The Smiths

Blimey

hudd

Can anyone explain why EXpat children are routinely moved ahead when they go to canadian schools?[/QUOTE]

My view is that most ex-pat kids parents have more drive and ambition than the run of the mill families in both UK and Canada. The kid themselves generally have higher expectation out of life and work harder at school.

Also as my sons said when moving back to the UK, that British schools "seem more serious than in Canada" (10 year old words). So schooling in the UK seems to push kids from an earlier age.

Both my sons are in top grade from the age of 11 at secondary school in England. It would be interesting to find out how many expats kids are A graders. I can remember when I live in rural Ontario the tops kids in my sons class were kids from England, Scotland, Netherlands and Armenia.

hudd

startwin

I believe it's because kids start school a year earlier in the UK than they do in Canada. It evens out further down the road. My experience, anyway. My kids started school in the UK, finished their education in Canada.

dbd33

Well, ok, some banlieue sound similarly rough to Rexdale, lots of gang rapes around Paris too, though less guns.

The Smiths

My view is that most ex-pat kids parents have more drive and ambition than the run of the mill families in both UK and Canada. The kid themselves generally have higher expectation out of life and work harder at school.

No over generalisations here then!

Also as my sons said when moving back to the UK, that British schools "seem more serious than in Canada" (10 year old words). So schooling in the UK seems to push kids from an earlier age.

Both my sons are in top grade from the age of 11 at secondary school in England. It would be interesting to find out how many expats kids are A graders. I can remember when I live in rural Ontario the tops kids in my sons class were kids from England, Scotland, Netherlands and Armenia.

hudd[/QUOTE]

That would pan out were it not for the fact that it happens the other way.

Our UK/canadian relatives returned to UK and their kids were kept down a year.

dingbat

My thirteen year old will have to go back a year in the UK - totally Canadian education, reviewed now by three separate UK secondary schools. Only one expressed the view that he would be OK, with some remedial teaching in English History and Geography. The other two suggested a private tutor and going back a year to "catch up and address some serious academic deficiencies" for his age group. One of these two was horrified at the terrible standard of "hand-outs" from his teachers, and asked if they were qualified to actually teach, or just pull lesson plans off the internet.

Elementary/primary suggested that my eight and six year old go back a year, but both children are very bright, and will probably catch up with a lot of help from me. I am putting them back, as they will otherwise be the youngest in their years and will struggle, not a good combination.

Eldest, UK educated for the first three years, graduated Grade 12 with A Honours when she had just turned seventeen. She had to do US Advanced Placement exams to even get a look-in at UK Universities. Check the admission criteria for foreign educated students at any UK University if you are not sure. BC Canadian Grade 12 is not accepted as anywhere near equivalent to A Levels, I did not check out the other provinces at the time.

hudd

That would pan out were it not for the fact that it happens the other way.

Our UK/canadian relatives returned to UK and their kids were kept down a year.[/QUOTE]

Hi Smiths

My boys were not held back a year when we returned. At secondary school my eldest will be doing his GSCEs at 15(a year earlier), so its not hurt him doing schooling in Canada.

As for generalisation its just a comment I made as I had noticed many immigrant kids in Canada general performed better than many Canadian kids I knew.
I assume because of the entry points system most immigrants from countries tend to be well educated and are highly skilled the children are going to to be similar to the parents in attitude and abilities.

As for spelling, I think we are all just pretty bad at the pc keyboard.

hudd

Jay Bird

This link is for the Ministry of Education in Ontario.......there are probably links for the other provinces, but I could find only this one........anyway, it might be useful to those of you who need infor aboutt he education sytem in Ontario

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/documen.../curricul.html

Children here don't start school until the September of the year in which they turn 5 years of age, which means that for a child who turns in 5 in January (such as my daughter), it's a long wait; I think this is what can put them behind children educated in the UK. When we returned to the UK in the 80's my daughter was aged around 9/10; she was put into the next to last class of Elementary school but wasn't allowed to participate in the French classes despite having gone through 3 years of French Immersion! Crazy local council policy!

acer rose

Oh won't somebody think of the children
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...ysentence.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...axeattack.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...leyattack.html

and their education
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...1-6f8cfd91f49c

If you substitute US and Mexican for France and Eastern European you would have seen similar stories circulating in the news in Canada last year to those reported in British papers:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/sto...s-toronto.html

then there are other cases dealing with illegal immigration:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...ibarsingh.html

I could find news stories covering bullying in schools, racism, police brutality, public service/health funding cuts, I could repeat the tales concerning education in public schools told by friends working as teachers here in BC but none of these relate to my personal experiences of living here in Canada. I could run outside right now and find litter-strewn areas or graffiti-covered buildings to photograph if I was so minded but what would that prove?

