Montreal Elementary Schools Explorer

Choosing an elementary school in Montreal often feels opaque. Unlike high schools—which are ranked annually in the Fraser Institute’s Palmarès des écoles—Quebec elementary schools have no media rankings, and the public data that does exist is scattered across five separate Ministry, school board, and municipal portals.

This guide and interactive explorer bring all of those public datasets together into a single, neutral framework—so any family in any Montreal neighborhood can evaluate French public, English public, subsidized private, independent private, and alternative (RÉPAQ, Montessori, Waldorf) schools according to their own location and priorities.

• Interactive Web Explorer (Above): Enter any Montreal 3-character postal code (H2L, H2V, H3Y, H2G, H4A, etc.) or select a borough, filter by Bill 101 eligibility and language model, and adjust 6 priority sliders to rank 102 Montreal elementary schools dynamically.
• Master Open-Data CSV (102 Schools × 37 Columns): Download montreal-elementary-schools-open-data.csv to explore or remix the full dataset in Excel, Google Sheets, Python, or R.

Part 1: The 4 Legal & Financial Tracks in Montreal #

Before looking at school metrics, every Montreal family faces two structural gatekeepers: Bill 101 (Charter of the French Language) eligibility and government private-school subsidies. Together, they divide Montreal elementary schools into four tracks:

The “Grade 7 Subsidy Cliff” (Why K–6 and Grades 7–11 Are Priced Differently): At English independent schools (Selwyn House, St. George’s, LCC, The Study, ECS), Elementary (K–6) is unsubsidized ($25k–$38k/yr), so anyone can attend without a Bill 101 certificate. Starting in Grade 7 (Secondary I), these schools hold Ministry subsidy permits for students who possess a Bill 101 Certificate of Eligibility—dropping high school tuition from ~$30k+ down to $7,000–$12,000/yr.

Part 2: The 5 Official Public Datasets Hidden in Plain Sight #

If you want to evaluate any public school in Montreal using primary data, here are the five official sources and what each metric actually means:

1. MEQ Socio-Economic Indices (IMSE & SFR — Indices de défavorisation) #

Published annually by the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec (MEQ) on donneesquebec.ca for every public school:

• IMSE (Indice de milieu socio-économique): Combines mother’s educational attainment (2/3 weight: proportion of mothers without a high school diploma) and parental full-time employment (1/3 weight). Lower numbers mean higher parental education (IMSE 2.0–4.5 is Decile 1–2, highly privileged; IMSE 12.0+ is Decile 9–10, disadvantaged).
• SFR (Seuil de faible revenu): The exact percentage of families in the school living below Statistics Canada’s after-tax Low-Income Cut-Off.

2. Island of Montreal Global Academic Success Index (CGTSIM IGRS) #

Published by the Comité de gestion de la taxe scolaire de l’île de Montréal (CGTSIM) across all 357 public elementary schools and 94 public secondary schools on the Island of Montreal:

• IGRS (Indice global de réussite scolaire): A composite academic index (roughly 70% to 89%) based on student performance on compulsory Ministry end-of-cycle exams.
• 2-Year Trajectory (2023–2024 → 2025–2026): Because the CGTSIM report publishes two cohorts side-by-side, you can track whether a school’s academic performance is rising or falling over a 2-year window.

3. School-Level Projet éducatif (2023–2027) & Anonymous OurSCHOOL Student Surveys #

Every Quebec public school must post a 4-year Projet éducatif (Educational Project) PDF on its website. Inside EMSB and CSSDM PDFs are two goldmines that never appear in central databases:

• Subject-by-Subject Grade 6 Exam Pass & Mastery (≥70%) Rates: Exact pass rates in English Reading/Writing, French Reading/Writing, and Mathematics Problem-Solving (Compétence 1 — Résoudre).
• Anonymous OurSCHOOL / Tell Them From Me Student Climate Surveys (Grades 4–6): What 9-to-11-year-olds report anonymously on Feeling Safe at School (%), Moderate-to-High Anxiety (%), Bullying Victimization (%), and Sense of Belonging (%), alongside the school’s exact IEP (Plan d’intervention) special-needs percentage.

