closed due to low enrollment. As a neighbourhood ages, so do the families and eventually all the kids are gone. New families want new houses in new neighbourhoods.

This happened to our local school. When we moved into our neighbourhood the school was still doing quite well although the enrollment was dropping. They looked into ways to attract kids from other neighbourhoods and the solution at the time was to go fully French Immersion. This carried it for another 5 years or so but eventually the entire program was removed from the school. The building is still there but a building without a program isn't anything. So our kids were on a bus after that. Not the end of the world - I grew up riding a school bus for 12 years but it did seem like the heart was ripped out of the community when the school was "closed."

Yes that can affect some of the older neighbourhoods. I remember looking at some of the school summaries on the calgary school board website which include what I think they called a viability assessment. You could pick out the schools quite easily where the roles were significantly below capacity and the trend was declining. Certainly those were ones to avoid.

I'm not sure that all "new families" look for new houses in new areas. Where we are they are mainly sixties houses and I know a couple of our neighbours who have been here since the houses were new who are now retired and their children have left. However, houses that have been sold seem to go to families with school age children and the schools seem to be an attraction - or so other parents seem to say.

PS Have no idea why you have been quoted so much for the Y. I pay around $70 per month for me and two kids

Ohhh that sounds more reasonable.. I think I better clarify with them! Thanks so much everyone!