Real Estate Near George Jay Elementary in Fernwood, North Park and Downtown

About George Jay Elementary

École George Jay Elementary is a Kindergarten to Grade 5 school at 1118 Princess Avenue in Fernwood, a few blocks from Royal Athletic Park. Part of School District 61 (Greater Victoria), it describes itself as an urban dual-track school, with an English program and Early French Immersion, more than 440 students and a diverse community of learners.

The original three-storey brick school dates from 1909 and was added to and renovated several times between 1911 and 1981, according to the Victoria Heritage Foundation. It was named for George Jay, a magistrate who chaired the Victoria School Board. In 2023 the district announced that the school will receive a new Lekwungen name, through a process co-developed with the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, after a review prompted by concerns about Jay’s support for a policy that kept Chinese Canadian students out of some schools. As of November 2026, district and school websites still use the George Jay name.

George Jay is part of the Victoria High School family of schools: English-program students go on to Central Middle School for Grades 6 to 8 and then to Victoria High School, and the district’s pathway chart shows the same route for its French Immersion students. When the district drew new catchments for 2020-21, the South Park and Bank Street catchments were partly carved from George Jay’s former area.

Programs, Meals and Early Learning

George Jay pairs its two classroom streams with family-support programs run alongside community partners. Offerings change over time, so confirm current details with the school.

School Community

Athletics and clubs round out the school day, and community programs include a partnership with the Inter Cultural Association (ICA), school counselling and a Thursday-morning bread program supplied by a local bakery and run with parent help. The school’s guiding principles are simple: be kind to yourself, be kind to others and be kind to this place.

Fernwood Village, with its theatre, cafés and small shops, is a short walk east of the school, and Royal Athletic Park and the downtown core are close by to the west.

Living Within the George Jay Catchment

The George Jay catchment joins three quite different parts of the city. Its southwestern part is the north side of downtown, from around Johnson Street up through Chinatown to the Rock Bay area near the upper harbour. In the middle is North Park, the grid of older houses, walk-ups and newer condos around Royal Athletic Park that MLS calls Central Park. To the east it covers much of Fernwood, including Fernwood Village, and it reaches north toward Hillside Avenue. The map search follows the district’s published elementary catchment map, simplified, so homes right on the edge may fall on either side; check an exact address with the district.

Downtown and North Park supply most of the listings, largely studio and one-bedroom condos in buildings from the 2000s onward along with older walk-up apartments, while Fernwood adds character houses, duplexes and townhomes; build years on current listings run from 1901 to 2023. Nearby catchments include South Park to the south and Sundance-Bank Elementary to the east.

At the start of November 2026 there were about 110 homes listed inside the catchment, and roughly three quarters were condos, most of them downtown, with a median asking price near $470,000 and studios starting just under $300,000. Townhomes ran from about $560,000 to $1 million, about a dozen detached houses had a median near $1.06 million and topped out around $1.7 million, and duplexes and other multi-family homes ranged from about $1 million to $1.8 million. As with the district’s other dual-track schools, the French Immersion program here has its own catchment and its own registration, separate from the English boundary mapped on this page.

A property’s address inside these boundaries does not by itself guarantee a place at George Jay Elementary. Catchment boundaries, registration rules and program admission can change, and some programs depend on capacity. Buyers should confirm the current catchment and registration status with School District 61 (Greater Victoria) before relying on school access as part of a real-estate decision. Compare other catchments on the Greater Victoria schools page.