Hamilton School Guide

Ancaster Schools: Rankings, Catchments, and What Families Need to Know

By Chris Ouzas, Broker, Michael Ouzas Real Estate Team, Royal LePage Signature Realty. Last updated July 2026.

Key Takeaways

• Eight Ancaster elementary schools appear in the Fraser Institute's Report Card on Ontario's Elementary Schools 2025, and every one scored between 6.0 and 8.0 out of 10. There is no weak result in the set, which changes how catchments affect price here.
• Immaculate Conception Catholic Elementary on Kitty Murray Lane posted the strongest Ancaster elementary score at 8.0, ranked 351st of the 3,047 Ontario elementary schools in that report.
• Both Ancaster high schools rank well provincially. Bishop Tonnos scored 7.6, ranked 130th of 747 schools, and Ancaster High scored 7.0, ranked 220th, in the Fraser Institute's Report Card on Ontario's Secondary Schools 2025.
• Grade ranges are not uniform. Rousseau runs JK-6, not JK-8, so the school your address feeds may not carry your child through to Grade 8. Run the address through both boards' lookup tools before you buy.

Ancaster is Hamilton's west suburban community, and schools are the most common question we field from families moving here. The answer is unusually simple compared to the rest of the city. Ancaster is served by a compact set of schools across the public board (HWDSB) and the Catholic board (HWCDSB), and the published results cluster tightly at the upper end. On the Hamilton Mountain, results range from the top of the province to well below the city average. In Ancaster, the spread is narrow.

Two sources get used throughout. The first is the Fraser Institute's overall rating out of 10, from its Report Card on Ontario's Elementary Schools 2025 and Report Card on Ontario's Secondary Schools 2025, both of which rate schools on the 2023-24 school year. The second is enrolment and EQAO achievement from Ontario's School Information Finder, the Ministry of Education's public database, using its 2024-25 preliminary figures. Where nothing is published, we say so rather than guess.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Elementary School (JK-8)

Immaculate Conception sits at 470 Kitty Murray Lane in the Meadowlands and is the top-scoring Ancaster elementary school in the Fraser Institute's 2025 report at 8.0, ranked 351st in Ontario. The Ministry of Education lists it at about 600 students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8. Its 2024-25 EQAO results explain the rating: 87 per cent of Grade 3 students met the provincial standard in math against 64 per cent for English-language students province wide, and 85 per cent met it in reading. As an HWCDSB school, admission follows the Catholic board's registration rules, not a simple public catchment.

St. Ann (Ancaster) Catholic Elementary School (JK-8)

St. Ann is at 24 Fiddler's Green Road in old Ancaster and scored 7.9 in the Fraser Institute's 2025 report, ranked 392nd. The school's own history page dates it to 1953. It is small: the Ministry of Education lists about 230 students across JK to Grade 8 in 2024-25. Its 2024-25 Grade 3 EQAO results were exceptional, with 100 per cent of students meeting the provincial standard in both writing and math and 93 per cent in reading. Grade 6 reading came in at 83 per cent against 86 per cent province wide. With cohorts this small, single-year swings are normal, so read the trend rather than one number. Note that HWCDSB operates two schools named St. Ann, one in Ancaster and one in Hamilton, and they are not interchangeable.

Rousseau Elementary School (JK-6)

Rousseau, at 103 McNiven Road, scored 7.3 in the Fraser Institute's 2025 report, ranked 702nd, and is the strongest HWDSB elementary result in Ancaster. The detail buyers miss is the grade range. The Ministry of Education lists Rousseau as JK-6 with about 260 students, not JK-8 like most Ancaster elementary schools, which means an extra transition before high school. Its 2024-25 EQAO Grade 6 math result was 68 per cent against 51 per cent province wide, a strong number. Grade 3 reading was 57 per cent against 74 per cent, the weaker result, and again a small cohort.

Tiffany Hills Elementary School (JK-8)

Tiffany Hills, at 255 Raymond Road in south Ancaster, is the largest elementary school in the community, with about 690 students in JK to Grade 8 in the Ministry of Education's 2024-25 count. It scored 6.7 in the Fraser Institute's 2025 report, ranked 1,062nd. Its 2024-25 EQAO Grade 6 reading result was 97 per cent against 86 per cent province wide, one of the best figures in Ancaster. Grade 3 math was 52 per cent against 64 per cent, the softer half of the picture. It is a newer building serving newer subdivisions, and the school most often assumed by buyers looking at recent construction in the south end.

