Private schools are a well-established aspect of British Columbia's education system. This province provides many strong private schools that offer a wide-range of choice, such as boarding, Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, special needs, gifted, preschool, and alternative. Read more
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Independent K-12 boarding & day school in Victoria, BC, Canada focusing on university prep. Find out how a SMUS education can benefit your family.
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The Unisus School is the Okanagan’s most innovative independent school, offering a pre-K through 12, inquiry-based education that is tailored to each student’s unique abilities and interests.
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Westside Montessori Academy, located at the Italian Cultural Centre in Vancouver offers a true Montessori education to children aged 2.5 to Grade 7.
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Southpoint Academy offers enriched curriculum for grades K-12. We provide the IB PYP curriculum and is a candidate school for the IB MYP. College board AP course are available for grades 10-12.
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Brookes School Canada, an IB World School on beautiful Vancouver Island, offers grades 6 to 12 for both day and boarding students with an average class size of 12 students.
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Meadowridge is an IB Continuum World School that supports the development of the whole child in a safe, supportive and challenging environment.
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Newbridge Academy is a school for academic excellence and global mindedness. With small class sizes and personalized attention, the needs of the whole child are met, with emphasis on language, mathematics and thinking.
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Glenlyon Norfolk School, an independent school in Victoria, BC, provides International Baccalaureate programs from JK to Grade 12. GNS offers 5- and 7-day Family Boarding for students who are not residents of Victoria.
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St. George's School in Vancouver offers university-preparatory program to Canadian and International boarding students from Grade 8 to 12. The School's mission: Building Fine Young Men. One Boy at a Time.
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Madrona School Society is a gifted school in Vancouver. It offers programs for kindergarten to grade nine with an average class size of six to 14 students.
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Claren Academy is a technology & creativity focused independent school located in the heart of Vancouver.
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Westside's unique approach combines the best practices of Canadian and European education. Students are known, valued and understood as they prepare for admission to the top 50 universities and contributing lives beyond.
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The UWC National Committee of Canada and Pearson College UWC represent the United World Colleges in Canada. We are seeking daring young Canadians who aspire to make the world a better place.
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Vancouver Waldorf School offers programs from pre-school through to grade 12 in North Vancouver, BC. Its average class size is 12 to 25 students.
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With over 120 years of excellence in all-girls’ education, our rigorous academic program is complemented by strong arts, design technology and athletic programs. Financial assistance is available.
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WWS is a dedicated Waldorf school in Whistler, B.C. offering early years education all the way up to grade 12.
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Alexander Academy is a private World IB School offering the Diploma Programme and approved to offer the BC Ministry of Education curriculum in a culturally rich and academically challenging environment for Grades 8 - 12.
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Venture Academy is a therapeutic treatment and education program for students who may be struggling with ADHD, learning challenges, underachieving, behavioural issues, and a variety of clinical diagnoses.
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Focus Foundation is a world-class educational and therapeutic learning institution, described by Dr. Charles Huffine, former President of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists.
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Bodwell High School in North Vancouver is a boarding school that enrolls 650 students. Tuition starts at $26,575. We provide Education for a Changing World. The school's motto is "Strength in Diversity."
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Mulgrave School offers programmes from Preschool to Grade 12 in West Vancouver. Its average class size is 20 students with teacher to student ratios of 1:8.
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Brentwood is a truly co-educational, progressive boarding school for Grades 9 to 12 located on an oceanfront campus on Vancouver Island, BC. Tuition runs from $25,700 to $66,000.
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The Mediated Learning Academy is a special need school for students K-12 with certified teachers, supported by Speech-Language Pathologists; Occupational and Physiotherapists, and Counsellors
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KGMS/Maplewood provides supportive individual and small group instruction for students with learning differences.
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Brockton School is an independent, co-ed, non-denominational, IB World School. Brockton hosts an Early Learning Years program, a Junior School, and a Senior School, with students from Junior Kindergarten to grade 12.
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Shawnigan Lake School is the largest boarding school in Canada. Located in Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island, we offer a comprehensive program to 500 young men and women in grades 8-12.
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Established in 1978, our passion is to provide families with transformative, excellent education that equips and inspires students to be disciples who are world changers that love and serve God and others.
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Canada Star Secondary's vision is to provide superior academic opportunities that allow our students to develop interests, pursue passions, and to follow the path to success and admission to top-ranked universities.
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BC Christian Academy offers Christian education from Preschool to Grade 12. Our dedication to academic excellence, strong Christian and moral values and a community built on compassion equip our students for the future.