4. MEQ Physical Infrastructure Audit (IVP & IEG Condition Grades A to E) #

Released under Access-to-Information (24-223_Diffusion.pdf), this audit grades every school building in Montreal on two separate tracks:

• Building Deficit (IVP Bâtiment — Grades A to E): Deferred maintenance cost divided by replacement value (A ≤5%, B 5–10%, C 10–15%, D 15–30%, E >30%). Because Montreal schools average 75–110 years old, masonry and roofing work put ~80% of heritage buildings in Grade D or E.
• Schoolyard Deficit (IVP Terrains — Grades A to E): Grades the outdoor schoolyard and play grounds separately from the building. Many schools with a Grade D or E building have a Grade A recently rebuilt schoolyard (e.g., Roslyn 1.1%, Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1.4%, Laurier 0.4%, Au Pied-de-la-Montagne 4.7%).
• Indoor “Elbow Room” (m² per Student): Dividing the audit’s exact floor area (Superficie en m²) by current enrollment reveals how spacious or crowded a school feels indoors.

5. Classroom Air Quality (CO₂ / Ventilation) & Drinking Water Lead Audits #

• Ventilation & CO₂ (tableaudebordeducation.gouv.qc.ca & board portals): ~45% of Montreal public schools have mechanical HVAC and ~55% rely on natural window ventilation (supplemented in all 30 naturally ventilated EMSB buildings by commercial classroom HEPA air purifiers and wall-mounted CO₂ sensors).
• Lead in Water (Plomb dans l’eau): Under Quebec’s strict 5 µg/L standard, pre-1981 schools retrofitted drinking fountains with NSF/ANSI 53 lead-filtering bottle stations while marking untested heritage classroom/washroom sinks as handwashing-only.

Part 3: The Socio-Economic Mirage (R² = 0.607) & “Value-Added” Schools #

When we ran an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression across all central Montreal public elementary schools in our dataset, we found a striking empirical relationship:

Predicted IGRS = 87.22 − 0.236 × (IMSE) − 0.306 × (SFR) (R² = 0.6070)

In plain language: 60.7% of the variation in official school rankings (CGTSIM IGRS) is explained solely by the parents’ education and income levels (IMSE and SFR) before a teacher ever steps into the classroom.

To measure what a school actually adds instructionally, look at two numbers instead of raw rank:

1. The “Value-Added” Residual (Actual IGRS − Predicted IGRS): How much a school outperforms (or underperforms) other Montreal schools with the exact same socio-economic demographics.
2. The 2-Year Academic Trajectory (2023–24 → 2025–26 IGRS): Whether the school’s instructional momentum is climbing.

Top “Value-Added” & Rising-Trajectory Public Schools (French & English) #

Part 4: 10 Creative Ways Any Parent Can Audit a School in 15 Minutes #

Standard rankings only measure a few hours of Grade 6 testing. Here are 10 non-obvious ways to measure the daily reality of a school—illustrated with verified findings from our primary-source audit across Montreal schools:

1. The “2-PDF Governing Board Test” (Conseil d’établissement) #

Every public school is legally required to publish its monthly Governing Board (Conseil d’établissement) minutes on its website. Reading just two PDFs takes 5 minutes and reveals whether the parent community is thriving:

• What high vitality looks like:
  • At Roslyn Elementary (roslynhands.ca), 80 parent volunteers serve 13,000 slices of pizza a year ($25,000 net profit), staff a 100% volunteer Daily Health Room, and in June 2025 reinvested a $40,000 surplus to save the school’s Gifted & Enrichment program after provincial budget cuts.
  • At Pierre Elliott Trudeau (PETES), the March 2026 minutes include a penny-for-penny audit of $22,491.86 in PPO fundraising, paying $6,644 to take the entire school (K4–Grade 6) treetop trekking at Arbraska and creating an opt-in parent sponsorship pool so zero children miss paid Pizza or TCBY days.
  • At Bancroft, the PPO runs 19 annual events (including an $8,000 End-of-Year Carnival Week and $4,000 for Sugar Shack buses).
  • At FACE, the 150-volunteer OPP and Fondation FACE delivered $19,200 in musical instruments, $5,729 in teacher micro-grants (3D printers and speakers), and $4,750 in solidarity bursaries in a single semester.
• What low parent continuity looks like: At Carlyle Elementary, where 47% of students were born outside Quebec (many on temporary international stays), the PPO report in 5 out of 6 monthly Governing Board meetings in 2025–2026 was literally “Nothing to report”—requiring the school to rely on Ministry nutrition grants instead of parent fundraising.

