The UBC International website also has excellent resources for families under “More topics” there where you can find a section specific to “Information for families” which many students with families find useful.
For many students coming with families it is important to be aware of how the Vancouver School system works, the catchment areas, schools in the area, and information about English as a Second Language options if needed. While the experience of each family is different, asking questions, making yourself aware of what to expect, and not being afraid of asking who to call about what is important.
[e.g. Ido, Angelica]
Ido: Omi Goes to School!
It was with great pride that we realized that our little Omi is not that little any more. Next year – kindergarten. To me, the idea that kindergarten is part of school was already surprising and terrifying. Naively, I believed that school begin in Grade 1… Both my wife and I are in the field of education. Thus, obviously, we are very opinionative about the nature of schooling. And now, we realized, we are going to have our daughter under the care of teachers who we do not know, and we have very limited control over the entire process.
The first part of this process was to go to the Vancouver School Board (VSB). Apparently, if I am not mistaken, all foreign kids need to go there, even though Omi was born in the States and her native tongue is English (and Hebrew). The purpose of the trip to VSB is simple – to identify kids with special needs. I think that this is a great idea. At times, families are not aware of their kids needs. Alternatively, they may be aware of these, but not sure who to go to and who can help. This was taken care of. Our visit at the VSB served two purposes: First, to make us familiar with the process of application to school. What steps we should follow before Omi enters Kindergarten. The second purpose was to make us familiar with resources that are available in the community. The VSB has volunteers in a variety of language, in most of them I could not even say “hello”. Certainly, for many parents who do not speak English, being able to speak with someone in their mother’s tongue is a huge help.
At the same time, this visit was not very useful for us. First, the lines were very long and we had to stay there for many hours before anyone saw us. Second, they were extremely understaffed, so we were not even sure why we were there – they had no-one to answer even the most basic questions. Also, as soon as they heard Omi’s English, they sent us home, and did not pay any further attention to us. Mainly, while the staff was very knowledgeable about the default course of actions (go to catchment school), they were surprisingly clueless about other ideas (out-of-catchment registration, not to mention cross-district registration). We were transferred from one person to another, and eventually many of the answers we got were wrong and we had to learn it ourselves from friends and the web.
Overall, I think that it is great that the VSB offers the opportunity for parents who need assistance to identify potential resources in the community. At the same time, Omi was already in a system (though private), and she could be screened here for language. Perhaps this could take place at the catchment school, so Omi would get a chance to see the place that she is likely to go to. I guess that this was the first test with the public system – navigate the screening successfully – a system that was designed to be very effective for the default scenario, but is not very good with adapting to individual needs. Which is exactly the reason that my wife and I study Education 🙂
