Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Please could someone recommend a decent elementary school and area to live/avoid in Kingston?
OH is looking at a possible job near Royal Military College so need to look at nice area of the city with a good school and easy commute for him.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance
K

PS yes I have looked at previous posts but nothing specific in them

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Best of luck with the move.

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Thanks lots Tangram - nothing definite yet, this may come to nothing!

I am just the kind of person who needs to be fully prepared for moves!

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Same here.

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

I would avoid this area

http://g.co/maps/d6szj

unless drunken students and late night noise is your thing.

This stretch along Montreal Road never looked that good as it seemed to be the type of place where the spouses of prisoners lived in short term places while they waited for their spouse to serve their time.

http://g.co/maps/5mu3s

Other than that, Kingston is quite a nice place with an actual 'high street'.

http://g.co/maps/n747w

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Thank you very much will check that out

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Hi,

Check out CityofKingston.ca to find out about Kingston.

http://www.cityofkingston.ca/cityhall/neighbourhoods/ will tell you all you need to know about the demographic breakdown of areas.

Military folk usually live on the east end of town for the commute. You have to cross the Causeway to get over to RMC from the West side of town or go via the Highway which causes delays.

Schools are OK - they are building a brand new one (and have closed/will close some other ones). Can't be more specific as I live in the West End. That being said we have 2 military families in our street alone though who do the commute East. Just depends on what you want to do.

Ontario uses http://www.eqao.com/categories/home.aspx?Lang=E to grade the kids at Graded 3 and 6. This will give you an idea of the good schools in the area.

Limestone District school board is the nonn-Catholic and Algonquin is the Catholic one. There are French speaking programs too in these boards and also a separate French board, about which I know nothing!

You can PM me if you want.

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

I wouldnt put a huge amount of faith in EQAO, the vice principal at our kids former school was "helping the kids better understand the questions" in the corridor during testing, according to our daughter.

Only the kids who were marginal level 2/3 candidates mind. Needless to say, this year that schools EQAO test scores look a lot better than last year;) And the vice pricipal is now principal at a different school nearby in the ALCDSB...

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Take your point Ian, but in conjunction with (the admittedly out of date)neighbourhood data, I think you can get a feel for an area. That in itself is a good starting point.

I was having a look around again (not done that in ages) and didn't realize how bad some of the results were!

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

I was just shocked by the ethics of faking the test results like that. Not that it surprised me that much given our run ins with the school administration before that. And its not like we are bitter parents of a failing kid, ours was the only girl at that school to get 4s in all 3 areas, and since then weve pulled both our kids and switched boards to get them out of that environment.

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Ian,

Know where you are coming from!

We have quite a lot of movement into our school from the one next door! Just depends on the teachers / administration........(different boards). Kingston's a very small town.

I thought you were more Picton way?

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Belleville.

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Penny Blake is the women to help with areas in kingston.
My friend used her some years back and loves the area/schools that they got into.

Brenda

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Sorry to delay in replying to all. Thanks so much for the recommendations, it is so much more reassuring getting advice from here. Will certainly follow up you suggestions for places to look at and school info.

Re: Advice please re Kingston ON
 

Thanks Brenda, have seen her site, will contact her for advice.