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Small and intimate by design, progressive by choice, and innovative by necessity, Pear Tree Elementary is redefining what it is to teach and learn in the modern world.
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Authentic Montessori Preschool. Students completing our 3 year program at The Maria Montessori School test extremely well. We balance academics, exploration and skills guided by your child's natural interests.
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ArtsCalibre Academy empowers students through creativity, mindfulness and leadership. We offer Preschool to Grade Eight in 2017/2018, adding one grade per year through to Grade 12.
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Queen Margaret's School is an independent day/boarding university preparatory school in Duncan, BC.
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St. Margaret's School (est. 1908) is an independent school in Victoria, BC, offering empowering education for girls from JK to Grade 12. At SMS, girls don't just get equal opportunity; they get every opportunity.
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For more information about B.C.'s private and independent schools, visit the Our Kids' Vancouver Private School Expo. Here, you can meet administrators and instructors from some of the best private schools from across BC.
This includes schools in Vancouver, including the Greater Vancouver Area (GVA), Lower Mainland, and Tri-Cities (i.e., Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody). It also includes the cities of Victoria, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Kelowna, Delta, Langley, White Rock, Maple Ridge, Summerland, and more.
British Columbia recognizes the distinct advantages of private and independent schools and therefore funds many of them. The provincial government partially funds private schools according to the quality of education that they provide. To receive funding, a school must meet clearly identified criteria, such as employing only provincially certified teachers. More than 85% of BC's private schools receive some provincial funding, thereby increasing their affordability.
The British Columbia Ministry of Education inspects and regulates private schools in the province. All schools in B.C. are accountable to the School Act which identifies their responsibilities and requirements. The Ministry of Education also educates teachers about their classroom duties and boundaries.
British Columbia has many private and independent schools, so you'll have plenty of options to choose from. Below, we describe some of the main types of private and independent schools you’ll find in BC.
Special needs: Many BC schools offer special education programs. This includes schools with dedicated, integrated, and withdrawal special needs classes. BC private schools support students with a wide range of learning, developmental, behavioural, and physical disabilities. This includes dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger’s, autism, Down syndrome, and more.
Alternative: Alternative schools are more student-centred than traditional or mainstream schools. They tend to emphasize individualized learning, decentralized instruction, and experiential learning, among other things. A popular alternative school in BC is Montessori.
Faith-based: Many BC schools have a faith-based orientation. This means their teaching approach is informed by a particular religion, such as Christianity, Catholicism, or Judiasm.
Advanced academics: BC private schools offer several different kinds of advanced study programs. These schools offer high-level academics, where high-achieving students have the opportunity to study subjects in more depth and breadth, and sometimes at a faster pace. Programs offered include dedicated gifted classes, the International Baccalaureate (IB), and Advanced Placement (AP) classes.
Whether you enjoy lively cities, like Vancouver, Victoria, or Kelowna or you prefer living in beautiful natural scenery in British Columbia, you will find a city or town that suits your family's needs and wants. BC is simply a wonderful place to raise a family! Finding the right school is a little more work, but we have resources to help.
You should begin searching for a private school for your child well before your expected time of enrolment (some parents begin looking for a preschool or daycare when their child is still a baby). Such promptness will give you sufficient time to consider a multitude of necessary factors. Here are some considerations:
Many private and independent schools in BC have unique educational philosophies. For instance, there are language-immersion, special needs, Christian, Catholic, AP, and IB schools. You should find out whether those approaches are suited to your child's educational needs.
Will the school help you fund your child's tuition? Private and independent school need not be beyond your financial means, as many institutions allocate funds to scholarships and bursaries. To find out more about paying for private school, you may consult our list of 18 tips for paying private school tuition.
How far is the school from your home? Distance can be important if your children are young or there is limited public transportation. If you want your child to experience a private school's diverse programs (i.e., extracurricular activities), you might need to drive him or her to school at hours that do not fit your schedule.
What do other students and their parents say about the school? Get as much feedback from school parents as possible.
What is the school's reputation? You could contact a Ministry representative to learn about a given school's reputation. Our Kids also tenuously offers BC private school rankings based on verifiable factors like admission rate, cost and foundation date.
To learn more, read our step-by-step choosing guide as well as our guide to private school questions. You can also read our comprehensive schools profiles on OurKids.net.
Below, we list the top private schools in BC (British Columbia). Click on a link to learn all about a school, including its location, cost, programs, and curriculum.
