小馬仔媽媽,
Is your child born in 2002? Kindergarten only start at age 5. Otherwise, only preschool or daycare which is private.
Regarding on school, it is too general question as you need to decide where to live first and find the nearby school. Hard to tell you which area is the best.
Do you have any relatives here? I dont know what is your preference in life, convenience? close to city? lower rent? high rise apartment? Basement?
Regarding on safety, as a general rule, the closer to the city, the higher crime. Especially East Hasting is the place you should avoid. If you want to rent a place, what is your budget? When we first landed, we rent a basement, it is cheap but it is not my flavor as the sound proof is extremly bad, you can hear their conversation through the wall. Town house or high-rise apartment is more expensive, over $1000/month depends on the location. Currently my place cost $1300/month for a 2-bedroom townhouse in Burnaby. If you live in city, the rent is even higher. Richmond is full of Chinese, East Vancouver has lots of basement for rental, West Vancouver is famous for rich people. New Westminster is famous for "white" while Surrey is famous for Indians. In my opinion, Burnaby is more likely mixture but if you live near Metrotown, then mostly Chinese.
Yes, your child can get into kindergarten and FEB start to register. My daughter is also going to kindergarten this year.
Has your husband got any job yet? Kindergarten is only 3hrs per day, no full day kindergarten though!
In Vancouver, education system is not like HK which you need to get into a good one from K1. In here, kids study in the school which belong to your area, so no rush to worry that first as you can move any place in the future. Besides, grade schools are pretty much the same everywhere and the main different will start from high school.
In your case, I think you better to get into the place which is convenience for shopping and work. Dont worry too many chinese as many of them grow up here, they just like local and they dont interfere you too much. If you dont have a car, west vancouver will be a big problem unless you dont mind to take bus all time.
In a general terms, the cheaper the rent, the lower level of people living there and more trouble happened. Personally I dont like high rise as more units equal to high crime rate. I live in townhouse and very close to skytrain (the only train service in Vancouver) and I suggest you to live along it. Bus is very annoying sometimes, schedule ranges from 10mins to 30mins for next bus and weekend always come with an hour for next bus. When you rent a place, make sure you ask them if they have washing machine inside the apartment as many old style building has public laundry at the bottom and personally I dont like it as per hygence.
I live in Burnaby south, there isnt good school but I dont like Metrotown as it is too many commerical development. Easy access also equal to high crime but it is no doubt Metrotown is a convenince place to live without a car. I am 10mins drive away from Metrotown and I do all my shopping there.
Make sure you bring enough warm clothes as MAR still chilly. Our summer is very short and in Vancouver, it is rare to see people using air conditioning. I can wear my long sleeves clothe throughout the year.
When I first arrive, I live in Collingwood/Joyce area. It has skytrain and many Chinese groceries shop, quite convenience, plus my exit nanny say the Sir Winfred Elementry is quite good, however, since it is so close to skytrain, nowaday there is few robberies happen along that area.
Try this link as those area has highrise apartment for rental. Concert Properties
Here is other rental website. Rentersweek Apartment rental
My family will move to vancouver around early May or June. May I seek for your help? I want to know about the area of the school Queen Mary and Tragalgar? Are these area full of Mainland Chinese and how about the environmment? Is it convience from these area to Burnaby as my husband office is located at Burnaby.
By the way, I noticed that all the JK is now started to register. Is it too late for my boy do the registration around May as he will be 5 in this Dec?
Trafalgar School is located on Vancouver's West Side, in a middle-class neighbourhood one block north of King Edward Street and one block east of MacDonald Street. The school is adjacent to the beautiful Trafalgar Park which is used by the community for sporting activities.
Situated in a residential neighbourhood of West Point Grey, Queen Mary School is adjacent to Trimble Park and commands a fine view over English Bay. A business section on nearby 10th Avenue caters to local needs. This is an established community in a stable area of Vancouver with a rich and interesting history.
I never heard of those school but from the web site, they are located in the west vancouver which is quite far away from Burnaby. You must have a car to travel there and you cannot register if you live in Burnaby. In here all kids are restricted to go to the school district where you live. Or you need to support with enough reason plus if the school has vancany. I know someone will borrow someone's address or rent a place from there.
In Vancouver, kindergarten only 1 year which starts at age 5, then move to grade school.
In West Vancouver, I dont know if there has many Mainland Chinese as it is too expensive, inconvenice for me to go there.
If your husband's office is in Burnaby, I suggest you look for school at Burnaby first. Rent in West Vancouver can be very costly plus it is very hard to travel without a car.
I dont know if it is too late to register or not, but you can give them a call to check as different school has different policy. Recent news just said not enough school kids and many schools are going to close down because of that.
小馬仔媽媽,
yes, the rent will be higher if you are close to skytrain.
West Point Grey definitely not the place for shopping and as I said, Metrotown will be the central point for everything. It is the biggest shopping in Vancouver and you can find almost every shop here.
