Hi Helen

Thanks for this info. Sorry to appear dumb, but to clarify, am I right in thinking he will do GCSEs at 16 in UK at Year 11, and then go into grade 11 when he starts in Canada, then do grade 12? ie he will miss the fist year of HSD three-year programme it is this year that he misses that his GCSEs will be looked at for credits. Would he be with similar aged children in grade 11?

Yes he will go from year 11 in the UK to grade 11 in Canada. His GCSE will go towards his credits for his HSD for grade 10. So for example he passes GCSE English, then if it is a good grade then he will be credited with grade 10 English (called English 10) He can now go on to do grade 11 english (called English 20). If he passes then he may decided to take enlish 30 in grade 12 which is A level standard. Of course if he no good at English he may stop at grade 11 at enlish 20 and take other subjects to the higher '30' level.

Where you need to look at is in subjects like Math, if he is not good at math, then he may do applied Math. But if he is good and sort of wanting to go to University to do engineering and similar subjects then you want pure Math. I do not know if the UK GCSE differentiates between applied and pure math at this level. In canada they do.

I know in science you have to do science 10, before you can go on to do Biology 20, physics 20 etc etc. This is be where the teachers will want to know what he actually did in his GCSE curriculum.

Grade 10 is usually ages 15/16
Grade 11 usually ages 16/17
Grade 12 ages 17/18 then off to University or post secondary education, or job.

Hope this helps, you can alway PM me if you wish

Many thanks Helen for this very clear and helpful information. It all makes sense now. Bound to have more questions as we go on so thanks for invite to PM you.

Lara

Hi Helen, perhaps we have looked in the wrong places but your explanation has really helped us. We have found it quite difficult up to now to get this information over the web without actually visiting a school.

We have deliberately timed our emigration around our eldest son doing his gcse's and we just hope we have done the right thing? Thanks again for your clear explanation.

[QUOTE=Helen Parnell;

Grade 10 is usually ages 15/16
Grade 11 usually ages 16/17
Grade 12 ages 17/18 then off to University or post secondary education, or job.

Hope this helps, you can alway PM me if you wish[/QUOTE]

Hi
I wonder if you could answer a query regarding admisssion to secondary school , do the schools close their books for admission for the school academic year at a certain time . Or can you enrol at any time during the school year and also start and soon as you are accepted or do you have to wait for the start of the new academic year
Any help regarding this greatly appreciated

Here in Calgary they accept kids when they arrive. However, if there is any way of getting here in time to start the new academic year at the beginning of September, it really does help. (The academic year goes from the beginning of September to the end of June.)

If you cannot arrive before the beginning of September, the next best thing to do is to arrive around the end of the first semester / beginning of the second semester. The school year is divided into two semesters (sort of like terms), and a fair amount of the subject matter is organized according to semesters. Again using Calgary as the example, I think the end of the first semester is around the end of January, and the beginning of the second semester is around the beginning of February. However, you would need to check this with the relevant school district (and that's true even of the Calgary Board of Education, as I'm a bit fuzzy on the details).

People who are heading to Calgary should be aware that there is such an influx of new comers to the city, that it takes a couple of weeks even to get an appointment with the reception centre for your kids to be interviewed and assessed for grade placement.

You would help everyone a lot if you brought a copy of your child's curriculum in each important subject and a couple of his/her work books to illustrate the level of the work he/she has been doing to date. For younger kids, it would be enough to bring information for English and math(s). For older kids (those getting into GCSE territory), it also would help to bring information for chemistry, physics, and foreign language(s).

We enrolled our kids when we arrived at the beginning of Oct (05) & they started pretty much straight away (when the teachers strike ended)

Just to add to what Judy has said about the semesters, when we visited a school in BC during our trip in January the guy there told us that the best time for our child to start would be February but we knew that this would be an impossibility so he said they would do their best to fit him in when we eventually arrive by awarding credits based on his UK school achievements.