Ancaster Meadow Elementary School (JK-8)

Ancaster Meadow, at 93 Kitty Murray Lane, serves the Meadowlands and runs JK to Grade 8 with about 565 students on the Ministry of Education's 2024-25 figures. It scored 6.0 in the Fraser Institute's 2025 report, ranked 1,567th, the lowest of the eight ranked Ancaster elementary schools, and down from a five-year average rating of 6.7 in the same report. Its 2024-25 EQAO results are mixed: 95 per cent of Grade 6 students met the provincial standard in writing against 85 per cent province wide, while Grade 3 math sat at 51 per cent against 64 per cent. It is a well-regarded neighbourhood school with a soft spot in early math.

Secondary Schools Serving Ancaster (Grades 9-12)

Ancaster is unusual in having both a public and a Catholic high school inside the community. Ancaster High Secondary School, at 374 Jerseyville Road West, is the HWDSB option, with about 1,180 students in Grades 9 to 12 on the Ministry of Education's 2024-25 figures. It scored 7.0 in the Fraser Institute's Report Card on Ontario's Secondary Schools 2025, ranked 220th of 747 Ontario secondary schools. Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School, at 100 Panabaker Drive, is the HWCDSB option, with about 1,320 students. It scored 7.6, ranked 130th, and both St. Joachim and St. Ann name it as their feeder secondary school. The nearest independent option, Hillfield Strathallan College at 299 Fennell Avenue West in Hamilton, is a co-educational day school with no catchment, so admission and tuition replace the address question entirely. Not every Ancaster address maps to Ancaster High or Bishop Tonnos, particularly at the edges of the community, so confirm rather than assume.

Catchments and What They Mean for Prices

Because Ancaster's published results cluster so tightly, no single catchment dominates pricing the way a famous boundary can in parts of Toronto. Buyers here are not choosing between a strong school and a weak one. Families here sort by board and by grade structure instead: Catholic families weighing St. Joachim on Concerto Court (7.3 in the 2025 Fraser report, about 455 students) or Holy Name of Mary on Meadowlands Boulevard (7.6, about 305 students), public families weighing Spring Valley on Dunham Drive (6.8, about 430 students) against the Meadowlands schools. HWDSB also operates Frank Panabaker across two sites, on Huron Avenue and on Nakoma Road, and neither appears in the Fraser Institute's 2025 elementary ranking. Note too that C.H. Bray, Fessenden, and Queen's Rangers no longer appear in HWDSB's school directory. If a listing or an older guide names one of them, that information is out of date. The boards redraw boundary streets, so any line published today could be wrong by the time you read it.

How to Verify a Catchment Before You Buy

For public schools, use HWDSB's Find My School page at hwdsb.on.ca/find-school. The board also labels it School Locator and links to it from its How to Register page. Enter the exact street address and it returns the designated school for that home. For Catholic schools, use the School Locator and Boundaries page under School Life at hwcdsb.ca. Do this before you buy, not after. Check the grade range at the same time, because Ancaster mixes JK-6 and JK-8 schools, and check the exact school name, given that HWCDSB runs a St. Ann in Ancaster and a separate St. Ann in Hamilton. If a listing says "great school district," treat that as marketing until the board's own tool confirms it for that address. We run this check for every family we work with in Ancaster.

Frequently asked questions

Can Chris check the schools for a specific house?

Yes. Send him the address and he will run it through both boards' locators and tell you what comes back, including the French Immersion picture.

Does Chris only work this area?

No. Chris works all of Hamilton, Burlington, and Oakville, and his son Michael covers Toronto at michaelouzas.com.

How do I get in touch?

Pick a time on the booking page and Chris will call you. It is free, and there is no pressure.

In short

Ancaster's published school results are the most consistent in Hamilton. Both boards score well and both high schools rank in the top third of the province. You are unlikely to buy into a bad catchment here, and you should not overpay chasing one specific school. The variables that matter are grade range, board, and the exact address. Confirm all three with the boards' own tools, then decide.