About Us
St. Francis Xavier School is a Catholic Independent School
of the Vancouver Archdiocese. It is a dual stream elementary
school, established by St. Francis Xavier Parish, and it follows
the policies and procedures recommended by the Catholic Independent
School Board. Our school enrollment consists of 396 students
with a class size of approximately 25 students.
History of St. Francis Xavier School
The Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception from Pembroke,
Ontario, founded St. Francis Xavier School in 1933. From a
donation, a house and land was purchased at the corner of
Georgia Street and Princess Avenue in Chinatown.
A Kindergarten was opened in one of the rooms of the house.
The first class consisted of 30 kindergarten students. The
Kindergarten was moved to another building across the street
in 1934. The grade school started in 1938, housed in three
rented classrooms on the third storey of a bank building situated
at the corner of Main and East Pender Street in Vancouver.
There were three grades in each classroom with a total enrollment
of 30. In 1940, the first school building, located at the
corner of East Georgia Street and Princess Avenue, was constructed
to accommodate about 70 students.
Over the years, the school population had outgrown the school
building to such an extent that more than half of the students
had to be housed in various rented buildings. Another building
was acquired on East Pender Street. The parish and school
fundraised for 20 years to build a new school. The construction
took two years to complete. In 2001, the school building at
428 Great Northern Way was completed. Operations began in
September 2001. Most Reverend Adam Exner, OMI, Archbishop
of Vancouver blessed the new school on December 2, 2001. The
school has 16 classrooms and currently serves 396 students.
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