I think no such thing. You obviously dont know me. I think people should make informed choices...that why I waste so much time here. and Im beginning to think it really is wasted.

You seem confused. You say you looked at both and decided that the public schools were OK, and now you are bashing me for saying take a look at the public schools!

The original poster asked about "Good Schools", but perhaps has discounted the public schools that recently got Canadian 15 year olds ranked 4th in Literacy and 7th in Maths world wide.

Having had children going to both private/public and public/state schools both here in Canada and the UK I would definitely say if you can afford it go with the independent schools. No doubt I will get complaints about this here but definitely the standard in most of the independent schools is higher and the teachers and parents are usually great too - much better than state schools. And only if you have sent children to private schools can you explain the benefit; certainly be happy with whatever personal decision made but don't disregard private schools when you only have state school experience.

BTW I know many state teachers both here and in the UK who send their children to independent schools and the only teachers I know who send their kids to their schools are -er- naff- don't know the Canadian word for that.

Kings Edgehill is a good school and so are the other private schools here in Nova Scotia.

We did not feel personally when we move to Canada our son would need to go into private schooling, If we lived in an area where we felt he would benefit from it then we would, wether it be uk or Canada the choice should be up to the parents

As opposed to whom? Who else is going to make that decision? Your point is lost on me Im afraid.

Whatever continent you are on, a minority of people will choose to send their kids to private schools.

In the UK, all the available data demonstrates that kids in private schools acheive better qualifications that those in state schools.

The problem with the Canadia school system for someone who is looking at it from the outside is that there is very little publicly available data on school performance.

I understand the frustration of this as when I first started looking at schools I posted many questions on BE as I am used to a very different system.

In the UK system, as you are no doubt aware, there is a wealth of information available (exam league tables, ofsted reports, value added scores to name but a few). Add to that the degree of choice parents have as to where they send their kids and you can see how different the Canadian system appears from the outside.

Many people on here say that Canadian schools are all good, but this is just opinion. Schools do vary, even in Canada. Realtors will tell you areas that you should think twice about living in as the local school is not good. I am aware of the recent stats that have been pubilshed, but that doesn't even come close to the level of information that we are used to getting in the UK.

I have looked at both the public and private school system in preparation for coming to Canada and my kids will probably go into the public system. In my opinion most parents will want to at least look at all the options before making a decision. Many will then go on to send their kids to state schools, but when you are moving to a new place and you don't know all the details, isn't it just good parenting to look at all the options.

Oh, and one more thing. CANADIANS send their kids to private schools to....surely some of them manage to integrate themselves into society!!

I didn't say this in my first post in this thread, because I didn't think it was relevant at the time, that our family had a very happy relationship with a private school during our expat assignment in Melbourne.

But now I do think it's relevant, if for no other reason than to demonstrate that I have nothing against private schools.

Our kids loved the school. The teachers, the other students, and the other parents were brilliant. The teachers were dedicated and caring. We saw an example of that when one of our sons was sick, and teachers visited him at home and brought him work that he'd be able to do in bed. Six years after our last personal contact with the school, we still receive newsletters, and enjoy being updated on what's going on.

We chose that private school because:

• Our kids were changing school systems rather late in their school careers. Our older son was 16. We felt that, under the circumstances, the extra support they would receive at a private school would be helpful.
  
  
• It was our second international move within 18 months, which was another reason for welcoming the extra attention that a private school would be able to give our kids.
  
  
• Ahead of our move to Melbourne, we sent our kids' school records, examples of their school work, descriptions of the public schools they were attending in Houston, and our own detailed descriptions of our kids' personalities to the relocation consultant whom my husband's employer had retained to help us. She was a retired school teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge of Melbourne's schools, both public and private. She said that, in her opinion, there was only one school in Melbourne that would suit our older son. That was the one that both our sons ended up choosing for themselves when we let them choose from amongst a handful of schools, with full permission to choose different schools from each other.
  
  
• My husband's company was paying for the tuition, and that certainly helped a lot, but we'd have been willing to pay it ourselves if necessary.
  
  
• The terms of our expat assignment fortunately were so generous that we knew our lifestyle would be fairly comparable to the lifestyles of most other students at the school. Hence our kids would not feel like Cinderella.
  
  
• Private schooling in Australia was much more common than it was in North America. So we knew that, in the context of the local society, our kids' attending private schools would not be as "different" a thing to do as it would have been in North America. But, because of our kids' (particularly our older sons') needs in that case, we probably would have done it even if it had been unusual.