2. Audit “The Other 35%” (Noon & 3:00–6:00 PM Daycare / Clubs) #

A child in Kindergarten through Grade 6 spends ~5 hours a day in class and ~3 to 3.5 hours a day in lunch supervision and Before/After-School Daycare (Service de garde / B.A.S.E.):

• Adult Continuity: Ask whether the daycare educators also work inside the school during the day. At PETES, 70.5% of the school attends B.A.S.E. (2:25–6:00 PM), and 100% of daycare staff also work daytime supervision—meaning the same trusted adults know your child all day.
• Afternoon Club Menus & Cost:
  • Bancroft PPO offers 4:00–5:00 PM clubs for just $40–$50/semester (Jiu-Jitsu, Flag Football, Chess, Basketball, Soccer, Ping Pong, Gymnastics, Dance, Sewing).
  • PETES partners with McGill University’s “Homework Zone” to provide free 1-on-1 university student mentors after school.
  • Roslyn HandS runs 25+ lunchtime and after-school clubs (Robotics, Stop Motion Animation, Spanish, Musical Theatre staging Aladdin, D&D, Martial Arts, plus a free After-School Homework Club).
  • St. George’s and The Priory include chef/catered daily hot lunches in tuition and run 10–18 afternoon clubs on campus until 5:30/6:00 PM.

3. Check What 10-Year-Olds Say Behind Closed Doors (OurSCHOOL Survey) #

Look at the back pages of any public school’s Projet éducatif for its anonymous Grade 4–6 student survey:

• Lowest Anxiety & Highest Safety: Bancroft posts 70% Feeling Safe (vs. 59% EMSB average) and 18% Moderate-to-High Anxiety (vs. 31% EMSB average).
• Lowest Bullying: PETES (18% bullying), FACE (22%, cut in half from 46% in 2022, with 84% Sense of Belonging), and Willingdon (23% bullying, 65% safety—helped by separating Grades 5–6 into their own Senior Campus).
• Diagnostic Action: When Roslyn saw rough recess play push its safety score down to 44%, it hired a full-time Playground Coordinator (“Ms. Nancy”), immediately cutting bullying by 5 points.

4. Measure Indoor “Elbow Room” (m² per Child) #

Divide the MEQ building audit’s floor area (m²) by current enrollment:

• Bancroft has 7,832 m² for 215 students = 36.4 m² per child (plus two indoor gyms from its $5M interior renovation)—nearly 3x more indoor space per child than Dunrae Gardens (13.4 m²), Au Pied-de-la-Montagne (13.0 m²), or Willingdon (12.9 m²).

5. Verify Recent Major Rebuilds (Don’t Trust Stale CSVs) #

Static Ministry spreadsheets often lag behind major capital projects completed in 2025–2026:

• FACE Elementary (4835 Christophe-Colomb): Permanently relocated on August 28, 2025 into a $73 million freshly reconstructed heritage building in the Plateau with 100% new mechanical ventilation, a double gym, 7 soundproof music rooms, and a soccer/basketball yard where all Grades 1–6 play outside together.
• École Laurier (505 Laurier Est): Completed a $28 million total building gut-reconstruction for 2026–2027 with brand-new mechanical HVAC and plumbing.

