North Shore Schools: How to Find Your Home's Catchment Area
Navigating School Zones on the North Shore
For many families moving to North or West Vancouver, the local school catchment is just as important as the house itself. Whether you are eyeing Handsworth Secondary for its athletics or West Bay Elementary for its IB program, securing a home within the right boundary is the first step.
But boundaries can be tricky, sometimes splitting right down the middle of a street. Here is the most accurate way to find out exactly which school applies to your potential new home.
The Official Way: Using the Baragar Tool
School districts in our area use a system called Baragar to manage their boundaries. This is the most reliable source of truth, far better than general maps which might be outdated.
How to verify a catchment in 3 steps:
Choose Your District:
For North Vancouver, visit: mybaragar.com (North Van)
For West Vancouver, visit: mybaragar.com (West Van)
Enter the Street Name: Type in the street of the property you are interested in.
Pick the Address Range: Be careful here - select the specific house number range. Often, "Odd" and "Even" numbers on the same street fall into different catchments.
Once you click "Find School," the system will tell you exactly which elementary and secondary schools are assigned to that home.
The Easy Way: Search Our Listings
If you don't want to navigate external sites, we have integrated this data directly into our property search tools.
Go to Our Listings on this website.
Click on any property that catches your eye.
Look for the "Schools" tab.
We pull the catchment data for you and include links to the school’s website and their Fraser Institute Report Card, so you can see the academic performance at a glance.
Looking for a Specific School?
If you already know where you want your kids to go, let us do the heavy lifting. We specialize in North and West Vancouver neighbourhoods and know these boundaries inside and out.
Instead of checking every address manually, tell us which school you need (e.g., "Caulfeild Elementary catchment only"), and we will filter a custom home search that only shows you properties within that zone.
Have a specific school in mind? Reach out via my Work With Me page to connect, and I can help navigate your search!
About Matt Council
Matt Council is a top-performing North Vancouver Realtor and West Van specialist with a background in finance. He moves beyond the sales hype to offer clients a data-driven, pressure-free approach to buying and selling real estate on the North Shore. Whether you are evaluating a presale in Lower Lonsdale or a detached home in Lynn Valley, Matt helps you understand the numbers behind the move.
Thinking of making a move? Let’s run the numbers.