-From a visitor at SmileKonnects International House, 2020

I remember when I wanted to register my children in a Quebec school, I realized that the school system was very different from my country.

It was a challenge for me, even if my three beautiful children were so excited to go in "a typical American school"! Joan, 19, Luke, 14, Joe, 8, all had the desire to discover their new environment: Joan went to Cégep, Luke went to high school, and Joe, in an elementary school. 

To understand this North American system, I had to understand the school system structure. Here, children begin school at the age of 5 in grade 1 in an elementary school. At the age of 13, it is the beginning of a period of 5 years of high school. Then, when they finish high school 5, they go to college at 18 years old.

In fact, the college is a step between high school and university, and this is only for the school system in the province of Quebec. When they start , the children have to adapt to a new lifestyle and me as well. For example, students no longer have lunch at home, instead, they take their lunch to school to eat there. Also, they have to get used to wait for the yellow school bus that picks the two youngest up in front of the house every morning. The oldest takes the city bus.

It makes many changes for my three children. To help me understand this school system far from the one of my country, I went to Staples a store where you can find all the school supplies. There, an employee could help me with the shopping list of material and to explain to me how everything works here. Before registering my children to school, my husband and I looked at the list of all academic schools to compare them and that step is very important!

Some institutions are very famous, whether public or private. For example, Saint Joseph elementary school, Saint-Charles-Garnier High School or Stanislas, CEGEP Garneau and CEGEP Sainte-Foy have very good reputation.

My children are very happy here and grow up year after year!

SmileKonnects International house looks forward to welcome you in their International House ! It would be a pleasure to help you to know more about Canada and the amazing City of Quebec for you to fully enjoy your stay in our wonderful region ! 😉