Student Admission Priority

West Vancouver School District encourages students to attend their catchment area school, while also enabling students and their families to make choices to attend other schools in the district.

The placement of a student in a school will be dependent upon the availability of space, programs and resources.

Priority is given for student placement in the following order:

1. Catchment area child with a sibling attending the same school during the same school year for which enrolment is sought.
2. Catchment area child. 
3. Non-catchment area child with a sibling attending the same school during the same school year for which enrolment is sought. 
4. Non-catchment area child 
5. Non-school district child of a West Vancouver Schools employee with a sibling attending the same school during the same school year for which enrolment is sought. 
6. Non-school district child with a sibling attending the same school during the same school year for which enrolment is sought. 
7. Non-school district child of a West Vancouver Schools employee. 
8. Non-school district child. 

Within each of the above categories, applications will be ordered for enrolment and waitlist placement according to the time/date stamp recorded by the district’s online submission system.  The exception is the Early French Immersion Kindergarten lottery process where places are assigned by lottery number drawn within the French Immersion priority order.

Local school boundaries (school catchment areas)

To find your local catchment school, please use the school locator tool.  

Kindergarten Guidelines

Children may begin Kindergarten in September of the calendar year in which they turn five years old.

i.e. Students born in 2021 may begin Kindergarten in September 2026, and students born in 2022 may begin Kindergarten in September 2027.

Early and Late French Immersion Programs

French Immersion is offered at Ecole Cedardale Elementary, Pauline Johnson Elementary and Ecole Sentinel Secondary. Ecole Cedardale is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School offering a French Immersion IB Primary Years Program (IB PYP). There is an associated fee with the IB PYP program. Ecole Pauline Johnson offers both Early French Immersion (EFI) from Kindergarten – Grade 7 and a Late French Immersion (LFI) for Grade 6 and 7. A secondary level French Immersion program is offered at Ecole Sentinel Secondary.

Due to the strong demand for Kindergarten Early French immersion, West Vancouver Schools conducts two separate placement lotteries to identify those children who will be registered.  To be included in an Early French Immersion Kindergarten lottery, applicants must rank a French Immersion school as a first or second choice in the District’s online registration system and must have their application completed by the date indicated on the Admissions Timeline page.

Applications for French Immersion Grade 1 -12 are subject to language requirements and the General Admissions procedures, priority placement order and the time/date stamp of the application.    

Program of Choice Schools in West Vancouver Schools

West Vancouver Schools offers a wide variety of program of choice schools (International Baccalaureate, iDEC, Montessori, Advanced Placement, and  French Immersion) and many programs of choice (Premier Academies, Premier Programs, Youth Train in Trades, etc.) that can be accessed through any of our secondary schools.  For more information, please visit the Programs page.

If a parent or legal guardian is residing in British Columbia under under a Diplomatic posting, Refugee Protection Document, Study or Work Permit, they must complete a separate process to verify eligibility for a publicly funded education before the general registration process.  To complete this online process, please click here. Once completed, staff from the Fundable Admissions Department will contact you by email with next steps.

For more information, please visit Fundable Admissions or email fundable.admissions@wvschools.ca