Mumsnet Talk

We've been in BC now for three years, and next year ds will be going off to high school. I know that high school here is very different to my experience in the UK (I'm from the O and A level era), and I've got plenty of friends who have told me a bit about how it works, but wondered if there was anyone who had experience of the differences who could give me more of an idea what to expect?

ds will probably be going to the local high school, but there are a couple of other options (every one seems happy with all the schools in general, which is great) and I don't really now what to be finding out/asking (he is very bright, dyslexic and still fairly impulsive and disorganised). I had a bit of a Google and couldn't find anything very useful.

Anyway if anyone has any wisdom they coudl throw my way that would be great!

Try posting on british expats, also you can see how your school performs under the fraser institute rankings

Basically after the first year of a degree course you will catch up to the second year of a levels

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/GCSE_and_A-level_Students-Canada

Thanks for your replies westcastnorthener. I've seen the Fraser Institute rankings for our area, and they are fine, and I know the quality of education in BC is good. That's not my concern really, what I'm interested is how it practically differs from the UK. So for example I did eight O levels, the standard English, Maths, French, an arts, a social science and two sciences. And I did all those subjects every week. Schools round our way do six week blocks of four subjects at a time. So totally different. Plus much more continuous assessment from what I understand, and not so much specialisation in the last years of school (although with the changes in the UK over the last few years that might not be so different any more I guess).

I did look at British Expats and couldn't find anything much in my search, but (durr!) didn't think to look at the wiki. I know it would probably be logical to post there but I've not used the site for a few years and reading it makes me worry about our PR application too much!

I just hoped that one of the BC mumsnetters might have a few helpful anecdotes

Hi

Good luck with your pr application, we have just received ours and landed last week! We were previously on work permits, sorry I can't be more help we are only in grade k and 1 lol.

I hope someone can help you

Also I know it's a Victoria site, but try posting on a forum on kids in Victoria they will probably be able to answer general questions.

Oh I know it was a long shot! I'm on a new two year work permit so not really feeling that stressed, it's just we are in that weird period when you've sent everything off but haven't heard anything back yet. So if I think about it too much I start to imagine that it's been lost somewhere...