Craig Johnston Personal Real Estate Corporation · Brokerage: Royal LePage Elite West
Elementary · Burke Mountain · Smiling Creek · Partington Creek · SD43 Coquitlam School District
Updated October 2026 · Craig Johnston, REALTOR® V99960
A Coquitlam REALTOR®'s read on Smiling Creek Elementary — what the school offers, which neighbourhoods feed in, and what to know about the catchment housing in Burke Mountain · Smiling Creek · Partington Creek.
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What should you know about Smiling Creek Elementary?
Smiling Creek Elementary School — Smiling Creek Elementary School is an elementary school in Coquitlam, serving grades K–5 in the Burke Mountain · Smiling Creek · Partington Creek area. Burke Mountain's anchor K-5 — fine arts + digital + physical literacy. Address: 3456 Princeton Avenue, V3E 0G1. Phone 604-931-9280.
Verify your exact address
Check whether your address is actually inside the Smiling Creek 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.
Moving for the school?
Catchments follow street addresses, not neighbourhood names. Browse what’s for sale in Burke Mountain, then confirm any address in the SD43 locator above before you book a showing. Or let me watch it for you: I’ll set up a daily MLS® alert for the streets Smiling Creek Elementary serves.
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Verified school facts · SD43
School type
Elementary
Grades
K–5
District
SD43 (Coquitlam School District)
Address
3456 Princeton Avenue, Coquitlam, BC V3E 0G1
Phone
Website
Administration (2025–26)
Rob Killawee (Principal)
VP: Confirm current VP roster with the school office.
Enrolment
501 students, School Year 2025–2026. Confirm current-year totals with the school office.
School hours
Confirm the current year's bell schedule directly with the school at 604-931-9280.
Local representation
School Trustee: SD43 Board of Education contact → · MLA: Coquitlam-Burke Mountain
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 Smiling Creek — cross-referenced against schoolguide.vtco.app's published school profile data so you're not relying on a guess.
Current enrolment
501 students
2025–2026 school year
Grades served
K–5
Standard SD43 English program
Enrolment by grade
School Year 2025–2026
Kindergarten enrolment is not separately published in the source consulted for Smiling Creek — Grades 1–5 alone total 418 of the school's 501 reported students. We are not backing out a Kindergarten figure from that gap; confirm current Kindergarten enrolment directly with the school office.
Enrolment cross-referenced against schoolguide.vtco.app's published school profile data for SD43, retrieved September 2026 (School Year 2025–2026).
What this school is best known for
Smiling Creek opened in 2018 to anchor the new Burke Mountain residential community. The school's identity has been fine arts plus digital literacy from day one, alongside a strong physical-literacy program (tennis, curling, hip hop in addition to standard sports). For families buying into Burke Mountain, Smiling Creek is the most established of the area's K-5 options.
Programs & academic profile
Standard BC elementary curriculum.
Active fine arts programming across grade levels.
Strong digital-literacy integration in the curriculum.
Tennis, curling, hip hop, plus standard volleyball, basketball, cross-country, track-and-field.
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.
Catchment, feeders & cross-catchment
Burke Mountain — the Smiling Creek and Partington Creek residential pockets.
K-entry school.
Minnekhada Middle or Kwayhquitlum Middle.
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.
Extracurriculars · sports · clubs
Programs change year to year. Confirm the current season's club and sport list on the school's Programs / Clubs page.
Inside the catchment · housing read
Inside the Smiling Creek Elementary catchment in Burke Mountain · Smiling Creek · Partington Creek, 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.
Frequently asked questions
Smiling Creek Elementary is a K–5 SD43 neighbourhood school in Burke Mountain · Smiling Creek · Partington Creek. Burke Mountain's first dedicated K-5 (opened September 2018) — built to anchor the rapidly growing Smiling Creek / Partington Creek neighbourhood. Strong fine arts and digital literacy focus; physical literacy programming includes tennis, curling, and hip hop alongside standard sports. 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.
Burke Mountain — the Smiling Creek and Partington Creek residential pockets. Always verify a specific address through the SD43 school locator before relying on it.
Rob Killawee. Confirm against the SD43 2025–26 administrators listings if you need the very latest assignment.
Minnekhada Middle or Kwayhquitlum Middle. 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.
3456 Princeton Avenue, Coquitlam, BC V3E 0G1. Phone 604-931-9280.
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 Smiling Creek Elementary school page, the SD43 2025–26 School Listings (administrators) PDF, the SD43 Board of Education / Trustees page, and the SD43 school locator. Catchment, registration, and cross-catchment information from SD43's registration page and SD43's cross-catchment policy page. Enrolment (501 students, 2025–2026) and program details (Indigenous Education Support, SD43 International Student Program) cross-referenced against schoolguide.vtco.app's published school profile data, retrieved September 2026 (School Year 2025–2026). All SD43 links on this page were re-checked in September 2026, after SD43 relaunched its website. 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; enrolment and program details refreshed September 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 Smiling Creek Elementary catchment.
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Thinking about the move, not just the school?
If you're weighing a move into this catchment, the hard part usually isn't the school — it's the timing and the tax math: when to sell your current home, how the property-transfer-tax works on the next one, and how to buy into the right catchment without overpaying. That's the work I focus on across the Tri-Cities. Start with the move-up guide, then get a no-obligation read on what your current home could sell for today.