Find the Perfect Kid-School Fit

Every child is different, and every school is different too. The best school for your kids may not be the one with the best score or the one that's most well-known or popular on blogs and social media. It’s the one that is the best fit for your specific child and ensures their interests are nurtured.

At HoodQ, we have developed the HoodQ School Locator™ Tool to help parents narrow down their neighbourhood and school search and speed up the research process. You can also find the same options as part of our HoodQMatch™ quiz experience, which also considers factors like commute time, parks and recreation, budget, and home characteristics.

Filter options in School Locator™

The first option is the type of school you might want your kids to attend. Using the School Locator™ filters, you can choose multiple options, if you're considering both public and Catholic schools, or you're not sure if private education would be better suited for your child.

Next you'll choose the grade levels you're interested in. You can choose multiple ones if you have multiple children or if you want to see what your child's options would be in future years. The tool will check all grade and school type combinations you provide.

Your next option is limiting results by school score, if you want. Keep in mind that 5 is average, 9s and 10s are rare, and many excellent schools with happy kids are rated in the middle of the scale!

The HoodQ School Locator™ tool can also help you narrow down which neighbourhoods are served by schools with special programs like French Immersion, Montessori, International Baccalaureate, and more. Check out the options in More Filters for those. If your child is an avid artist or performer looking for an arts-focused school, or looking to get ahead with advanced placement courses, we have filters for those programs too. Our curators have hand-tagged schools with all of these programs wherever they could find this information. Of course, schools might not advertise all their program offerings, so it's always important to check with the school itself.

SchoolLife Neighbourhood Guides™ and School Profiles

Clicking a neighbourhood in the School Locator™ tool will show you a popup message explaining exactly how it matches (and doesn't match) your specifications. Clicking the option to learn more will bring you to that neighbourhood's SchoolLife Neighbourhood Guide™. This is a version of our main Neighbourhood Guides, specifically focused on schools.

A special feature of SchoolLife Neighbourhood Guides™ is the interactive map. Click any school on the map to see its catchment area (if it has been given one by the school board). School catchment boundaries and neighbourhood boundaries aren't the same, so you may need to focus your home search on only part of a neighbourhood if you want your kids to attend a particular school.

Each School Profile provides some information about the school, which our HoodQ curation team has gathered from the school websites. This may include the school's mission and anything in particular it's known for. Of course, the best way to get to know a school is to visit it for a tour, either in person or virtually. You can also find a link to the school site there so you can get in contact with a particular school.

Starting at a new school can be exciting but also tough on kids and their parents. The environment, the people, and the processes of daily life can all be pretty different at a new school.

Parents should make sure they know how the new school handles communication, check out the school's calendar so the family is ready for special events at the school, and get clear on the school's expectations for parental involvement.

Kids will benefit from visiting the school, trying out their daily route to school ahead of time, and hopefully meeting some neighbourhood children who also attend there.

Most of the school transition will need to happen in person and be between your family and the school, but we at HoodQ hope we can help you find the perfect fit at a school where your kids will feel at home.