tracys

Hi, wondered if anyone has any experience of this with their children.

My son is in year five here in England and has always struggled accademically. He has recieved help since the start of year one and is on what we call school action plus.

I have looked at the wiki and done a search but can't find any info on this scenario. From what I can make out English children finishing any year here and then going to Canada in the September of the same year will start in the year they have just completed in England.

Is this correct? If so this would be an advantage to my son I think. At the moment he is about 2 years below the nationally expected level of achievement for his age and is making progress but very slowly.

My fear is as the Canadian system is simular to the States in keeping children back if they don't make the grade, he is going to be forever in a different class to his peers,(children his age).

He is an average child all all over respects, socially competant and interested in all the usual things, lots of friends.

With UK system he is kept with his peers and given support, so although he knows he is behind he doesn't feel "different". Is there stigma attached to being kept back a year? Do the children get teased?

At the moment he is happy in school and doesn't feel under any presure. Hopefully by the time we get to Canada he will have caught up a bit more.

Any feedback that you have on this would be much appreciated,

Thanks in advance,

Tracy

Almost Canadian

I think it is like the States, i.e., he will be kept back, but I could be wrong

tracys

Thought that would be the case, just have to hope he catches up over the next year, maybe consider a tutor now he is old enough to understand a bit better. Didn't want to presure him when he wad younger but now he is older might actually benefit from a bit more input.

Thanks for your reply Almost Canadian

Novocastrian

I disagree (but I could be wrong too).

The OH is a teacher-librarian in the PS system in Ontario. There are all sorts of support for individual kids who aren't meeting grade expectations. So much so, that it is rare indeed to make a student repeat a year.

As you already know, education is a provincial responsibility in Canada. It might be (very) different in e.g. Alberta.

Atlantic Xpat

Mrs AX is a Special Needs Teacher in Newfoundland and this year is working with students who need additional support. I believe here too it is rare for a kid to have to repeat a year. As Novo points out education is a provincial affair so it may depend upon where in Canada the OP is going.

Almost Canadian

True

I am sure that they will do all they can to assist him but my daughters have children in their class that have had to repeat a grade as they didn't make it first time around.

Oink

Most 'help' for children is mainly for severe special needs. Children who are just struggling to keep up are often left alone as there are huge funding shortages. The most they'll get is an hour a week with someone who's not particularly well trained in this area. As was stated above, it not a common practice to keep children back a grade unless they are both struggling and one of the youngest in their year. You child will get better support in the UK.

The4BellsLondon

My boy gets assistance - he is dyslexic - age 11. What I did find is that he went into an "older" class at the current school, rather than a younger one . They have a gr 5 /6 and a Gr 6/ 7 I thought as he was Gr 6 but struggling they would put him in 5/6 but no! so we shall see how he goes . . .

Tom Masters

As others have said, it is rare for kids to be held back. However, different provinces and different school boards have their own way of doing things. You'll probably get more specific feedback if you mention where you are heading to in Canada.

Steve_P

I agree with the above sentiments.

Not only is education a provincial responsibility but when it comes to policy regarding the local schools that comes down to the local school board.

In Calgary the decision whether or not to hold a child back is made by the child's teacher plus the school principal and any specialists who have been called in to evaluate the child along with the parents. I also understand that the final decision is the parents, if they insist that the child advance when it has been recommended otherwise the child will be advanced.

It is not an arbitrary decision made by the school, a lot of thought and consideration goes into it.

triumphguy

I was a teacher and vice-principal in various schools in Calgary.

When you get here just be honest and open with your school right away. Get to know the teacher and the principal. Maybe even volunteer in the classroom - not to keep an eye on things, but in order to participate and be part of the school community.

There's a large range of achievement in any grade or class and the school will do its best to work with you. It will be easier for them to do so if you are quite "present" in the school - without being a pest of course!

cov-canuck

Now I admit is has been a long time since I was educated in Canada, but the elementary school I went to had a few programs for kids with special needs (this was a small (physically) school with enormous class sizes - 47 kids in my 5th grade class in 1 portable, for example).

My brothers and I were all in enrichment - my older brother and I were bussed to another school for one afternoon a week for an accelerated learning program starting in Gr 4. My younger brother was too young for that, so they had one-on-one accelerated learning for him within the school from kindergarten upwards.

We had a special ed class for children with severe learning disabilities. We also had a 3-pronged "assisted learning" approach - we had peer tutoring (or as we called it "the buddy system" - I helped a couple of guys in my class who were struggling with basics like reading and math - bear in mind I was between 8-10 at this point!), we had teacher's assistants who worked with the whole class, but special attention on the kids who needed it, and we also had one-to-one tutoring with one of the special needs teachers for kids who needed a little bit of extra help but were not truly classed as "special needs".

In our experience, the British education system cared purely about age rather than ability - since I was born in November, I wound up repeating a year when we moved to England - I went from one of the youngest in my class in Canada to one of the oldest in England - unfortunately this meant I missed out on some fundamentals - to this day I still can't do long division

gryphea

Not our experience at all in Calgary.

Oink

That's one of the problems with the OP, it didn't take into account the differences between school districts, schools and teachers.

Novocastrian

Agreed. I've no idea where the OP is heading (I could probably figure it out, but why the hell should I?) and it appears that ON and NFL (so far) differ from AB and BC (so far).

I've just confirmed with my OH that kids being required to repeat a year basically never happens here.