6. Check Separate Schoolyard Condition & Adjacent Park Access #

Look at whether teachers have blanket walking permission to use a major city park as an extended campus:

• PETES voted blanket walking approval in Nov 2025 for Parc Père-Marquette directly across the street.
• Willingdon has parents sign a single annual form authorizing daily walks and outdoor classes in Trenholme Park (Junior Campus) and Loyola Park (Senior Campus).
• Bancroft uses Parc Jeanne-Mance (1 block away) and Mount Royal; St. George’s steps directly into Mount Royal Park / Beaver Lake; Selwyn House takes daily recess across the street in Murray Park; Le Plateau sits inside Parc La Fontaine; and The Priory turns its two turf soccer pitches into an on-campus outdoor ice rink and toboggan hill every winter.

7. Look for Neurodiverse Regulation & Learning Support Infrastructure #

Instead of asking if a school “supports all learners,” check its concrete staffing and physical spaces:

• PETES has a 10-month-old Bernedoodle therapy dog (Luna) working in classrooms plus a sensory regulation room with a tent and hammocks.
• Willingdon used a $10,000 Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie grant in Jan 2026 to install 6 stationary bikes in hallway “health stations” so fidgety or anxious students can take a 10-minute pedaling pass mid-class.
• Selwyn House (Student Success Centre), St. George’s (Centre for Learning), and LCC (LEAD Department, serving 150+ students) maintain dedicated floors/teams of learning strategists and school psychologists.

8. Check Principal & Teacher Multi-Year Tenure #

High leadership turnover is the #1 early warning sign of school dysfunction. Look for long-term anchors:

• Bancroft has had only 2 principals in 17 years (Dorothy Ostrowicz 2009–2021; Gaetano Sifoni 2021–present).
• Carlyle (Dina Vourdousis, 6+ yrs), Roslyn (Joanna Genovezos, 5+ yrs), FACE EMSB (Jennifer Harriet, 5+ yrs), The Priory (Christian St-Pierre, 6+ yrs), Selwyn House (Michael Downey, 20+ yrs at Selwyn), and St. George’s Elementary (Aidan De Jean, 7+ yrs) all demonstrate exceptional leadership continuity.

9. Calculate the True “All-In” Private Tuition (Including Mandatory Fees) #

When comparing private schools, always add mandatory Accessory Services, Meal Fees, Student Life, and Capital/Building Fees to the advertised base tuition:

• St. George’s (2026–27): Base $19,005–$24,585 + $6,165 Accessory (includes daily hot lunch & 2 snacks) = $25,170 (K) to $30,750 (Gr. 6).
• The Priory (2026–27): Base $19,750 + $2,330 Hot Lunch + $4,615–$4,875 Mandatory Fees = $26,695 (K4–K5) to $26,955 (Gr. 5–6).
• Lower Canada College (2026–27): Base $28,830–$29,745 + $4,100–$4,420 Accessory = $32,930 (K–G2) to $34,165 (Gr. 5–6) (+ ~$1,530 optional lunch).
• Selwyn House (2026–27): Net Tuition $20,115–$25,720 + Mandatory Hot Lunch, Supervision & Capital Fees = $29,675 (K) to $37,995 (Gr. 3–6).

10. Audit the Grade 6 Exit Pipeline (Continuum vs. Exam Prep) #

In Montreal, high school admissions happen in the fall of Grade 6 (via the QAIS Common Admissions Test, French private exams, or EMSB magnet exams for Royal West and Vincent Massey):

• Stress-Free K–11 / K–12 Continuum: At FACE, Le Vitrail, Selwyn House, St. George’s (where Grade 6 spends every Friday at the High School campus), LCC (exempt from the CAT exam), Stanislas, Marie de France, and Villa Sainte-Marcelline, your child’s high school seat is guaranteed.
• High-Placement K–6 Launchpads: At The Priory (which aligns Grade 5–6 math/language curricula with fall entrance exams), Dunrae Gardens, Willingdon, Roslyn, Bancroft, PETES, and Laurier, check how many graduates matriculate into Royal West Academy, Vincent Massey, Brébeuf, Loyola, Selwyn House, LCC, The Study, ECS, or École internationale.