Willows Elementary Catchment: Oak Bay Homes for Sale

About École Willows Elementary

École Willows Elementary occupies a site of about 2.7 hectares at 2290 Musgrave Street in Oak Bay, within walking distance of Willows Beach. Classes have been held here since the 1909-10 school year, first in a purchased house and then in a three-room school built in 1913. The large brick building that still anchors the school opened in September 1920 with 250 students. Additions in the 1950s and 1960s brought more classrooms, a bigger gym and a library, and enrolment passed 900 in 1969 before falling to the mid-400s by 1975. French Immersion arrived in 1976-77. The school’s site puts enrolment at about 500 students in Kindergarten to Grade 5, and its history page notes that roughly half are in French Immersion.

Willows is part of School District 61 (Greater Victoria) and the Oak Bay family of schools. English-program students continue to Monterey Middle School and then Oak Bay High, while French Immersion students go to Lansdowne Middle School before returning to Oak Bay High. In the district’s 2020-21 boundary changes the Willows catchment was expanded to take in the Lansdowne slope, something many nearby families had asked for during consultation so they could stay in the walkable Willows, Monterey and Oak Bay High family.

Programs in English and French

As a dual-track school, Willows runs English and French Immersion classes side by side, with music and athletics shared across both. Activities depend on volunteer teacher sponsors each year, so confirm details with the school.

Athletics, Clubs and Child Care

Students get daily physical activity, and teams include cross-country, soccer, swimming, basketball, rugby, track and floor hockey. Chess, homework, skipping and 40 Book Challenge clubs meet through the year. The PAC funds field trips, a bus trip for every class and visits from artists and authors, and runs book fairs, pizza and sushi days and parent education evenings.

The district lists two child care providers on the grounds: Oak Bay Parks, Recreation and Culture, through its Neighbourhood Learning Centre, and the Saltair Child Care Society. SD61 is also renovating part of the school to add before- and after-school care capacity, paired with a redesigned parking lot between the school and Musgrave field; site work was planned to begin in summer 2026, with timing tied to municipal permits.

Living Within the Willows Elementary Catchment

The Willows boundary takes in most of Oak Bay. The map area follows the shoreline from South Oak Bay past Willows Beach and Cattle Point to Uplands Park and the Uplands estate streets such as Beach Drive, Ripon Road and Upper Terrace Road, then runs west through Estevan and North Oak Bay to Foul Bay Road and north to the Lansdowne slope around Eastdowne Road. South Oak Bay streets such as Monterey Avenue, Newport Avenue and Hampshire Road are included, close to Oak Bay Village. 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.

Detached houses dominate: 29 of about 53 listings at the start of November 2026, from about $1.3 million to $7 million with a median near $3.4 million, plus one historic Uplands waterfront estate listed near $28 million that sits far outside the normal range. Thirteen condos ran from about $390,000 to $1.9 million, with a median near $750,000, ten townhomes from about $1.2 million to $2 million, and one lot was offered at about $1.15 million. New construction is a big part of the picture, with about a third of the listings built in 2024 or later or still under construction, including new houses on South Oak Bay and Estevan streets and new townhomes on Cadboro Bay Road. Character homes from the 1910s to the 1940s and mid-century houses make up much of the rest.

See Oak Bay houses for sale or Oak Bay luxury homes, and compare the wider Oak Bay High catchment. Neighbouring elementary pages cover Campus View Elementary to the north and Margaret Jenkins Elementary to the south, and our post on the school catchment premium looks at what boundaries add to prices.

A property’s address inside these boundaries does not by itself guarantee a place at Willows 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.