# Education for children under 5



## grosvenorwalker (May 20, 2011)

Hi

I may have the opportunity to move to Canada to work (Ontario) in the next few months. I see this initially as a 3 to 5 year opportunity and therefore keen to ensure that I could move back to the UK in due course without too much long term disruption to my children and family!

I have loads of questions which I hope to find answers to on this forum but the one pressing area that I could do with help on now relates to children. I have 3 children, all under 5. The eldest is due to start school in September in the UK just before her 5th birthday, our middle child is 3 at a nursery in the UK, the youngest 1 and just at home.

My research indicates that Canadian schools whilst great start later than UK schools and that if we moved the eldest would go into Kindergarten / Primary this year but there would be nothing for our middle child for another year. Also, children entering school in the UK at 5 start on the journey to reading and writing whilst our research indicates that at the equivalent stage in Canada the curriculum is more basic (learning letters, basic numbers to 20 etc). 

Has anyone any information on this as we are concerned that if we move to Canada and then return to the UK that our children will be very much behind others at school. Also, I am just not sure what children do before Kindergarten in Canada - is it just playing with friends, structured activities (Etc) or are there other options for ex pats e.g. some sort of international equivalent to the UK system that they could join.

In hope of any answer or two.....!


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## Lindavid6 (Nov 7, 2010)

grosvenorwalker said:


> Hi
> 
> I may have the opportunity to move to Canada to work (Ontario) in the next few months. I see this initially as a 3 to 5 year opportunity and therefore keen to ensure that I could move back to the UK in due course without too much long term disruption to my children and family!
> 
> ...


I have 3 kids about the same age as yours, I will give you my opinion based on them. My 5 year old attends all day Senior Kindergarten at a Toronto Catholic School, whilst the curriculum may not be as "advanced" as the UK at that age. I believe that the overall general level of education here is clearly higher than the UK. My 5 year old can count way beyond 20 and has made great strides in understanding letters and reading, his writing has improved dramatically as well, so I am generally very pleased with his progress his interaction with other children has also improved. My 3 year old will start all day junior Kindergarten in September so I can only hope he shows the same improvement. What I do like is that they teach real world skills from early age here, my 5 year old does regular "show and tell" sessions which will clearly help him with presentations and public speaking in years to come, I wish they had done that when I was at school in the UK.

Generally the level of education here is extremely high and the young people who I have been exposed to seem extremely intelligent and very self confident, its not just about exams or tests at an early age here. I think your kids will be just fine and will not be behind at all, they will also have a more rounded set of skills to UK children. None of my expat friends can find fault with the education system here either.


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## grosvenorwalker (May 20, 2011)

Thanks so much for taking the trouble to reply. I was especially interested to hear about the set up for your 3 year old. I feel a bit better about this issue now.


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