Schools in Ottawa - what are our options?

Expert Info

Posted by

on 1 Aug 2013

Hi there,

My husband and I are planning on moving to Ottawa early in 2014. We are from the UK and trying to research schools in the city. I see there are a lot of biligual schools but not many international schools the follow the British national curriculum . My children are aged 8 and 11 so we want them to settle into life in Canada with as little stress as possible. I am just concerned because neither of them have studied French before.

Are there any other expat mums and dads out there that can give us an insight into education in Ottawa ? What are our options ?

Please help

Anonymous (not verified) on 7 Aug 2013 - 14:34

Hey Sally,

There are very few real international schools in Ottawa and the all follow the IB curriculum. However, competition is fierce for places and fees are quite high.

Generally, public schools in Canada offer a good standard of education and fees and minimal. You can also look at private or faith based schools depending on your budget and preferences.

For a more detailed overview check out the Expat Arrivals page Education and Schools in Ottawa.

Good luck :)

Anonymous (not verified) on 13 Aug 2013 - 17:21

Hi Sally, I'm from Ottawa. I don't know anything about international schools, but there are lots of monolingual schools, both publich and private, where English is the langauge of instruction. So, the fact that your children don't speak French isn't a problem at all. Keep in mind though that in most (English) schools French is taught as a mandatory foreign languagee (in light of the fact that Canada is officially bilingual) and if I'm not mistaken a student is expected to acquire a full credit in French to gratuate. As ominous as it sounds, it's actually not that difficult to achieve even for a student with zero French proficiency. Usually, schools provide free assessment and do a superb job of helping students. I hope this helps Good luck!

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