So, now that I've established the fact that I have nothing against private schools per se (or at least I hope I have), I'll state where private schooling in Canada, ranks amongst my priorities:

• Since one has to pay tuition for university in Canada, I would be sure that funding for my kids' tertiary education was lined up before I paid for private secondary schooling.
  
  
• I'd make sure that my husband and I were investing for our retirement before I paid for private secondary schooling for my kids.
  
  
• I'd make sure I paid for visits to my husband's and my mothers and siblings overseas before I paid for private schooling for my kids.
  
  
• If I had kids whose needs were not being met adequately by the public school system, all of the above would go out of the window. In that case, I would make financial sacrifices to secure the schooling that my children needed.
  
  
• If my kids had average needs, if those needs were being met by the public school system, if the other things on my financial wish list were taken care of (kids' university education, my husband's and my retirement, travel to rellies, etc., etc.) and if I comfortably could afford private schooling, I would at least research private schooling and consider it. Because we would not have been able to afford private schooling when our kids were of school age in Canada, we did not consider it. When I say we couldn't have afforded it, I mean we could not have afforded it without major sacrifices. If we had had an autistic child or something like that, and if the public system had not been able to meet that child's needs, we somehow would have scraped the money together.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, I would really appreciate it if people with experience of private / independent schools in Canada could contribute some concrete information that could be included in the BE Wiki on Canadian Schooling.

• For example, I mentioned that teachers at my son's private school in Melbourne visited him when he was sick and brought him work that he could do at home. Although my kids were very fortunate throughout their years in public schools and they had many dedicated teachers along the way, they never were visited by a public school teacher when they were sick. The class sizes were bigger, and it just would not have been feasible for their teachers in the public system to deliver that level of service to larger classes.
  
  
• My kids' private school in Melbourne was organized around so called "pastoral care" groups (it was not a religious school, so I'm not altogether sure how the school came up with the term "pastoral"). In any event, each teacher was assigned several kids to keep an eye on. Those kids and that teacher constituted a kind of "family." When they'd been at public schools, my kids had had homeroom teachers and guidance counsellors. But I found that the counsellors (heads of their pastoral care groups) at the private school took a far greater interest in them than most of their homeroom teachers or guidance counsellors at public schools had done. Each kid's counsellor communicated regularly with all the teachers who taught that kid, tracked that kid's academic progress in all subjects, monitored the kid's development in non-academic areas, and regularly updated us, the parents. My older son, the other members of his pastoral care group, and their cousellor grew into a tightly knit "family" during the two years that that son spent at that school. In the group photo of them at the year twelve graduation dinner you can just see the affection they all have for each other. It brings tears to my eyes to look at that photo. That teacher was such a wonderul man.

So, if those of you with private school experience in Canada were able to provide concrete examples to back up your statements that the private schools to which you have been exposed have been great, I think that would be very helpful.

Great post, destinationnovascotia.

For what this tip is worth, when I did a bunch of research about Calgary's schools, first in order to respond to questions on the forum and later to contribute to the Wiki, I was shocked to discover what a strong correlation there was amongst:

• anecdotal information about Calgary schools, from my kids' experience, from friends' experiences, etc.
  
  
• socio-economic categories of neighbourhoods that constituted the catchment areas of various schools
  
  
• police crime statistics for different communities
  
  
• Fraser Institute's School Report Cards

I had been expecting some correlation, but actually was shocked to discover just how strong the correlation was.

I also was surprised to discover how strong the correlation was between overall school spirit, performance in sports, etc., and academic achievement. I went into the research thinking, "Academic performance isn't everything. When my kids were growing up, I wanted them to mature into well rounded people. So, for me, things like a school's social climate, sports activities, etc., would count for something too." Yet, when I looked into it, I found that the schools that performed well academically also had tremendous school spirit, etc.

Another thing that my research uncovered was that super wealthy neighbourhoods had more problems than middle class and upper middle class neighbourhoods. Poor neighbourhoods also had problems. It turned out that the best school catchment areas to live in were the ones that were a bit above average in terms of income level but not extremely rich.

My research covered only the Calgary area, but I would expect those findings to be repeated across Canada.

I don't remember seeing anyone on the BE forum saying that all public schools in Canada are good. Maybe someone has said that but, if they have, I don't recall seeing it.

