Total Cost for Private School in Toronto?

[projectmoonlightcafe]

Just a quick question...I'm interested in enrolling my kid to a private school, most notably TFS. I was wondering if someone can shed some light as to what the annual total (or, tuition + hidden + non-hidden) costs are for an establishment such as this?

I took a look at their 2011-2012 fee schedule:
http://www.tfs.ca/images/docs/Schedu...ts_2011-12.pdf

I mean, based on the pdf, it's roughly $25k per year. I think it's worth it, but I don't want to eventually enroll and find out there's an extra $10k in extraneous stuff I have to pay.

Thanks for your comments.

[dibksbgon]

Your best bet is to call them up.

Ask them what that figure includes and what incidental costs there may be.

We paid seperately for textbooks for grade 12 and uniforms, etc at my former school but field trips, textbooks, art/music/sports stuff, was all covered.
Certain things are definitely going to be extra, for example if your kid goes out of country on a trip.

Sidenote: Good school. Had a few friends who went there. While the world is more than just English and French, being bilingual in both official languages is a really really really helpful thing.

[pimom]

If you are sending them there for French, why not just go French Catholic/public for free?

[gilboman]

Your best bet is to call them up.

Ask them what that figure includes and what incidental costs there may be.

We paid seperately for textbooks for grade 12 and uniforms, etc at my former school but field trips, textbooks, art/music/sports stuff, was all covered.
Certain things are definitely going to be extra, for example if your kid goes out of country on a trip.

Sidenote: Good school. Had a few friends who went there. While the world is more than just English and French, being bilingual in both official languages is a really really really helpful thing.

why would you not just goto french immersion in public stream if you want to be bilingual.

[projectmoonlightcafe]

I've thought about it....while I've been on the fence on the whole public/private thing, TFS does have the IB program which I find quite useful. I'm still thinking about it, my thoughts are that by the time I have to pay my kid's tuition in a few years I'll have made $25k more/year to fill that gap....lol

[gilboman]

I've thought about it....while I've been on the fence on the whole public/private thing, TFS does have the IB program which I find quite useful. I'm still thinking about it, my thoughts are that by the time I have to pay my kid's tuition in a few years I'll have made $25k more/year to fill that gap....lol

IB is not useful at all unless you plan to leave north america. advance placement is available which is basically the same thing if you're in north america. IB is nothing more than overpriced marketing.

[dibksbgon]

Ok there is a thread for this debate on would you send your kid to private or public.

[Anonymouse]

Excellent choice. TFS is definitely the go-to GTA school for parents who want their children to be bilingual, and is a bargain at twice the price given the quality of the teachers. It's been a while since I was in high school, but you'd probably be safe to budget about $900 for books and uniforms, plus $2k or so for trips and incidentals.

[projectmoonlightcafe]

Excellent choice. TFS is definitely the go-to GTA school for parents who want their children to be bilingual, and is a bargain at twice the price given the quality of the teachers. It's been a while since I was in high school, but you'd probably be safe to budget about $900 for books and uniforms, plus $2k or so for trips and incidentals.

Thanks. I just got off the phone with them and they gave me a detailed breakdown on the incidental fees:

Textbook rental $25 for PK up to $320 for grade 5. Grade 6 and above $200+
Lunch is included in jardin or PK, otherwise there is a cafeteria
Starting in grade 1 there is a uniform, it's about $1000 for the average student for an average change of clothes. Also a used uniform program happens every year.
$5000 intro fee, not paid prior to grade 1, and only paid once.
$1500 discretionary donation per student per year
Extra $$ for before or after school events
$75 per year for sports stuff
$300 per year for class trips
$500 for overnight camps
French exchange trip for grade 9 - optional $2500 roughly stay for 10 days
Mandarin classes, which are very popular, is extra after school where they hire an outside instructor, so cost would be roughly (from SK to grade 5) $620 per student..once a week 3:30 to 5 pm throughout the year.

Just a quick question (coz I'm stupid), does this include taxes? And can I claim tax credits for these?

[Anonymouse]

Thanks. I just got off the phone with them and they gave me a detailed breakdown on the incidental fees:

Looks like I was pretty close except for the "intro fee." These schools seem to have taken a cue from Costco with the upfront extra charges to keep you loyal.

Tax credit? Ha ha, he makes a joke. A previous (Conservative) government had a tax credit for private school tuition, but this was cancelled by a later (Liberal) government who were in the pocket of the public school teachers. I hope you vote accordingly in the Fall; I know my parents resented paying government-school taxes on top of my tuition.

I don't think there's HST on school tuition, but I don't actually know.

[projectmoonlightcafe]

IB is not useful at all unless you plan to leave north america. advance placement is available which is basically the same thing if you're in north america. IB is nothing more than overpriced marketing.

So in what instances do you find IB not useful in North America versus in Europe, for example? This will be interesting for me to understand the value. I just thought that being fluent in French and having something to show for it was something I would value...of course it also helped that many graduates of TFS ended up in good international schools.

[projectmoonlightcafe]

Looks like I was pretty close except for the "intro fee." These schools seem to have taken a cue from Costco with the upfront extra charges to keep you loyal.

Oh...don't get me started on Costco....I was there on Monday night (the one on Woodbine and 7) to buy a thousand dollar shed. I thought it closed at 9 (it was 8:30) and I got there around 8:35. After haggling with the entrance staff I was able to get close to the shed area where another staff member stood guard and told me that side of the store was closed (there were still some stragglers behind him). I pointed literally 10 feet behind him and I said "I need one of those." I told him I was going to drop 1g in their store and he reiterated "We are closed". What stupidity. No wonder that's his job. I hope it's his career.

[nalababe]

Excellent choice. TFS is definitely the go-to GTA school for parents who want their children to be bilingual, and is a bargain at twice the price given the quality of the teachers. It's been a while since I was in high school, but you'd probably be safe to budget about $900 for books and uniforms, plus $2k or so for trips and incidentals.

Actually the quality of teachers is no better...

In fact, some aspects they cared less about the students than in many public schools. As a guidance counselor/teacher my wife had to deal with a very serious situation about one student. .They all rufused to speak with her about the situation before classes began. Of course, it could have been too late at this time. She has never experienced this in the public system.

[pimom]

Our local French Catholic board offers IB I beleive. Not sure about French secular or the Toronto school boards. Might be worth your while to call up.

[gilboman]

So in what instances do you find IB not useful in North America versus in Europe, for example? This will be interesting for me to understand the value. I just thought that being fluent in French and having something to show for it was something I would value...of course it also helped that many graduates of TFS ended up in good international schools.

IB is just standardized program that allows you to easily transfer between schools/systems anywhere in the world that use the IB program. So if you did Grades 9-10 in IB here, you could go into Gr.11-12 in another country anywhere in the world and be in the same curriculum and not lose anything. That's the theory. IB also allow you to gain x amount of credits at universities that recognize it.

In ontario, if you do Advance Placements, you also earn university level credits from an accelerated secondary program (hence "Advance Placement")

Public schools offer Advance Placement in the secondary level and some public schools offer IB as well, but there's 0 advantage to IB if you're not leaving north america in middle of your studies.

If you just want to be fluent in french, the public french immersion system would be just as good as TFS and if you want university credits earned at secondary, just do Advance Placement.

But I wouldn't suggest TFS simply because not every student is suitable for FI and what if your child is not?