Don't get me wrong, I very much like living here, and I did sense an uncomfortable level of anger and discontentment amongst many people living in the UK. But I also know many good people in the UK (and not just British citizens) who are very happy and hard-working. Please don't bring the poisonous bile I am currently reading on this thread with you if you do decide to move to Canada.

windward

The extent to which schools over here in the UK are beholden to the national curriculum may just mean that despite recieving a decent education in Canada your kid just doesn't fit the 'standard' that the rest of their pupils do simply by virtue of being educated in the UK their whole lives.

Everyone has individual experiences though

dingbat

You could be right. I will have to wait until I get back to make a really valid comparison. All I know is what I see, and what I see that my child is doing in Grade 8 and has done up to now, is plain scary.

jericho

We're in Canada on our first recce as i type.
We live in Manchester, and the main issue for us is to give our 2 girls the best chance at a decent future.
I can only speak for Manchester, but there has been a massive rise in violent / anti social crime, and I have to say it more than concerns me. I can only assume that this is the case in most areas of the UK. The rot has set in, and Im not sure how it can be turned back. Every day we're hearing stories of people being beaten/kicked to death for the slightest provacation (like telling a gang of yobs to stop damaging his car). Im not even 30 yet, but I remember as a kid, to hear reports of gun shots was a rarity. Now it's a daily occurrance.
As mentioned by others, property prices are ridiculous. Petrol is obviously another massive cost. We've worked out that we're financially better off by my wife not working (and no, we dont claim benefits). To get childcare for our 2 daughters would cost in the region of 20k. In salary, she'd only get around 14k, so we'd be 6k worse off. What a strange scenario.

Im sure Canada has it's problems, but I'd rather take a chance and know that if it goes t*ts up, we can at least say we tried. Canadas such a massive place- if we dont like it here in Alberta we can try somewhere else.
There is no way, unless things seriously change, we'd allow our girls to grow up in the UK.

Ruby Murray

As I come from Tameside in Greater Manchester, this is exactly the kind of "reality thread" that hits home to me and makes me think whether what I'm going through really is homesickness or just a case of missing my memories of long gone! I left Hyde for Red Deer in 2003 but (long story) ended up going back there in December 2004 for a miserable 8 months only to end up coming back to Red Deer in Summer 05. Things hadn't changed in Hyde in the 2 years I'd been away and even though I'm going through a bad spell of homesickness right now, I have to force myself to remember how the gangs of kn@b-heads made my life a misery when I lived there - turned me to drink! Give yourselves and your girls a chance of experiencing life in Alberta (wherever you are going....sorry, I haven't had chance to read where you're heading).....I think it will be the best decision you could make

JonboyE

Amen.

Dave+Jules

I am only going to make this one post on this thread. I have answered this question many times on different threads in this forum.

On the education debate / war going on at the moment. At the end of our first year in Canada (Fredericton New Brunswick) I sat down with my family (wife and two daughters aged 16 18) and asked about their experiences and asked the following questions:

• What do you like about living in Canada
• What don't you like about living in Canada
• What do you miss from the UK
• What don't you miss from the UK
• What advice would you give people moving to NB

We lived in an affluent area just outside Woking Surrey. One of the answers from my youngest surprised me because I was unaware of the problem. Her answer was:

• I don’t miss the Police and Ambulances coming to school nearly every day

I knew that the classes in her school here in Canada were calmer and less disruptive. I was unaware of the Police and Ambulance trips to her school in the UK. (My defence is it is a testiment to my long work days and long commutes)

If you are interested their responses in full are in my blog archives. Look for lessons learned for both Year 1 and Year 2.