What many people on this forum, including myself, have said is that it is possible to secure good schooling for your child in the public system.

Maybe that sounds as if we're saying that all public schools in Canada are good, and perhaps we need to be more diligent about qualifying our statements.

I'll also add the caveat that, depending on your location in Canada, the public system may not be able to cope with a child who has profound needs. However, most threads about Canadian schooling discuss the needs of more or less average children.

It has just occurred to me that people who were exploring the possibility of moving to Canada might find it helpful if the Wiki on Canadian Schooling contained a section on "How to assess schools in Canada" or something like that. So the points you made, DNS, and my response to them have benefitted the Wiki, I feel.

Judy,

You may be interested to know that in Atlantic Canada there are no Fraser institute report cards. There are however AIMS report cards http://www.aims.ca/inside.asp?cmPageID=348

You might want to add it to your info on WIKI - I have never added to a WIKI myself. Not sure what to do.

Lynn

Has it occurred to you that excellent public schools in Canada are actually the norm (or at least very common indeed)?

Has it further occurred to you that inflicting a private school education on your son is likely to damage him severely in terms of his ability to relate to his Canadian peers?

Of course if you (obviously not him) think that uniforms and enforced participation in Cadets are more important to you (not him) than well developed social skills (and no, I don't mean good manners) then carry on regardless.

Why on earth did you come to Canada?

Thanks for that, Lynn. I didn't know about the AIMS report cards, and now have added the link to the Wiki on Canadian Schooling.

Heh heh. Believe it or not, there is a Wiki about How to create a Wiki, and it includes instructions on editing an existing Wiki page. It really is easy, once you've tried your hand at it. I mention that just in case you should ever want to venture in there and add something.

Novo, you know that you and I are of one mind on many issues. But I think you've gone a bit over the top here.

Mind you, the one wild card that I'm never sure about is British humour. I look at something, am about to respond, then stop and think, "No, hold on a minute. This may be a trap. It may be BH."

Well, potential land mines notwithstanding, chesterkiwi did say in post #28 of this thread:
That suggests to me that the chesterkiwi family has tried the local public schools and indeed thinks well of them. Subject to further clarification, I would guess that the family has a specific reason for switching to a private school in this instance.

what a great post

cheers sue

Well, I missed that one. I'll have to ahve a look. Thanks

My reply was nothing to do with my opinion on schools....it was about your rudeness to someone that was trying to help you.......

I'm sure you'll make a fine nurse!!!

Linda

[QUOTE=Judy in Calgary;5641990]Novo, you know that you and I are of one mind on many issues. But I think you've gone a bit over the top here.

I suspect Novo's post may have more to do with a political/ideological exception to the principles of private schooling - but I may be way off-beam, in which case, Novo, I apologise.

I was privately educated in the UK - largely because my father, as an army officer, moved around a lot and I would have had to move schools many times at a particularly formative time in education (I worked out once, taking into account the different ages at which pupils move from one school to another under different LEAs and in the BFES, that I would have attended something like seven different schools between the ages of 8 and 13 if I had not been boarding). It probably helped the decision to keep me in that system, after my parents' domestic arrangements became a little more stable, that I was awarded an academic scholarship to supplement the forces' bursary, so it didn't cost my folks an arm and a leg to keep me there.

If asked, I certainly would have chosen to stay in that system, since my school boarding house was effectively my permanent address, my stable friendships and social life revolved around the school, and there was anyway never a guarantee that the neighbour whose kid you got on with one summer holiday was going to be there by the time you got home for Christmas. I'd like to think the experience didn't turn me into some arrogant knob with a major socialisation problem (but that's probably not for me to judge......)

However, I don't think I'd contemplate private education for my own children, even less so in Canada than the UK. Since I'm not in a job that moves me around every few months, there's no lack of stability to justify boarding. About the only reason I could think to send my son to the local private school is that they have the only decent cricket square for miles around, but that would hardly help with the whole social integration thing later in life . Both our neighbours put their kids through the local elementary/high schools and they seem to have turned out remarkably confident, gregarious, bright, pleasant and polite young. Our son has made some good friends in the neighbourhood who all go to the same school - it would be awkward to uproot those friendships and have to build new ones with kids at a private school who are likely to live further away from us and thus require more ferrying around for playdates, extra-curricular activities etc. My view is that, under the Canadian system, our children will actually develop greater independence of spirit in the public system than by going private.