Schools in Walnut Grove: Six Elementary Schools, One Big Secondary and French Immersion

If you are choosing where to live in Walnut Grove because of the schools, there are two things to know first. The system here is simple: six K-7 elementary schools all feed Walnut Grove Secondary, a single 8-12 high school. And the place you end up depends on your exact address, so run it through the district’s school locator before you make an offer or sign a lease.

Which schools serve Walnut Grove?

Enrolment is the September 30, 2025 headcount from the B.C. Ministry of Education’s dataset and includes international students. The capacity and portable column is from the school district’s June 2024 facilities plan, which mostly describes 2023, so treat it as a rough guide and not as a current utilization rate.

Each school name links to its B.C. Ministry report. West Langley Elementary is a school; West Langley Park at 94 Avenue and 208 Street is a separate place, so don’t mix them up on a map.

One detail to watch when comparing: at several schools the “resident students” count is lower than total enrolment. At Walnut Grove Secondary, for example, 1,974 of the 2,199 students were SD35 residents. Compare like with like.

Which school will my child attend?

Put the full address into the SD35 school locator. A house close to Alex Hope is not automatically in its catchment, and an address near James Kennedy does not by itself settle a French immersion place. “Walk to Walnut Grove Secondary” in a listing is about distance, not admission.

Current feeder-school students and new arrivals follow different steps at the secondary, so read Walnut Grove Secondary’s registration page rather than relying on a general rule. For the district-wide process, see our Langley schools guide and the school district page.

What does Walnut Grove Secondary offer?

The school opened in 1991, serves grades 8 to 12, and offers English, French immersion and Advanced Placement programs, along with academic, arts, applied-skills and athletics options. Check the school’s course guide for prerequisites and what is actually running this year.

It sits beside the community centre, the library and Walnut Grove Community Park, so students have the community centre pool, a track and playing fields next door. Depending on where you live, the walk may cross 88 Avenue or 216 Street, so test it (see below).

French immersion and the francophone school

Immersion in Walnut Grove runs on a straight line: early immersion at James Kennedy, late immersion at Alex Hope for grades 6 and 7, then Walnut Grove Secondary. Admission is separate from your neighbourhood catchment. Our French immersion guide explains entry points and who to call.

École des Voyageurs is different. It is a public school run by the Conseil scolaire francophone (SD93) for children who qualify under the francophone education rules, and it is not an immersion feeder. Read its admissions page.

Are the schools crowded, and is a middle school coming?

The pressure is uneven. The district’s June 2024 plan recorded portables at Dorothy Peacock, James Kennedy, Topham and Walnut Grove Secondary. Set side by side, the 2025 headcounts in the table sit above the plan’s capacity figure at Alex Hope, Dorothy Peacock and James Kennedy and below it at Gordon Greenwood, Topham and West Langley, though the numbers come from different years and measures. The plan’s broader forecast judged elementary capacity sufficient through 2033 and secondary capacity manageable with existing portables and controlled out-of-catchment admissions. Those were forecasts, and they can’t promise a spot for a family arriving this winter.

A Walnut Grove middle school has been studied. The same plan said a requested West Langley conversion and addition had not been approved by the province and discussed how hard it would be to fit about 1,100 middle-school students, including a two-school option. We could not confirm a funded school, construction start or opening date. Don’t assume the new schools in Willoughby change anything here.

Walking to school

Three crossings come up most often: 88 Avenue for homes south of the commercial and civic core, Walnut Grove Drive beside the secondary school, and 216 Street for the eastern streets. The Township has road-safety work on Walnut Grove Drive and 216 Street, and the 88 Avenue project to the east is addressing walking gaps toward Fort Langley (see getting around).

We don’t have measured walking distances, crossing-guard coverage or a current school-route audit. Walk the route at arrival and dismissal times, check that any shortcut is a public path, and look at it after rain. Neighbourhood interiors around Gordon Greenwood and McClughan Park, James Kennedy, and the Walnut Grove Secondary and community centre campus keep schools and parks in one cluster. Construction diversions are on the Township’s closures page.

Preschool, StrongStart and childcare

We couldn’t confirm which $10-a-day sites are in the Walnut Grove core or what the waits are. The province’s $10-a-day list and Fraser Health’s licensing list are the places to check, and our preschools and childcare guide covers how to find a spot.

One proposal to know about, and not count on: an application at 20338 91A Avenue (file RZ100562) seeks about 74 more childcare spaces. It is still marked active, but it dates to December 2018 and its latest displayed review letter is from October 2019, so it isn’t new supply.

Other schools nearby

• Langley Fine Arts School is a public K-12 program of choice at 9096 Trattle Street in Fort Langley. It is not Walnut Grove’s catchment secondary, so confirm admission and transportation directly with the school.
• COMPASS Christian Langley (Glover Rd.) is an independent K-8 school at 6866 Glover Road. Confirm programs, fees and transportation with the school.

For after high school, Trinity Western University is on the 562 bus route along Glover Road (TWU), and KPU’s Langley campus is on the Langley Bypass.

Report cards and rankings

The B.C. Ministry’s school reports are linked in the table above. The Fraser Institute, a think tank, runs its own report-card site at compareschoolrankings.org with its own method and years that vary by school, so search the exact school and read the year. We don’t rank schools, and a ranking says nothing about catchments, space or how well a school supports an individual child.

Back to Walnut Grove

Overview · Housing · Parks and the community centre · Pros and cons. Across the highway, Willoughby’s schools use a different, middle-school model.