Ecole Glen Elementary School currently enrols 475 Kindergarten to Grade 5 students. We offer both English and French Immersion programming.
Glen Elementary welcomes a diversity of learners and in partnership with the community is committed to creating a mutually supportive environment which fosters a positive attitude towards learning; self-esteem; personal and social responsibility.
Glen School was opened in September 1913 on Old Port Moody Road.
Glen School was a one-room school house which housed twenty-three students and their teacher, Miss L. C. Howe who earned $65 per month. There was no electricity so kerosene gas lamps were used. Outhouses (bathrooms) were out back. To keep warm, the students and their teacher kept the wood furnace going.
In 1921, students at Glen School, for the price of 10 cents, were invited to have their names sealed into the Peace Arch at the Canada-U.S. border crossing. In the late 1920’s, Glen students took the municipal truck to Fraser Mills from which they took a streetcar all the way to Stanley Park for their year-end picnic.
In 1935, a new one-room school was built on the present day site. Mr. Clark and his twenty-three students felt fortunate to be moving to into their new school. In the 1930’s, the Glen P.T.A. (Parent Teacher Association; today this group is known as our P.A.C. or Parent Advisory Council) began an active role in raising funds for school supplies and equipment.
During the war years, 1939 - 1945, students at Glen were educated about the war. War savings stamps were collected to assist Canadian troops and Glen students learned to knit afghans to send to our Canadian soldiers in Europe.
In the early morning of November 12, 1939, the new one-room Glen School burned to the ground. A new, two-room school was built on the site and it opened in 1941. In 1943, the snow fall for the month of January was 11 inches. This amount of snow resulted in Glen School being closed for nine school days.
In 1947, the school year was delayed because of a polio epidemic.
In October 1962, Hurricane Freda left Glen without power and our school was closed for three days.
In September 1963, the first Kindergarten class, taught by Mrs. Isobel MacDonald, began at Glen.
Then, on June 14, 1967, Glen celebrated its 50th Anniversary. Staff, students and alumni met to reminisce about ‘the good ole’ days’.
Terry Fox was a student at Glen from 1968 to 1971 (Grades 5 - 7).
The late 1970’s and early 1980’s saw a significant growth in the student population at Glen. In this time, Coquitlam Centre was opened and there was a lot of new development. The early 1970’s were known as the years of the trucks. Approximately 800-900 trucks passed the school daily and the noise was intolerable for both staff and students. Parents battled both the truckers and the municipal authorities. The P.T.A. helped organize the parents’ efforts to find a truck-free route for their children to use to get to school. A new route was proposed but it meant a road would be built through Glen Park. Parents were again outraged and finally Pinetree Street was built as a solution to the problem.
The last twenty years has seen the building and opening of our ‘new’ neighbours; the expansion and renovations of Coquitlam Centre, the City Centre Aquatic Centre, Evergreen Cultural Centre; and a number of high-density housing projects.
Construction of our brand new school began in the Spring of 2008. We are, of course, very excited about our move into our new school sometime just before the Christmas Break or just as we return from the Christmas Break.