One sign of a school’s regional popularity is the number of buses parked outside. In the lot at École Gabrielle-Roy on 132 Street in Newton, 20 buses shuttle students between Surrey’s lone Francophone school and homes located in Surrey and nearby cities.

“Because we are a regional school, we pick up students from Abbotsford, places like that, and bring them here,” explained Pier-Maude Lachance, vice-principal at Gabrielle-Roy.

“For elementary school here, the students must live in Surrey, but this is a regional school for high school students. For example, in Langley there is no French high school, so we get those students. There are French elementary schools in Langley and Delta, but for high school we welcome older students from other cities.”

Free bus transportation is a selling point at a school where admission requirements are covered in Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which gives Canadians living in B.C. the right to have children educated in a Francophone education program.

The Now-Leader recently toured Gabrielle-Roy, which this year welcomes 595 students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 as the only public Francophone school of its kind in Surrey.

Part of the CSF provincial school district (Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique), Gabrielle-Roy is among 47 public schools for close to 6,000 French-language students in B.C.

It’s not French-immersion schooling, it’s a total Francophone experience.

“We are a Francophone school, so it means that all the communication we do is in French with our families, everything is in French,” Lachance noted. “The report cards are in French, the communication, what we put on our walls. Sometimes many languages are spoken at home but one of the parents of a student here must speak French.”

Opened in 1998, the school was rebuilt in 2004 after fire destroyed the original building.

Originally from Quebec, Lachance is in her 11th year at Gabrielle-Roy, fourth as an administrator.

“We have more students this year than last year, and we welcomed 11 new families from different countries,” she said.

“We have a beautiful diversity in our school, with a lot of different languages that are spoken at home. The common language at school is French, so that’s what brings us all together. We have students who speak Swahili, Kirundi, English, Arabic, and beautiful, many accents.

“We always say that we speak French at school and we promote the French culture, but we add ‘s’ to cultures, because we have so many students coming from different countries, different cultures. It’s not just one French, it’s a plural French, global. It’s grande Francophonie — I don’t know if you have other words to to describe it better in English, just Francophonie plural.”

New students should have a basic understanding of French before they enroll, but it’s not mandatory at the school, which boasts the name of a major voice in French-language literature in Canada.

“For example we do welcome Kindergarteners that hear French at home just a little bit,” Lachance said. “They start the school year and they don’t know a lot of words but then by December we can see them being able to make sentences, learning the language, ask questions, they’re more confident. We don’t ask any student to speak perfect French, because they are all learning.”

There are three Kindergarten classrooms at Gabrielle-Roy, along with a daycare for preschoolers.

A program prepares the youngest students for life at school, well before classes begin, with monthly activities for kids and families.

“It’s also great to create connection between our families because as they come from everywhere in Surrey, it’s not like a neighborhood school where they can easily meet and make friends before they attend school,” Lachance explained.

“With our daycare here as well, it’s always great to welcome them because they’re so used to having everything in French, because it’s a French daycare, so when they come to Kindergarten, they’re ready. We have some children who come here when they’re age three and stay until they’re 18. That’s quite special.”

Basketball is popular at Gabrielle-Roy, where the 2025 senior boys team won the Greater Vancouver Independent Schools Athletic Association championship — a first such banner for the school.

“It was very exciting, and basketball is very strong in our school,” Lachance said. “If you come during lunchtime, they’re practicing, always practicing. They love it and they’re really good, but I am biased. Soccer is strong here as well.”

Portable classrooms, set up outside the school building, are a sign of recent student-population growth.

“Last August and September, we had a lot of new families coming,” the vice-principal recalled. “We also have families that leave for different reasons, whether they’re moving back to Quebec or France or another country, that happens. Last fall was very busy, and it’s always exciting to welcome new students. We haven’t reached our maximum yet, and we make the best of the space we have. I think we would always find a way of welcoming Francophone students to our school.”

The school is shown in a 2022 video posted to Youtube, on the CSF B.C. channel.