I was asked about how Middle school and High school worked in BC and while I am just starting that journey with Philip here is what I have figured out so far.
First there is a difference between the physical school definition of Middle and High school and the changes to the requirements. The physical appears to be based on capacity of the buildings involved. Currently 7, 8 and 9 are Middle and 10, 11 and 12 are High. That is changing in our school district next year to Middle being 6,7 and 8 and High being 9, 10, 11 and 12. Since we homeschool that doesn’t affect us. The requirements change at grade 8 for Middle and again at grade 10 for High school.
For grade 8 and 9 that just means an elective course added to the usual course load. Of course as a homeschooler I consider most of these to be life skills and have already been teaching them. I am going to do Technology Education by doing some robotics this summer. Grandpa is going to do some woodworking with Philip in the Fall.
“One of the following Applied Skills: Technology Education, Information Technology, Home Economics, or Business Education”
Grade 8 Government Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PDF)
The Main HCOS Grad Page
Direct link to the Excel Spreadsheet
High school becomes even more challenging to figure out. I am going to have to do a lot more research by then. First there are courses that must be done which are the standard core courses but there is also things like Planning 10 and Graduation Transition that must also be completed. The biggest difference is that there is multiple versions of courses. So for example there is: Apprenticeship & Workplace 11, Foundations of Math 11 or Pre-Calculus 11 for Math 11. You also have your sciences divided up into Physics, Chemistry and Biology for 11 and 12.
You need a total of 80 credits with at least 16 being grade 12 courses. There is a lot of elective courses that you can take and you can take them through multiple providers. Some courses have Provincial Exams that are required order to get a Dogwood (BC High school diploma).
List of outside organizations and course that can be used for credit.
One nice thing is that High school is funded until you are 19 allowing you to do a ‘Victory lap year’ and take some additional courses rather than pay a college for them. It will be a fun journey.
Linking Up at…
Wow. That is confusing. But now I see why you said Philip will be starting Middle School this year. Still at least they give you some guidelines. I waver between wishing for more rules and liking the freedom we have.
We only have hours requirements for homeschoolers, which technically are the same for elementary and high school. The only difference is that if you want your child to go to college you need to be able to show “credits” earned in high school and they need to meet the college requirements. It’s interesting that it is fully funded though. We pay taxes for public schools but get no assistance for homeschooling. We also pay taxes for public schools and get no tuition help if we send our child to private or parochial school.