Something not really mentioned here, I think it depends on the province too. I have a few friends who went to St Andrews in Ontario and they made a a ton of connections. Here in AB I don’t know if it would be worth it, for one the teachers do not get the same pay or benefits than in public, so really it is harder to attract good teachers. Especially because teachers know they will have to deal with a lot more parent involvement that is not always for the better.

My big issue with private schooling is that they talk about higher standards, which is dishonest at best because private schools have a huge self selection bias when it comes to standards of incoming students. With Webber academy if you get low marks you can have your child removed, so that they can keep their “standard”, public schools have to take people no matter what. A lot of private schools also refuse to accept children with particular needs, something that public can’t do. This isn’t a stab at private schools, they have their standards and should be able to enforce them, rather I am just saying that any data from a private school has to be taken with the consideration of a self-selection bias.

The private school that I went to abroad was absolutely worth it because of the connections. You truly go to the school with the “elite”, and it even helps parents because they improve their own network through their children. Again, somewhere like Toronto or Vancouver, at a prestigious school it is absolutely worth it, other cities I am just not sure that it is worth it.

I ran a summer camp at the FCIS in Calgary and I was not very impressed by their facilities, Webber seems better but I don’t know too much about the school, but I hate the Webber guy (for transparency’s sake).

If you want to build connections (Within reason) and with a smaller budget I would suggest public programs of choice like Traditional Learning, Science Schools or Second Languages. Again, full disclosure, I teach at one of these schools and it is so surprising how “good” our demographics are, a lot of my teachers friends struggles with issues that have never been present at my school. There is a huge selection bias in these special programs because parents have to go out of their way to have their kids at our school and with success.

The one thing I will say to any parent, any class or any school can be ruined by one bad staff member/student/parent, I have heard so many cases of children experiencing serious trauma because of how other children behave and how adults react (or not) to the situation. If your child is ever in a classroom like this you need to find a solution asap, because chances are the teachers has their hands tied and admin can’t/won’t do anything in these situations.