When your child come here, I think you should worry his/her Chinese rather than English. Kids start at that young age can pick up English fast although they speak different language at home. Plus kids watch english channels, everything come to them is English. My colleauge just told me that his daughter, now at age 6yr, she understand Romanian only, but she doesnt speak at all. FYI, the parent only speak Romanian at home and the mother doesnt speak English, but since she watches TV and mix with local kids, she totally ignore her mother tougue!
Please dont look at kids with same way if they are Chinese. As I said many second or third generation of Chinese here and they all speak fluent English and no different from any Canadian. If you go to the Chinese church, you can see all teenagers are speaking English and Chinese classes are very demanding as many parents want their kids to learn Chinese.
I will say mainly overseas student who come at older will have problem to adapt, otherwise, please ignore the factor that Chinese dont speak good English. In my daughter's Chinese class, 12 small kids, only 2-3 are can speak fluent Chinese and many of them cannot even understand Chinese. If you go to higher class, you can even hear strange Chinese accent as the kids are actually think in English and translate back to Chinese.
Please be relax in choosing a top school since kids are so young. As I said, kindergarten is only 3hrs per day and there is no homework at all. It is very different from HK. I think in your case should look for a convenince place to live with decent rent, then you can learn more about living in Vancouver. FYI, school bus seems not common in Vancouver as I know many mother has to drop off/pick up kids to school. It is very differnet from Toronto.
If you really concern school, find the best one in the Burnaby district and find the house nearby.
Same as your son. My son will be 5 in this coming Dec. He was born in the last day of the year. Based on the Fraser Institute report card, these two schools are in the rank of 8.
Do you consider to send your boy to catholic school? It's a big headache to select the school.
One more thing I want to remind you guys. Having a Chinese neigbour is not that bad. I live in a housing complex which is very diverse, we have African, Eastern European, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Indians, Philipppino....almost every nationality, but I will say Chinese doesnt give you any trouble as we tend to tolerate most of stuff.
eg, My back neigbour complains my kid to ride on a tri-cycle within the housing complex and they want to ban it completely. I have to go for Annual meeting to fight for my right and someone agree while some dont. Luckily we have majority owners have kids and many Chinese neigbour here, finally we barely won and the Strate has to change the rule.
年糕仔媽媽,
Vancouver is different from Toronto as we dont have Catholic school board, so no Catholic schools are subsidise by the govt and you need to pay school fees to attend.
Dont always trust those ranking as many parent said it is not measure probably. I suggest you go there and observe the students as that tell the truth.
By the way, I just find out it is not easy to cross the zone to study, here is the detail.
If you are interested in registering your child for a school other than the school for your attendance area, you will need to follow the procedures for cross-district transfers (cross-district transfer form) and out-of-district transfers (out-of-district transfer form).
PLACEMENT FACTORS
A number of factors determine the school or educational program in the district where the student will be placed. These include:
School Attendance Area Enrollment
School attendance areas have been established for each school to enable the equitable distribution of students throughout the district and to have sufficient enrollment at each grade level. Student enrollment projections for each school are based on the number of students residing in the school attendance area.
School Operating Capacity
A maximum operating capacity has been established for each school in the district. Operational capacity is a determination of the number of students the school can accommodate based on available space and facilities, staff allocation and required resources. The operational capacity of the school determines the number of students that can be placed at the school.
Date of Admission Request
In order for schools to organize and operate effectively, timelines are established for student registration and placement requests. Priority will be given to application registrations received during the month of February. After that period, applicants will be placed on a waiting list.
Just to remind you guys when renting a place, please make sure to know what is the penalty if you terminate the lease. It can cause you alot or trouble. Everything here is on contract and you need to read carefully before you regret.
personally i stay at hotel first 2 weeks and then look around the area before we settle the deal. Besides, travel will be a big problem, so it is always good to be close to work or shopping.
My husband and I will settle down in early May first. My husband must be report duty on early May. I will stay in vancouver around 2 weeks and looking for a house. At this moment, we wouldn't buy a house just for rental. As I have a real estate agent friend. Hope he can help me. Moreover, we will do the registration for my elderly boy. My perfers area is around Quarry Mary school. How about you? Most of the better school are located in West Vancouver. But, too far for us as My husband office is in Burnaby.
I will bring my two boys to vancouver around July.
妳先生做那一行呀? My husband is working in IT field. It's easy to find a job. My husband is very lucky that he gets the same HK salary in vancouver. But, after TAX , we :-( . 妳會唔會做工呀, 我想做but depends on my two little bosses.
I'll take a site visit to those schools (Queen Marry, Trafalgar and Queen Elizabeth) before we rent the house.
This is the first time to vancouver. But I had been Toronto many times. And my sister and my brother are living in SF and LA.
我都有擔心大仔會唔會不適應的, 但so far 他現在同工人對答及同外國人的小朋友玩和溝通都不太有問題.希望妳的小朋友唔會不適應.
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