HISTORY & FUTURE

Our doors opened in 1953 as an elementary school (K-7). The campus was located on the Mission Highway in Abbotsford on the site of First Christian Reformed Church.

In 1960, a new school was erected due to rapidly growing numbers and throughout the 1960’s the school facility continued to grow by necessity. In the early 70’s due to continued growth, the school purchased another property on Old Clayburn Road and built another facility to house its growing enrolment. It was during these years that adding secondary schooling became a reality, and in 1981, Abbotsford Christian School experienced its first secondary school graduation commencement.

In 1985, the campus on the Mission Highway (now called the Heritage campus) experienced a fire that burned two-thirds of the elementary school. The school community rallied around the devastation and a new school was erected within a year. The 1990’s were defined mostly by rapid enrolment growth at the school as well as the purchase and building of a new site on Old Clayburn Road (1 km from the first property). This campus became known as Clayburn Hills setting up two K-7 campuses (Heritage and Clayburn Hills), and one secondary campus (8-12). The 90’s also saw a significant expansion of the secondary campus and by the late 1990’s the school experienced its peak enrolment of around 1300 students.

In the 2000’s, the school again experienced its share of joys and challenges—the school had to deal with student deaths at the Clayburn Hills campus and at the secondary level. In 2003, the school celebrated 50 years and then, in 2004, the society voted to sell the Heritage campus and construct a middle school campus on the current secondary site. In 2006, the school society changed its governance style and hired an Executive Director that would lead the school forward into the 21st Century.

In the 2010s, the school continued to grow, and we adapted a way of educating that unleashes the creativity and critical thinking of our students. Dreams and plans began to take shape for a 21st century learning space. In 2014, the This Square Inch (TSI) Capital Campaign began for the new middle and secondary expansion, supporting the project-based learning approach. In 2020, grade 5 moved to the middle school campus allowing more space in the elementary.

In 2021, the middle and secondary campus renovation was complete, creating more spaces for exploring, discovering, innovation, and critical thinking. A grand opening in September 2022 celebrated these years of dreaming, planning, and fundraising towards this space. In 2023, the school celebrated 70 years of God’s faithfulness.

Although the people, the buildings, and the times have changed; the visionary perspective of acknowledging that the whole world belongs to God, has not wavered.