Photo: Thank you for visiting my page from Canada · CC BY 2.07 of Cochrane’s 10 tested schools score in the lower two fifths in Alberta
Best placed: Cochrane Christian Academy and École Notre-Dame des Vallées. 3 boards run its schools. In or within 3 km of Cochrane: 12 elementary schools, 3 secondary schools and 1 school for every grade, with 7,714 students.
What stands out about Cochrane’s schools
Big elementary schools
Elementary schools here average 436 students, against 274 in Alberta; Fireside School and RancheView School are the largest. Every school ↓
Each finding compares the town’s schools with every school in its province.
How Cochrane’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 B−: 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 | 10 | 62% | 67% |
| PAT: standard of excellence | 10 | 10% | 13% |
The widest gap is on the standard of excellence, where the area’s schools reach 10% against 13% in Alberta.
Every school’s results (10)
| School | Measure | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Cochrane Christian AcademyElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 81% · Excellence 15% | Second fifth |
| École Notre-Dame des ValléesAll grades · Grades K–12 | Acceptable 89% · Excellence 21% | Second fifth |
| Holy Spirit SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 73% · Excellence 12% | Middle fifth |
| RancheView SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 67% · Excellence 10% | Fourth fifth |
| St. TimothySecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 66% · Excellence 9% | Fourth fifth |
| Cochrane High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 56% · Excellence 10% | Fourth fifth |
| Mitford SchoolElementary · Grades 5–8 | Acceptable 57% · Excellence 10% | Fourth fifth |
| Fireside SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 58% · Excellence 4% | Bottom fifth |
| Bow Valley High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 43% · Excellence 5% | Bottom fifth |
| Manachaban Middle SchoolElementary · Grades 5–8 | Acceptable 44% · Excellence 4% | Bottom 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.
The 3 boards that run schools here
The boards and their schools here.
| Board | System | Schools | Students |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rocky View School DivisionCochrane, Bow Valley, Fireside, RancheView, Glenbow, Manachaban, Mitford, Elizabeth Barrett … | English public | 9 | 5,901 |
| The Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School DivisionHoly Spirit, St. Timothy | English Catholic | 2 | 919 |
| The Southern Francophone Education RegionNotre-Dame des Vallées | French public | 1 | 215 |
Boards and districts as the provincial lists name them.
Where the 16 schools in and around Cochrane are
Every school as a pin, coloured by system; each opens its own page.
1 more have no point in the source and are listed below the map.
Points from the provincial lists; Alberta’s missing ones from OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim (© OpenStreetMap contributors).
Schooling in English and French around Cochrane
The language each school teaches in, against every school in Alberta.
The mark on each bar is the share of schools in Alberta.
1 of them teach in French: École Notre-Dame des Vallées; the public ones belong to The Southern Francophone Education Region.
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 Cochrane’s schools
Each level’s schools by system: English public, English Catholic, French-language, and independent or other.
Their systems: English public 9, English Catholic 2, French-language 1 and independent or other 4.
The provincial school lists: each school’s board, language and Catholic or public status.
How children get a place in Cochrane
French-language schools
Section 23 rights-holders, francophone parents or those schooled in French in Canada, have a place; others apply to the board’s committee.
Independent schools
Independent schools here charge fees but receive some provincial funding if they meet its standards.
Catholic schools
Catholic separate schools are publicly funded here; each separate board decides whom it admits, Catholic families first.
The neighbourhood school
The neighbourhood school is the one the board designates for the address; choice beyond it depends on space.
The provinces’ education acts and the boards’ own admission policies; check with the board for a given address.
The 16 schools in and around Cochrane
High schools within reach of Cochrane
Every secondary school within 15 km of the town, nearest first.
Counting out to 15 km, there are 4: 2 English public, 1 English Catholic and 1 French public. The closest high school is Cochrane High School, 1.2 km out.
| School | Board | System | Band | Students | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cochrane High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Rocky View School Division | English public | Fourth fifth | 1,004 | 1.2 km |
| St. TimothySecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division | English Catholic | Fourth fifth | 292 | 2 km |
| École Notre-Dame des ValléesAll grades · Grades K–12 | The Southern Francophone Education Region | French public | Second fifth | 215 | 2.1 km |
| Bow Valley High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Rocky View School Division | English public | Bottom fifth | 970 | 3.2 km |
Distances in a straight line from the town’s centre point.
Towns its size in Alberta
Similar-sized towns and their schools within 3 km, by population.
| Town | Population | Schools | Students | French | Nearest secondary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky View County | 50,260 | 136 | 74,236 | 2 | 2.9 km |
| Spruce Grove | 44,575 | 22 | 12,760 | 0 | 0.2 km |
| Leduc | 39,966 | 17 | 7,735 | 0 | 0.7 km |
| Cochrane | 39,397 | 16 | 7,714 | 1 | 1.1 km |
| Parkland County | 34,286 | 51 | 25,829 | 1 | 4.7 km |
| Okotoks | 33,482 | 21 | 9,730 | 1 | 0.1 km |
| Chestermere | 31,671 | 10 | 6,332 | 0 | 1 km |
| Fort Saskatchewan | 30,575 | 14 | 5,407 | 0 | 0.8 km |
| … | |||||
| Panorama Hills | 25,494 | 24 | 18,188 | 0 | 0.6 km |
9 out of 12 comparable towns have more schools. 8 towns of the 13 have a French-language school.
Populations from Statistics Canada; schools from the provincial lists, in or within 3 km of each town.
Schools in the towns around Cochrane
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
| Town | Schools | French | Catholic or independent | Nearest secondary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cochrane | 16 | 1 | 6 | 1.1 km |
| Rocky View County 15 km | 136 | 2 | 50 | 2.9 km |
| Rocky Ridge 17 km | 18 | 1 | 8 | 1.7 km |
| Tuscany 17 km | 27 | 1 | 9 | 0.5 km |
| Royal Oak 18 km | 30 | 1 | 16 | 0.3 km |
| Valley Ridge 18 km | 22 | 1 | 7 | 2.9 km |
Most schools next door: Rocky View County, 136.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The kinds of school. Middle and junior high schools count as secondary when they start at Grade 7 or later, elementary otherwise.
- Which schools count. The page takes in schools within Cochrane and up to 3 km past its boundary, so a school just over the line is still here.
- What isn’t here. Inspection reports with ratings don’t exist here, and the lists give enrolment for one year at most.
- Bands, not ranks. A suppressed result gives no band; a school with both measures averages its fifths.
- Boards and systems. English and French, public and Catholic: the board decides the system, and the address decides the school.
- The year. Schools as listed for 2025/26.
Questions about schools in Cochrane
Is there a French-language school in Cochrane?
Yes: École Notre-Dame des Vallées, the French-language schools here.
How many schools are there in Cochrane?
Every one of them, 16, is inside the town.
Which boards run the schools in Cochrane?
The Rocky View School Division (9), The Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division (2) and The Southern Francophone Education Region (1), with each one’s schools in brackets.
How do I get a place at a school in Cochrane?
Registration is with the board, which assigns the school for the home address.
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).