Photo: Yoshio Kohara · CC BY 3.02 schools in and around Banff: 1 elementary school and 1 secondary school
All of them belong to The Canadian Rockies School Division. On results, 2 of 2 tested schools are in the upper two fifths in Alberta. Their rolls add up to 534 students (2025/26).
What stands out about Banff’s schools
The strongest results
Top of the area: Banff Elementary School (elementary), its results in the top fifth in Alberta. Results ↓
Each finding compares the town’s schools with every school in its province.
How Banff’s schools do on Alberta’s tests
The Provincial Achievement Tests in Grades 6 and 9: each school against every school in Alberta.
Its School Grade is A+: it compares these results with the other towns of the province.
The area’s schools by fifth of the province
Each school’s band is the average of its measures’ fifths. The mark shows an even fifth of the area’s schools.
| Measure | Schools | Middle here | Alberta |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAT: acceptable standard | 2 | 87% | 67% |
| PAT: standard of excellence | 2 | 30% | 13% |
The widest gap is on the standard of excellence, where the area’s schools reach 30% against 13% in Alberta.
Every school’s results (2)
| School | Measure | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Banff Elementary SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 89% · Excellence 42% | Top fifth |
| Banff Community High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 86% · Excellence 18% | Second fifth |
Alberta Education and Childcare, PAT multiyear school results (core courses pooled). Alberta’s own notes: breaches in 2021–22, wildfires in 2022–24, the January 2026 sitting cancelled, pilot-curriculum students excused. Open Government Licence – Alberta.
Where the 2 schools in and around Banff are
A pin for every school, its colour the system it belongs to.
Points from the provincial lists; Alberta’s missing ones from OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim (© OpenStreetMap contributors).
Schooling in English and French around Banff
English, French and other languages of instruction, beside the mix in Alberta.
The mark on each bar is the share of schools in Alberta.
No school here teaches in French.
Section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives French-speaking parents the right to French-language schooling for their children, through the French-language boards.
Who runs Banff’s schools
Each level’s schools by system: English public, English Catholic, French-language, and independent or other.
Only one system is present here: every one English public.
The provincial school lists: each school’s board, language and Catholic or public status.
How children get a place in Banff
The neighbourhood school
Families enrol through the board, which assigns the school serving their street; transfers depend on space.
The provinces’ education acts and the boards’ own admission policies; check with the board for a given address.
The 2 schools in and around Banff
High schools within reach of Banff
Every secondary school within 15 km of the town, nearest first.
Families have one high school within 15 km: Banff Community High School, 0.3 km off.
| School | Board | System | Band | Students | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banff Community High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Canadian Rockies School Division | English public | Second fifth | 160 | 0.3 km |
Distances in a straight line from the town’s centre point.
Towns its size in Alberta
Towns of a similar population, with their schools in or within 3 km; described, not ranked.
| Town | Population | Schools | Students | French | Nearest secondary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taradale | 17,911 | 34 | 21,751 | 1 | 0.4 km |
| … | |||||
| Clearwater County | 11,856 | 12 | 2,741 | 0 | 13 km |
| Cityscape | 11,782 | 134 | 75,012 | 2 | 1.4 km |
| West Springs | 11,632 | 39 | 18,923 | 0 | 0.4 km |
| Bowness | 11,548 | 51 | 22,974 | 2 | 0.5 km |
| Banff | 11,402 | 2 | 534 | 0 | 0.3 km |
| Beddington Heights | 11,333 | 29 | 15,439 | 0 | 1.7 km |
| Whitehorn | 11,273 | 52 | 25,957 | 1 | 0.2 km |
| Lake Bonavista | 11,154 | 63 | 28,636 | 2 | 1 km |
| Lacombe County | 11,072 | 21 | 5,960 | 0 | 2.8 km |
| … | |||||
| Applewood Park | 6,835 | 29 | 12,286 | 0 | 0.7 km |
The 164 others all count more. 66 of 165 have a school teaching in French.
Populations from Statistics Canada; schools from the provincial lists, in or within 3 km of each town.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The kinds of school. Schools are grouped by what they teach: elementary, secondary, every grade, and the alternative, adult and online programs.
- Which schools count. Schools inside Banff and those within 3 km of its outline: a family nearby would weigh them all.
- Bands, not ranks. Fifths are worked out among every Alberta school with a PAT result, then averaged per school.
- What isn’t here. No province rates its schools by inspection, and enrolment covers one year (Ontario and Alberta only), so there is no trend.
- Boards and systems. Each board covers a territory in one language and one system, public or Catholic; boards of different systems overlap.
- The year. Listed for 2025/26.
Questions about schools in Banff
How do I get a place at a school in Banff?
Register with the board that runs the school: the address decides the designated school in each system, and the board can say which one it is.
Is there a French-language school in Banff?
None within 3 km of Banff. The French-language board serves it from schools further off.
Sources: Alberta Education and Childcare, school enrolment 2025/26 (Open Government Licence – Alberta) · map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).