Collingwood School vs Mulgrave School
🇨🇦 Vancouver · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
Neither Collingwood School nor Mulgrave School sits in a market with a public inspectorate, so both are assessed on verifiable accreditation, curriculum authorisation, and published data rather than an official quality rating. Curriculum is the core differentiator: Collingwood School offers Canadian while Mulgrave School offers IB — the choice should follow the family's target qualification system. Both are day schools with fees in the same market band — see the table below for the figures, and verify against each school's own published fees.
Key Facts
| Collingwood School | Mulgrave School | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | Canadian | IB |
| Ages | 4–18 | 3–18 |
| Languages of instruction | English | English |
| Annual fees | CAD 28,550–31,900 | CAD 30,290–34,180 (2026–27 tuition) |
| Enrollment | 1,260 | 950 |
| Boarding | Day only | Day only |
| Accreditations | CAIS (Canadian Accredited Independent Schools), ISABC (Independent Schools Association of BC) | CIS, IB World School, ISABC, CAIS |
Strengths
- ✓Broad Advanced Placement offering (20+ AP courses) plus additional advanced courses in mathematics and organic chemistry, giving strong university-preparation depth
- ✓Full JK–Grade 12 continuity on two purpose-built West Vancouver campuses
- ✓Low reported teacher-to-student ratio (about 1:8) and moderate average class size (about 20)
- ✓Dual accreditation (CAIS and ISABC) and membership of the international Round Square network with global service trips
- ✓Explicit four-strand model balancing academics, arts, athletics and service
- ✓Full IB Continuum authorisation — PYP, MYP and DP delivered unbroken from age 3 to Grade 12, rare even among IB World Schools
- ✓Triple independent-sector accreditation (CIS, CAIS, ISABC) on top of IB authorisation
- ✓Genuinely international community — families from 37 countries — well suited to globally-mobile families
- ✓Low published 7:1 student ratio
- ✓Not-for-profit governance rather than a for-profit operator model
Trade-offs
- !Day school only — no boarding option for families needing residential places
- !No IB or Cambridge pathway; families specifically seeking those programmes are served elsewhere
- !English-as-an-additional-language support is not published on the school site, so its scope is unclear
- !Tuition sits at the higher end of the Vancouver independent-school market
- !No boarding — day school only, so out-of-area and international families must relocate locally
- !Premium fees (CAD 30,290–34,180 tuition) plus a CAD 25,000 refundable family deposit and a CAD 7,000 international surcharge — a high entry cost
- !Single curriculum (IB only) — no NCEA/AP/Cambridge alternative for families wanting a different pathway
- !The school does not publish a single official total-enrolment figure or EAL/language-support details on the pages reviewed
- !Secular and non-denominational — not a fit for families specifically seeking a faith-based school
Best Fit For
- • West Vancouver families wanting a full JK–12 independent day school
- • Academically ambitious students who will use a wide Advanced Placement menu for university preparation
- • Families valuing a balanced academics-arts-athletics-service programme and a global Round Square network
- • Families wanting a single, internationally-portable IB pathway across a child's entire schooling
- • Globally-mobile / expat families valuing an international peer community
- • Families seeking a co-educational, secular, gender-inclusive environment
- • West Vancouver / North Shore families able to attend as day students
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
University-destination and graduate-placement data are not published on the pages reviewed (school-reported outcomes not available).
School-reported, unverified: Mulgrave is a university-preparatory IB Diploma school (87 graduates in the Class of 2026), but no specific university-destination statistics or IB average score were retrievable from a public source — treat any placement claims as unverified until confirmed on the school's published data.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Should I choose Collingwood School or Mulgrave School?
Collingwood School is best for: West Vancouver families wanting a full JK–12 independent day school. Mulgrave School is best for: Families wanting a single, internationally-portable IB pathway across a child's entire schooling. The right choice depends on target curriculum, budget, and family priorities — the two are not linearly comparable.
How do fees compare between Collingwood School and Mulgrave School?
Collingwood School: CAD 28,550–31,900. Mulgrave School: CAD 30,290–34,180 (2026–27 tuition). Verify against each school's own published fees; some figures are sourced from third-party aggregators.
What curricula do Collingwood School and Mulgrave School offer?
Collingwood School: Canadian. Mulgrave School: IB.
Do Collingwood School or Mulgrave School offer boarding?
Collingwood School: day school only. Mulgrave School: day school only.
Questions parents ask
This comparison is BrightKey's independent assessment using verifiable public data only. University-placement figures are school-reported and not independently verified. BrightKey takes no payments from schools. Our method →