Right just doing the final bits now for our move

For anyone who have just arrived in alberta, have you needed the study permits for the kids to attend school ??

Also what info did you take with you?
I have all the school reports for both kids, spoke with the school and they said they will forward the school records onto an address for me, so i can take them with me, will these be ok for them to start school with or do the schools not really bother with info and just asses the kids anyway

Would you contact the school or would you just wait until you get there, we have lined the rental house up now, so we know which school the kids will be going to, they seem happy with it and fingers crossed i can sort some daycare out for my little one so she can start to mix with her own age.

Just trying to make sure that the kids will be sorted, i think ill need a private plane for all this paperwork i seem to be needing

For us to be able to help you, we need to know which school district you're talking about.

The only school board that I know about that has, on occasion, demanded that children of temporary work permit holders have study permits is the Calgary Board of Education.

No other school boards in Alberta, at least that I am aware of, have demanded that children of TWP holders have study permits.

In the case of Calgary (and please keep in mind that I'm speaking only about Calgary), they'll test your kids regardless of how much back up information you provide (e.g., workbooks that give an indication of the type of work your kids have done).

But the workbooks still help. Not only will they help the central admissions office that tests the children and recommends the grades in which they should be placed, they'll also help the children's classroom teachers. They'll give the teachers an indication of the work the children have done until now.

In less populated school districts, they don't have a central admissions office that tests kids before assigning them to the most appropriate grades. This is done directly by the school(s) that the children attend.

Put yourself in the teacher's position. If you had a child arriving in your classroom from Timbuktu, would it help you to see examples of the work that that child had done? I'm not a teacher but, if I was, I'm guessing it would help me.
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Thats the way that i have looked at it judy
I have all the books, all there reports per year at school, i have asked for there school records so i can take them with me as well

We are off to district no 51, which is lethbridge i have already used the postcode tool on there website to find the nearest school.

with the kids not going back to school now until we land and get sorted in the rental then i need to make sure that i have all the stuff for them

[QUOTE=Judy in Calgary;6716489]

In the case of Calgary (and please keep in mind that I'm speaking only about Calgary), they'll test your kids regardless of how much back up information you provide (e.g., workbooks that give an indication of the type of work your kids have done).

But the workbooks still help. Not only will they help the central admissions office that tests the children and recommends the grades in which they should be placed, they'll also help the children's classroom teachers. They'll give the teachers an indication of the work the children have done until now.


Judy, This appears not always to be the case. I recently registered my children at the Kingsland Centre. They told me that they would not assess the kids but that the school would place them in the appropriate grade after reviewing their reports or otherwise assessing them. Now the school (without reviewing their reports or assessing them) says that following the Kingsland 'assessment' the kids should be placed in age appropriate grades initially and moved later, if necessary. Needless to say, the discussion continues ..............

Moondevil, we're in Calgary and didn't need study permits.

Good luck with the move.

MrsDV

thanks for that, i am getting the open work permit

So i think i have covered the base with the kids, my 6yr old will be going into grade1, but hes big for his age and is also been doing yr2 work in the uk, so i think they may move him, he gets bored really easy as well, so that will be fun.

i am sure they wil have dealt with uk kids, i just need to make sure that they can cope with his hyperglycemia, but ill take his nurse report from school as well, i have saved everything i can think off

Thanks for the update, MrsDV.

Based on several phone conversations I had with the staff in the central admissions office (back when it was located at Riverside Bungalow), this seems to be a change of procedure. Personally, I think it makes more sense for the local school to assign the child's grade than for the central admissions office to do it.

I also had a phone conversation with the secretary at one of the elementary schools in Sundance. By coincidence, she was a British expat. That was back in the day when the central admissions office was assigning the child's grade. She said that the assignment in any case was provisional. The classroom teacher would watch the child's progress for the first month to six weeks and verify whether or not the initial grade assignment was appropriate.

She said she knew of students who had been moved to other grades within a couple of weeks, when it became clear they had not been placed in the most appropriate grades to start with.

Anyway, all the best in your discussions with your children's school(s).
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I know what you mean about needing a private plane (or at the very least an empty seat on a regular plane) for the paperwork.
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Thanks Judy, I'm fairly confident, one way or another, it will all work out for the best.

Super sorter me decided to start a folder with all info that i will need, me now thinks that i may need two of these just to fit all the stuff that i will need when we land, luckily our boxes will take 7 days to be delivered, so i wont have to go without the kids stuff for too long, or my cooking stuff as that is coming as well.

Still trying to sort out what is going in these boxes, trying to get the kids to agree is the hardest bit
One thing that needs to come is there school books haha

Possibility of job offer in Calgary.

Say we arrived early 2009, kids would have just turned 15 and 12 in December.

Can someone confirm what the 'normal' grades for them would be.

If they'd been in the Canadian school system from Day 1, your 15-year-old child most likely would be in grade ten (first year of senior high school in Calgary) and your 12-year-old most likely would be in grade seven (first year of junior high school in Calgary).

However, as kids start school a year earlier in the UK, your children may be ahead of their Canadian peers, academically.

See the Wiki article called School Age Categories-Canada.

See also Calgary Schooling.
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Your 15 yr old will likely start in grade 10, ie in senior high, or possibly grade 9 which would be the last year of junior high .... actually finishing a year at junior high might be the better option as he'd have a chance to make a more informed decision on the subjects he selects for senior high.

Your younger one obviously three years below, but probably could go into grade 7 at the same school rather than one year in elementary ....

edit: I see Judy has replied, but I'll post this anyway

The way that we work it is knock a grade off

So if your children are in yr6 here in the uk, then they will be in grade5

Hope that helps

Thanks for the replies.

Were actually in Australia, which I am sure will confuse things further I quite like the idea they may be tested to get a better idea of the 'right' grade. Feel a little guilty this is not the 'best' age to move them, but hope they will adapt.

Hey guys

The knock off the gade doesnt always work due to the school year for births being different.

Here in Lethbridge the grade is based on the year of birth ie 1996 will start Grade 7 in Sept, 1994 Grade 9 etc. The knock off a grade worked for my son but not for my daughter

I also had reports, SAT result and school files for my kids but the local school board weren't interested in these at all. They placed them in classes which after meeting with them the school felt suited their needs - all with success.

I know when I came last year that there was a lot of conflicting information regardinh study permits for kids of foreign workers - some people were being forced to have them and others (like myself) didnt need them

I would ring the school board and ask them to send you confirmation as to whether or not you need to get them - then give it into POE when applying for theTWP

HTH

Gaynor
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