Elementary · West Coquitlam · French Immersion Host
Updated October 2026 · Craig Johnston, REALTOR® V99960
A Coquitlam REALTOR®'s read on Porter Street Elementary — a west Coquitlam dual-track Early French Immersion host school feeding Maillard Middle and Dr. Charles Best Secondary.
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What should you know about Porter Street Elementary?
École Porter Street Elementary School — École Porter Street Elementary School is an elementary school in Coquitlam, serving grades K–5 in the West Coquitlam · Mundy Park · Maillardville-adjacent area. West Coquitlam dual-track Early FI host elementary. Address: 728 Porter Street, V3J 5B4. Phone 604-936-4296.
Verify your exact address
Check whether your address is actually inside the Porter Street Elementary catchment.
SD43 catchments are set by address, not by neighbourhood name. Enter your street in the district’s official School Locator to see the schools that serve your home. This is the authoritative source.
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Verified school facts · SD43
School type
Elementary
Grades
K–5
District
SD43 (Coquitlam School District)
Address
728 Porter Street, Coquitlam, BC V3J 5B4
Phone
Website
Administration (2025–26)
Rachel French (Principal)
Local representation
School Trustee: SD43 Board of Education contact → · MLA: Coquitlam-Maillardville
In-catchment registration
Cross-catchment / school of choice
Catchment locator
School details verified against the SD43 school page (June 2026). Bell schedules, administrators, and program details can change year to year — confirm the current year directly with the school office before relying on any specific number.
Enrolment snapshot
Real, sourced enrolment figures for Porter Street — cross-referenced against BC’s public school enrolment reporting so you’re not relying on a guess.
Current enrolment
326 students
2025–2026 school year
Grades served
K–5
Early French Immersion + English streams
Enrolment by grade
School Year 2025–2026
Kindergarten enrolment is not broken out separately in the source consulted. Grades 1–5 shown above total 266 students against the school’s published 2025–2026 total enrolment of 326 — a gap of roughly 60 students the source does not itemize by grade. We have not estimated a Kindergarten figure; confirm the current Kindergarten headcount directly with the school office.
Enrolment cross-referenced against publicly reported BC K–12 school enrolment data for SD43, retrieved September 2026 (School Year 2025–2026).
What this school is best known for
Porter Street is dual-track — Early French Immersion (Kindergarten entry) plus a standard neighbourhood English K-5 program. The FI stream feeds École Maillard Middle's grade 6–8 FI continuation, then on to École Dr. Charles Best Secondary. Apply for the FI stream through the SD43 Programs of Choice window in early January.
Programs & academic profile
Dual-track with the neighbourhood English program. Apply through the SD43 Programs of Choice window in early January. K–2 = 100% French; grades 3–5 = 80% French.
Standard BC elementary curriculum for in-catchment families not in the FI stream.
SD43 inclusive-education model.
Standard SD43 English Language Learning programming.
District-wide, under SD43's Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement. Indigenous Support Teachers and Child & Youth Care Workers, scholarships, land-based learning, and the All Nations Canoe Event, serving grades K–12 across SD43.
District-wide, grades K–12. Full-year (10-month) and summer options, with ESL and Culture Programming and a Teacher Training Program; qualifying secondary students can access AP and IB coursework.
Standard SD43 elementary athletics — choir, cross-country, intramurals.
Catchment, feeders & cross-catchment
West Coquitlam — Porter Street and the Mundy Park edge, near Maillardville. The FI program is district-wide via Programs of Choice.
K-entry school. FI applicants come from across SD43 through Programs of Choice.
École Maillard Middle (FI), then École Dr. Charles Best Secondary.
SD43 allows cross-catchment enrolment when space permits, allocated by lottery with in-district and sibling priority. SD43 cross-catchment policy →
Catchment lines run down individual streets and can put one side of a road in one catchment and the opposite side in the next. Always verify a specific address with the SD43 school locator before relying on any boundary statement.
Inside the catchment · housing read
Inside the Porter Street Elementary catchment in West Coquitlam · Mundy Park · Maillardville-adjacent, you're looking at established residential streets. Verify the exact catchment for your address through the SD43 locator before committing — boundary lines can run down individual streets.
