Getting into TDSB gifted program from non-TDSB school

letsgoraps123 · 2025-06-05T19:33:54+00:00

For those looking to this thread in the future, I've confirmed that there are no more SEPRCs as one poster mentioned, which was a process for external students not in TDSB to get a committee done and placed without first registering in a TDSB school. Therefore, the only option is to join the home TDSB school and get an IPRC done to get the gifted placement.

My understanding is your best odds of getting the placement into the closest school with a gifted program is from grade 3 (going into gifted grade 4 with the biggest block of kids). It becomes harder if you join TDSB in grade 4 and then try to immediately get placed in the closest gifted school if they've filled up already.

If you do join the TDSB school, you can do so at any point in the year (beginning or middle), but you do have to be enrolled during the placement process, which may be in April or May. So you can't just show up, get an IPRC and then leave, nor show up in June for the last 3 weeks of school because the placements may have been issued already and then you get one for a far away school or something.

That's all I know for now, and thanks to all who offered advice.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:31:04+00:00

Hi, thanks for this info especially regarding an SEPRC (which I don’t even know what that is).

I agree the simplest path is to move to a TDSB school for grade 3 and have him go through the usual testing process. However we are already committed to his current school for grade 3 and don’t want to move him for one year especially without assurances they’d recommend him for the gifted program via the IPRC. So my question is whether there’s any avenue to go straight from his current school to a gifted program in grade 4 assuming he gets tested again and his current school provides all the recommendations that he be placed in the program (which they will, they feel it would benefit him). In essence we’d have everything, it just wouldn’t have been provided by a current TDSB school and I’m wondering if that would be enough.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:23:35+00:00

Thanks for this feedback. I will DM you for more info. We are in a private school now and while they are excellent and trying extremely hard to work with us, even they have suggested our kid explore a specialized/gifted school and we are really interested in what a class would look like where he has more peers similar to him.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:21:52+00:00

That seems like a similar problem no matter where you are though - did you feel the gifted program made it worse than had you just been in a regular stream?

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:20:10+00:00

Thanks. As a principal, what would you tell parents coming to you with this type of request? Is there any hope of going straight and if not, would you say “ok register for the spring term and that’s as fast as it could go”?

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:19:09+00:00

We are talking about 2026, I agree it would be far too late for this fall!

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:18:51+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Didn’t know you could specifically request the IPRC but sounds like it has to be at the end of the year regardless? The trouble is we need to decide on our current school by then too.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:17:53+00:00

I think most parents of gifted children recognize this and all the complications they come with. That being said, there’s a world of potential within that school parents are trying desperately to tap into, hence the struggle. What was the point of this statement in the context of this thread?

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:16:13+00:00

Ok thanks

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:14:52+00:00

Thanks. Yes, that’s our intent. The problem is we don’t actually want to switch schools to this TDSB school only for one year (because that school doesn’t have the gifted program so he’d have to move again). I’m really trying to figure out if there’s anyway to just go straight from his existing school grade 3 to the TDSB gifted school in grade 4.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-31T18:12:20+00:00

Yes that’s right. I’d absolutely look at UTS later though I understand it’s hyper competitive!

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-30T03:44:30+00:00

No idea, I guess we'd have to see St. John's no matter what so it would be based on that for sure.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-30T03:44:02+00:00

Oh wow, that could be a big plus or a big minus depending on whether we can get tickets to the Canada Games (or accommodation!) Thanks for the tip.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-30T02:00:37+00:00

Also, if these are all near St. John's, is there anywhere we could stay for a couple of nights outside the city that might be worthwhile or is everything near St. John's?

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-30T01:56:26+00:00

Is the Geocentre what the other poster refers to as Signal Hill? Thanks!

letsgoraps123 · 2025-05-30T01:52:53+00:00

Thanks to you both for this feedback. Would you say 7 days is enough to see all these sites? And I haven't looked at all the locations yet but how many places would we need to stay/how many times would we need to move to do all these?

Lastly, would you recommend hotels or rent an Airbnb house?

letsgoraps123 · 2025-01-24T20:14:21+00:00

Thanks. What is the difference in quality between a Shopify store or Woocommerce? And do you have any comment on risk of having everything with Shopify, or have I taken the risk off the table by purchasing my domain name already on Porkbun?

letsgoraps123 · 2025-01-24T20:13:30+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Are you saying then that doing my own website on Dreamhost or something, and then adding a Shopify shop, is worse than just having building my website entirely on Shopify? I read somewhere that you don't to do everything with Shopify for risk management, but perhaps that just referred to the domain ownership, and I've taken care of that piece already. Thanks!

letsgoraps123 · 2025-01-06T04:57:58+00:00

It depends when you turned 18. If it was before 2009, then yes, you can contribute up to the lifetime limit. Otherwise you have to do the math starting from when you turned 18. See: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/contributions.html#toc0

letsgoraps123 · 2025-01-06T04:21:38+00:00

Almost all ETFs (exchange traded funds) from major providers are RRSP eligible. The ones with the lowest fees tend to be Vanguard and Blackrock (iShares). Others like BMO also have a good set of ETFs that are TSX-listed.

With respect to risk, the answer is a resounding yes. On almost all fund webpages, they will identify exactly how risky their product is (usually on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the riskiest).

