Long shot - Canadian Kindergarten vs UK Reception

[oneofeach2010]

We are potentially moving to Canada in the next year or two with my DH job.
I've been doing my research and it seems Canadian schools don't start full-time (Grade 1) until the September after the child's 5th birthday.
Does anyone have any experience of Canadian kindergarten and the comparison between the two. Also, how their DC re-integrated into the UK system? For info my DD is not starting school her until Sept 2013.
Phew, that's a long post... sorry!

Post in the Living Overseas forum, bet you will find someone there to advise you.

Oh thanks, didn't realise one existed!

The Canadian school system varies between provinces; where I live kids start Kindergarten at 5, which is a regular school day. Some places have them go for half days though at that age. I'm in Nova Scotia.

... And you can start at 4, if you turn 5 by Dec 31 of that year.

It will be Alberta

Wow, that's great! Alberta has a very, very good education system apparently, lots of choice and options. A friend of mine just moved there and she said some kids go full time at 4. You don't have to worry :)

I teach in an elementary school in Alberta and have taught reception in the Uk before coming here. The kindergarten program here can be either full day or half day. The class sizes are generally a lot smaller than you would find in the UK. The children are screened for speech/language problems, fine motor and gross motor delays and intervention is then given. if you look at The Alberta Education website you can find the Program of Studies for the early years and this will give you an idea of the philosophy. personally, I think the Canadian system is a good one and you will not find your child will be behind, if you go back to the UK. I found Reception children very tired at the end of the day, so really liked mine only having to do mornings in school for the first year and she quickly adapted to staying in school all day for grade 1. Hope that helps!

Thank you very much for all your advice, it has been very helpful.

For anyone who knows/lives in Calgary could you recommend any good public kindergarten and pre-schools please?

I grew up there -- hope you like it! My personal knowledge is very dated. But as I see it, the one major flaw was that I couldn't enter French immersion in grade 2 (when we moved) because I hadn't started it in grade 1. The more academic kids in my neighbourhood all did French immersion, which caused problems for me eventually (and it would have been so great for my French!). So you should consider whether that's something you'd like to explore. Also, it's an extremely suburban city and there are very few areas where you can walk to shops and so on, near public transit ... something to think about especially if you want your DC to have any independence as teenagers.