The verified record
École Porter Street Elementary serves grades K-5 as a public School District 43 site. Its address is 728 Porter St, Coquitlam, V3J 5B4; the school office answers on 604 936-4296. Rachel French is the principal, and 04343053 is the school's provincial code.
That record is the provincial one, not an aggregator's copy. Directory sites go stale without announcing it, and a parent who rings a dead number has been failed by the page rather than helped by it.
Programme track
SD43 lists this school as dual-track english / early french immersion. That means two streams run under one roof, and the stream your child enters is decided by application rather than by your address.
Living in the catchment secures a place at the school. It does not secure a place in the immersion stream — immersion is a programme of choice, allocated where space permits, and demand for it in this district reliably exceeds supply.
If the immersion stream specifically is what you are buying for, treat the catchment as necessary but not sufficient, and read the district-wide immersion picture before you commit to an address.
The pathway
Students here promote to école Maillard Middle (FI), then École Dr. Charles Best Secondary.
The elementary catchment and the middle catchment are drawn separately. A house can sit comfortably inside one and fall on the far side of the other, which is the single most common thing families get wrong when they buy on a school.
If the later years matter to you as much as the early ones, check every boundary for the exact address through SD43's locator while your subjects are still in place, not after they are removed.
The catchment on the ground
The catchment covers west Coquitlam — Porter Street and the Mundy Park edge, near Maillardville. The FI program is district-wide via Programs of Choice.
The housing inside that footprint is not uniform, and compressing it into a paragraph here would do it no favours — nor would it help to repeat what is already written elsewhere on this site. For the streets, the stock and the price bands, read maillardville detached and maillardville neighbourhood guide.
Addresses near a boundary should always be confirmed through the SD43 locator before you rely on them. Boundaries move, and they do not follow the lines people assume from a map.
Frequently asked questions
Porter Street Elementary is a K–5 SD43 neighbourhood school in West Coquitlam · Mundy Park · Maillardville-adjacent. A dual-track Early French Immersion host school in west Coquitlam — K-entry FI alongside a standard neighbourhood English program, feeding École Maillard Middle's FI continuation. For families inside the catchment, it offers the standard SD43 elementary program with the supports parents typically expect — learning support, ELL, and Indigenous-Education programming through the district.
West Coquitlam — Porter Street and the Mundy Park edge, near Maillardville. The FI program is district-wide via Programs of Choice. Always verify a specific address through the SD43 school locator before relying on it.
Rachel French. Verified against the B.C. Ministry of Education Student Success record for this school (school code 04343053). Administrator assignments do change between school years, so if you are contacting the office about something time-sensitive it is worth confirming with SD43 directly.
École Maillard Middle (FI), then École Dr. Charles Best Secondary. Confirm the exact middle school for your address with the SD43 locator.
Most SD43 neighbourhood elementaries are English-only. SD43's French Immersion entry points are different schools — see the SD43 French Programs page for the current list of K-entry FI sites.
Yes — through the SD43 cross-catchment / school-of-choice process when space permits. Placements are allocated by lottery with in-district and sibling priority.
No. SD43 has discontinued regular bus transportation district-wide. Parents drive or arrange private transportation.
728 Porter Street, Coquitlam, BC V3J 5B4. Phone 604-936-4296.
Continue your Coquitlam school research
Main hub
The full SD43 schools guide for the Tri-Cities.
Hub
Ranked guide to the top Coquitlam SD43 schools.
Programs
Every SD43 French Immersion entry point.
Private
Independent schools serving Coquitlam, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam.
Sources & methodology
School facts verified against the SD43 Porter Street Elementary school page, the SD43 Board of Education / Trustees page, and the SD43 school locator. Catchment, registration, and cross-catchment information from SD43's cross-catchment policy page. Real estate commentary is the professional opinion of Craig Johnston, REALTOR® license V99960, working under Royal LePage Elite West and serving the SD43 Tri-Cities market.
Page reviewed and dated June 2026. License V99960 · BCFSA-regulated. Confirm school program details with the school office before relying on them for an enrolment decision.
A long-time Tri-Cities resident and licensed REALTOR®, Craig knows the catchment streets, the boundary risks, and the homes that come up inside the Porter Street Elementary catchment before they hit the public market.
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Thinking about the move, not just the school?
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