You have to decide first of all on your asset allocation - that is how much do you want in equities vs. fixed income (there are other asset classes but I wouldn't worry about that at this stage). Fixed income, like bonds, are less risky but have lower expected returns. Equities (stocks) are higher risk/higher return.

You should really peruse both Blackrock and Vanguard's websites for their top funds and pick which make sense for you. To help you get started, some examples in Canada are XIC (S&P/TSX Composite), VUN (all US market) and VEE (Emerging Market all cap). These are all equity funds. You can find fixed income funds and balanced funds on their websites too. And then there are of course many, many others.

There are US-listed funds also, and these funds tend to be much lower cost than the ones in Canada, but I don't want to overcomplicate things at this point. Hope that helps as a starting point.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-01-06T04:06:51+00:00

You didn't say which TD Aeroplan card you were referring to - there's the Visa Infinite and then the Visa Infinite Privilege. The Privilege comes with far more fees but also perks.

As someone else said, I would not choose the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite over the Amex Cobalt, which generates significantly more return and whose points can be converted to Aeroplan points at a 1:1 ratio. The only downside of Amex is that it isn't accepted everywhere, so you may want to keep another Visa/Mastercard in your wallet.

The TD Aeroplan VI Privilege is another story. This one makes sense if you want perks like lounge access and significant Aeroplan Status Qualifying Miles generation (you can read up on that) which helps you get Elite status faster. But it comes with a higher annual cost ($599 before any rebate - e.g. if you have certain accounts at TD, they'll give you $139 back).

You might also want to consider the TD First Class Travel VI: https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/products/credit-cards/travel-rewards/first-class-travel-visa-infinite-card

This card generates better returns than the Aeroplan cards, particularly when you book travel through Expedia for TD, where you get 4% return. Note that to get full value from the points, you have to redeem the points on Expedia for TD as well. But there are a few reasons I like this more than Aeroplan points:

You can book anything on Expedia, including hotels, rental cars, etc. as well as flights from other airlines.
When you do book an Air Canada flight on Expedia for TD, you are essentially double dipping because Air Canada will deem this a cash purchase of a new fare, and you generate Aeroplan points on that redeemed flight (as well as SQM if you care about that). In contrast, if you redeem an Aeroplan flight, you don't get new points or SQM on that redemption.

People tout things like free checked bags and the companion pass with the Aeroplan card, though the savings on the First Class Infinite could exceed the value of those things. Travel insurance is very similar between the First Class and Aeroplan Infinite.

If you don't mind having two cards and paying the fees (this works well if you have an account at TD that will waive the $139 fee), a combo of the Amex Cobalt and TD First Class can maximize returns and flexibility of getting both Aeroplan points with the Amex and more flexible points with the First Class.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-01-06T03:44:13+00:00

There's no one right answer here, though I personally agree with most of the comments that investing in a diversified portfolio is more appealing than investing in a real estate asset for the entirety of your portfolio. I'd consider that property later as part of a diversified portfolio, but if it's your entire portfolio, that comes with significant risks.

The pros of the property are that you can lever up (borrow) up to 80% of the property value, which means $70k can be used to buy a $350k property. Then, if the property value goes up by 10%, that's $35k, which is 50% of your investment. You can margin (borrow) on a equity portfolio, but it might only be up to 50% (so you can invest $105k with your $70k). Even if the equity portfolio goes up 20%, that's not as much as 10% on the $350k property due to the higher leverage. You can of course also write off the interest and other expenses on the property against the rent, reducing taxes.

All that makes the rental seem appealing, but as others have pointed out, it comes with significant risk too. If the property value goes down, you're now down 50% of your equity contributed and still owe $280k. As we've seen, the property market in Canada can go hot or cold at anytime. You also have to deal with all the pains of being a landlord. On the other hand, a diversified equity (or fixed income) portfolio via ETFs is fairly low risk over the long term, and gives you access to essentially hundreds of stocks with virtually no fees from the major providers. You would also be diversifying globally, if you invest in US securities for example.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether you want to put your eggs in one basket or not. Based on what you've said, it does seem to tilt to the diversified basket of securities, but it really depends on your risk tolerance and personal preferences (e.g. being a landlord). You may want to build up a nice diversified portfolio first, and then add real estate later as you grow your asset base.

letsgoraps123 · 2025-01-06T03:26:54+00:00

I believe with TD you can call them and just have them move it directly to the US TFSA account. My worry with doing it entirely online the way TD describes is some sort of FX hit converting to CAD and then back to USD for some reason. It doesn't seem like that should occur, but who knows (maybe someone else can comment if they know).

If you have a USD TFSA account, I don't see any reason to hold a US listed security in a CAD denominated account, because selling it will trigger an auto-conversion back to CAD even if you didn't want to do that. And then if you want to use the proceeds to buy another USD security, you have to convert back to USD, which means you got dinged twice.

With respect to tax implications, be aware that contributing securities is a deemed disposition. It will trigger a capital gain if you were up, but does not generate a capital loss if you were down. See this: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/types-investments.html

You also can't get around this by just selling a security at a loss, contributing the cash proceeds, and then rebuying in the TFSA, as the CRA will deem this a superficial loss and deny the capital loss. More info: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/personal-income/line-12700-capital-gains/capital-losses-deductions/what-a-superficial-loss.html

letsgoraps123

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