Twelve years in Hong Kong. Three children at English Schools Foundation schools across primary and secondary. A decision triggered by accumulated factors rather than a single event. Vancouver was on the table because of an aunt, a Canadian passport for two of the three, and what the parents described as "a clearer sense that the children should grow up somewhere with longer roots."
The school problem
ESF runs an IB Diploma and an internationally-recognised secondary pathway. Vancouver public schools follow the British Columbia curriculum, which leads to the Dogwood diploma. Vancouver private schools split between IB schools (Mulgrave, Stratford Hall) and traditional Canadian / British models (Crofton House, St George's, West Point Grey Academy). The family had to decide whether to preserve IB continuity (smaller school choice, higher fees) or transition to BC curriculum (wider choice, lower fees, but a curriculum switch for all three children).
How they decided
The eldest, in Year 10 at ESF, was eighteen months from starting the IB Diploma. The middle child, in Year 7, had not yet committed to a senior pathway. The youngest, in Year 4, was at the most curriculum-agnostic age. The family decided to keep IB continuity for the eldest by choosing Mulgrave School, and to use the move as a natural curriculum reset for the middle and youngest, both of whom went into the BC system at West Point Grey Academy. The fee differential between the IB and the public BC route across three children was substantial, but the parents judged the eldest's continuity worth the cost for one of the three.
What surprised them
"We assumed the BC curriculum would be a step down from ESF. It isn't. It's different. The literacy and numeracy expectations are comparable. What the BC curriculum does less of is the breadth-by-design that the IB Primary Years Programme builds. Our middle child took a couple of months to get used to a more subject-segregated school day. He's fine now."
The Hong Kong exit
ESF was efficient on transcripts and references. The HK exit itself was administrative noise (managing exit tax, school deposits returned, the standard end-of-tenure logistics). The Canadian inbound was unexpectedly smooth: both the IB school and the BC school had received Hong Kong transfers before and had pre-built admissions packs for that route.
One year on
"The eldest is two-thirds through Diploma. Predicted grades came in stronger than at ESF, which we attribute partly to smaller class sizes at Mulgrave. The middle child is socially settled in a way he wasn't at ESF, where the year group churned a lot. The youngest is age-typical happy. We are confident this was the right move."