Langley Secondary School

Langley Secondary is the old one. It opened as Langley High School in 1948, graduated its first class in 1949, and is still the oldest high school in the Langley School District. It’s also, as the principal points out, the only secondary school that takes students from both Langley City and the Township. Today it’s a Grade 9 to 12 school with more than 1,200 students, and this September it opened a new wing.

A school that kept running out of room

The school’s own history reads like a running battle with enrolment. The 1948 building replaced an older high school so crowded that students came in morning and afternoon shifts. The new one had 23 classrooms, a gym, science labs and three shops for industrial education and farm mechanics, for close to 1,000 students. Grade 13 arrived in 1949-50, so Langley teens no longer had to leave town for it. A fire took out the industrial wing on April 30, 1951; it was rebuilt.

By 1957 the school was back on shifts. The fix was Aldergrove’s own high school in 1958: students in the east went there, the west stayed at Langley High.

The squeeze is the reason for the newest building. Construction on an addition started in January 2025, and it opened in September 2026 with 300 seats in 12 classrooms, including foods rooms, a science lab and special-education rooms, according to the district.

Programs at Langley Secondary

On top of the regular graduation program, LSS lists several programs that few other Langley high schools offer:

• Baseball and softball academies (Grades 9 to 12, first semester). Two back-to-back blocks a day, 159 minutes on the field, for 8 credits (PE plus strength and conditioning). Open to every skill level.
• Hockey academy (second semester). At least 40 ice times plus off-ice training, half the school day, 8 credits.
• Soccer academy (February to June). Open to Langley students in Grades 9 to 12 of any level; $600 covers clothing, gym membership, trips and guest coaches, and the school says scholarships are available. Coaching comes through a partnership with Vancouver FC.
• Piping and plumbing with BCIT (Grades 11 and 12, any Langley school). A year-long ACE-IT cohort, February to January, giving level 1 technical training in plumbing, sprinklerfitting, gasfitting and steamfitting. It takes 18 students; info sessions are usually in early spring and applications are due in April.
• Trades I and Trades II Intensive for Grades 9 and 10.
• AVID, a four-year university-and-college prep program with one class per grade, by application and interview.
• Fine and performing arts: band, choir, guitar, dance, drama, film and TV, photography and a credited musical theatre course that runs Monday nights.
• Languages include Japanese and Italian.
• An Indigenous support program with a full-time support worker, and an alternate program, FOCUS.

Students from other schools can take an academy for one semester or the full year; for the academies, the school recommends a full year at LSS so course choices line up. Academy forms are on each program’s page.

Thunderbirds sports

LSS teams play as the Thunderbirds. The athletics page lists badminton, basketball, cross country, golf, football, ice and ball hockey, rugby, soccer, track and field, ultimate and volleyball. Student athletes have to keep up attendance, work habits and at least a 50% average to stay eligible.

How to register at Langley Secondary

1. Check your catchment. Use the district’s School Locator or the secondary catchment map. Not sure? Call the School Board Office at 604-534-7891.
2. Register online through MyEdBC. The district now takes middle and secondary registrations online. Registration for 2027-28 opens in January 2027. A computer works better than a phone for it.
3. Upload every document on the district’s list: proof of the student’s age, the parent’s citizenship or status, two proofs of BC residence, and proof of guardianship. Families new to Canada go through the district’s Newcomers Welcome Centre first.
4. Intake meeting. LSS says a vice-principal will contact you to set one up once the package is in.

Living outside the catchment? The school’s registration page links a cross-boundary request form.

More: Langley School District, the Langley School Board, independent schools in Langley and the parents’ council, Langley DPAC.

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