Photo: Grant Berg · CC BY-SA 3.0Results around Grande Prairie lean low: 19 of 29 schools in the lower two fifths in Alberta
Best placed: Derek Taylor School and Grande Prairie Christian School. Its schools answer to 4 boards. Counting a 3 km margin, Grande Prairie has 22 elementary schools, 7 secondary schools and 5 schools for every grade, for 15,037 students.
What stands out about Grande Prairie’s schools
One big school
Grande Prairie Composite High School is the largest school here, with 1,502 students. Every school ↓
Big elementary schools
At 410 students on average, against 274 in Alberta, the elementary schools are large; Riverstone Public School and Isabel Campbell Public School lead. Every school ↓
The strongest results
The area’s best results are at Derek Taylor School (elementary), in the top fifth in Alberta. Results ↓
The comparisons are with the province’s schools, never across provinces.
How Grande Prairie’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 C: 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 | 29 | 61% | 67% |
| PAT: standard of excellence | 29 | 8% | 13% |
Furthest from the provincial middle is the standard of excellence: 8% here, against 13% in Alberta.
Every school’s results (29)
| School | Measure | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Derek Taylor SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 80% · Excellence 27% | Top fifth |
| Grande Prairie Christian SchoolAll grades · Grades K–9 | Acceptable 82% · Excellence 26% | Top fifth |
| I.V. Macklin Public SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 64% · Excellence 25% | Second fifth |
| Ecole St. Gerard Catholic SchoolAll grades · Grades K–9 | Acceptable 72% · Excellence 12% | Middle fifth |
| Peace Wapiti AcademySecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 72% · Excellence 12% | Middle fifth |
| Harry Balfour SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 75% · Excellence 9% | Middle fifth |
| Holy Cross Catholic SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 68% · Excellence 13% | Middle fifth |
| Isabel Campbell Public SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 64% · Excellence 10% | Middle fifth |
| Roy Bickell Public SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 65% · Excellence 13% | Middle fifth |
| Whispering Ridge Community SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 75% · Excellence 10% | Middle fifth |
| Charles Spencer High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 60% · Excellence 11% | Fourth fifth |
| Parkside MontessoriElementary · Grades K–6 | Acceptable 67% · Excellence 8% | Fourth fifth |
| St. Catherine Catholic SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 58% · Excellence 15% | Fourth fifth |
| Aspen Grove SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 61% · Excellence 5% | Fourth fifth |
| Crystal Park SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 57% · Excellence 7% | Fourth fifth |
| Maude Clifford Public SchoolElementary · Grades K–6 | Acceptable 58% · Excellence 5% | Fourth fifth |
| Mother Teresa SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 56% · Excellence 6% | Fourth fifth |
| Riverstone Public SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 57% · Excellence 7% | Fourth fifth |
| St. Clement Catholic SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 49% · Excellence 11% | Fourth fifth |
| St. John Paul II Catholic School / Faculté St. Jean-Paul IISecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 58% · Excellence 6% | Fourth fifth |
| St. Kateri Catholic SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 64% · Excellence 5% | Fourth fifth |
| École Montrose SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 64% · Excellence 5% | Fourth fifth |
| École Nouvelle FrontièreAll grades · Grades K–12 | Acceptable 56% · Excellence 9% | Fourth fifth |
| Alexander Forbes SchoolElementary · Grades K–8 | Acceptable 62% · Excellence 4% | Bottom fifth |
| Grande Prairie Composite High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 46% · Excellence 7% | Bottom fifth |
| Swanavon SchoolElementary · Grades K–6 | Acceptable 40% · Excellence 6% | Bottom fifth |
| Avondale SchoolElementary · Grades K–6 | Acceptable 36% · Excellence 3% | Bottom fifth |
| Hillside Community SchoolElementary · Grades K–6 | Acceptable 47% · Excellence 4% | Bottom fifth |
| St. Joseph Catholic High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | Acceptable 40% · 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.
4 boards, school by school
The boards and their schools here.
| Board | System | Schools | Students |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Grande Prairie School DivisionGrande Prairie, Charles Spencer, Riverstone, Isabel Campbell, Montrose, Crystal Park, Grande Prairie Christian, Roy Bickell … | English public | 18 | 8,641 |
| The Grande Prairie Roman Catholic Separate School DivisionSt. Joseph Catholic, St. John Paul II Catholic School / Faculté St. Jean-Paul II, St. Catherine, Holy Cross, St. Kateri, Mother Teresa, Ecole St. Gerard, St. Clement … | English Catholic | 9 | 4,162 |
| The Peace Wapiti School DivisionPeace Wapiti Academy, Whispering Ridge, Harry Balfour, Peace Wapiti Enterprise Centre, Grandview Colony | English public | 5 | 1,979 |
| The Northwest Francophone Education RegionNouvelle Frontière | French public | 1 | 199 |
Boards and districts as the provincial lists name them.
Where the 34 schools in and around Grande Prairie 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 Grande Prairie
English, French and other languages of instruction, beside the mix in Alberta.
The mark on each bar is the share of schools in Alberta.
École Nouvelle Frontière teach in French; The Northwest Francophone Education Region runs the public ones among the 1.
