History
Stratford Hall was founded in the late 1990s by two Burnaby mothers, Elaine Lee and Cindy Leung, who wanted a university preparatory option for their own children. They formed a not-for-profit society, the Burnaby Independent School Society (now the Stratford Hall (School) Society), and in October 1999, they appointed James McConnell as Head of School. They also secured a temporary site, the Italian Cultural Centre, which served the school for its first nine years.
In September 2000, classes began for 40 students in kindergarten through to grade 6. Since then, the school has added about 40 new students each year. A second kindergarten class was created in 2001, and in May 2007, the first set of students graduated from grade 12. Stratford Hall's current enrollment is 411 students in kindergarten to grade 12.
The founders chose to embark on the International Baccalaureate Programme in October 1999, and Stratford Hall was one of the first schools in the world to establish itself using all three IB Programmes. In 2003, the school was awarded authorization for the IB Primary Years Programme, the first school in Western Canada to do so. In 2005, it achieved authorization for the IB Diploma Programme, ensuring that its first graduating class would be Diploma candidates. It achieved full authorization for the Middle Years Programme in 2009. Stratford Hall is the only school in Canada and one of the few schools in the world that offers all three IB Programmes to all students and is fully authorized to do so.
Stratford Hall was accepted into the Independent Schools Association of BC in 2003, and into the Canadian Association of Independent Schools in 2005.
In September 2005, the grades 6 - 12 program was moved from the Italian Cultural Centre to its current building, the former Ailanthus Centre on Commercial Drive.
In 2007, Stratford Hall purchased a lot on the same block of Commercial, and in 2008, construction began on the new Primary Years facility. The new building, designed specifically for the IB Primary Years Programme, opened in November 2009.
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