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 Grande Prairie’s schools
Each level’s schools by system: English public, English Catholic, French-language, and independent or other.
Who runs them, in numbers: English public 23, English Catholic 9, French-language 1 and independent or other 1.
The provincial school lists: each school’s board, language and Catholic or public status.
How children get a place in Grande Prairie
The neighbourhood school
Children go to the board’s designated school for their address, unless another school agrees to take them.
Independent schools
Independent schools here charge fees but receive some provincial funding if they meet its standards.
Catholic schools
Catholic schools are public here, run by separate boards that set their own admissions.
French-language schools
The French boards take rights-holders’ children by right and others by committee.
The provinces’ education acts and the boards’ own admission policies; check with the board for a given address.
The 34 schools in and around Grande Prairie
High schools within reach of Grande Prairie
Every secondary school within 15 km of the town, nearest first.
11 secondary schools are within 15 km: 5 English public, 4 English Catholic, 1 independent and 1 French public. The nearest is Ecole St. Gerard Catholic School, 0.7 km away.
| School | Board | System | Band | Students | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ecole St. Gerard Catholic SchoolAll grades · Grades K–9 | The Grande Prairie Roman Catholic Separate School Division | English Catholic | Middle fifth | 459 | 0.7 km |
| St. John Bosco Catholic SchoolSecondary · Grades 10–12 | The Grande Prairie Roman Catholic Separate School Division | English Catholic | – | 54 | 0.7 km |
| Hillcrest Christian SchoolAll grades · Grades K–12 | – | Independent | – | 56 | 1.2 km |
| Grande Prairie Composite High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Grande Prairie School Division | English public | Bottom fifth | 1,502 | 2.2 km |
| Peace Wapiti AcademySecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Peace Wapiti School Division | English public | Middle fifth | 703 | 2.4 km |
| Grande Prairie Christian SchoolAll grades · Grades K–9 | The Grande Prairie School Division | English public | Top fifth | 451 | 2.5 km |
| St. Joseph Catholic High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Grande Prairie Roman Catholic Separate School Division | English Catholic | Bottom fifth | 683 | 2.7 km |
| Charles Spencer High SchoolSecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Grande Prairie School Division | English public | Fourth fifth | 1,101 | 2.8 km |
| École Nouvelle FrontièreAll grades · Grades K–12 | The Northwest Francophone Education Region | French public | Fourth fifth | 199 | 3.4 km |
| St. John Paul II Catholic School / Faculté St. Jean-Paul IISecondary · Grades 9–12 | The Grande Prairie Roman Catholic Separate School Division | English Catholic | Fourth fifth | 651 | 4.7 km |
All 11 secondary schools
| School | Board | System | Band | Students | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grandview Colony SchoolAll grades · Grades 1–9 | The Peace Wapiti School Division | English public | – | 10 | 5.2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Deer | 115,409 | 49 | 19,670 | 1 | 0.7 km |
| … | |||||
| Strathcona County | 107,345 | 85 | 40,852 | 2 | 0.8 km |
| Airdrie | 92,544 | 27 | 18,713 | 1 | 0.9 km |
| Fort McMurray | 81,611 | 33 | 15,139 | 1 | 1.8 km |
| St. Albert | 74,621 | 41 | 19,661 | 2 | 0.9 km |
| Grande Prairie | 71,160 | 34 | 15,037 | 1 | 0.6 km |
| Medicine Hat | 68,714 | 37 | 11,190 | 1 | 1 km |
| 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 |
| … | |||||
| Parkland County | 34,286 | 51 | 25,829 | 1 | 4.7 km |
Set against 12 others, 7 have more schools in reach. Of the 13, 11 offer 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 Grande Prairie
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
| Town | Schools | French | Catholic or independent | Nearest secondary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grande Prairie | 34 | 1 | 10 | 0.6 km |
| Grande Prairie County No. 1 6.4 km | 39 | 1 | 8 | 1.7 km |
Top among the neighbours: Grande Prairie County No. 1, 39 schools.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Boards and systems. Each board covers a territory in one language and one system, public or Catholic; boards of different systems overlap.
- The year. The provincial list for 2025/26.
- What isn’t here. There are no inspection ratings to show, and a single year of enrolment gives no trend.
- Bands, not ranks. Top fifth means a result among the best fifth of Alberta’s schools; the card shows a school’s average fifth.
- The kinds of school. Each school is elementary, secondary or all-grade by the grades it teaches; alternative, adult and online programs sit in a group of their own.
- Which schools count. The area is Grande Prairie plus a 3 km margin around it, measured from its census outline.
Questions about schools in Grande Prairie
Which boards run the schools in Grande Prairie?
By number of schools: The Grande Prairie School Division (18), The Grande Prairie Roman Catholic Separate School Division (9), The Peace Wapiti School Division (5) and The Northwest Francophone Education Region (1).
How do I get a place at a school in Grande Prairie?
Registration is with the board, which assigns the school for the home address.
How many schools are there in Grande Prairie?
33 in the town, 1 just beyond it, within 3 km.
Is there a French-language school in Grande Prairie?
Yes, there are French-language schools: École Nouvelle Frontière.
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).