Published 18 September 2026 · By Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty
Markham’s five strongest schools are Castlemore Public School on the elementary side, and St. Augustine Catholic High School, Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School, Markville Secondary School and Unionville High School on the secondary side. St. Augustine rated 10.0/10 and ranked 1st of 747 Ontario secondary schools in the Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Ontario’s Secondary Schools 2025, published November 2025 on 2023/24 data. Pierre Elliott Trudeau ranked 6th.
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Get My Free Estimate →The more useful fact for a buyer is this: Markville and Unionville were enrolment-capped for 2025-26 and remain closed to transfers for 2026-27. For those two, an in-boundary address is not an advantage, it is the only route in. That is a harder, more verifiable driver of catchment value than any price premium figure you will read online.
1Castlemore Public School (JK-8)
Castlemore anchors Berczy Village, and it is the elementary school that comes up most often when families describe why they moved to that part of Markham. Its Fraser rating of 9.2 places it in roughly the top 3 per cent of Ontario elementary schools, and its five-year average of 8.7 shows the result is a pattern rather than a single strong year. The 2025 report marks it with an improving trend.
Why it matters for buyers
Castlemore is a confirmed feeder into Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School. That pairing is the cleanest buy-the-elementary-get-the-secondary story in Markham, and it is the practical reason Berczy Village trades the way it does.
The practical warning
The York Region DSB does not publish street-level boundary text. Boundaries are an address lookup, and they get redrawn when schools fill. Check the specific address on the YRDSB school locator before you write an offer, not after.
2St. Augustine Catholic High School (9-12)
St. Augustine is, on the current Fraser figures, the top-ranked secondary school in Ontario. It is one of only four schools province-wide to record a perfect 10.0 in the 2025 report, and its five-year average of 9.3 means this is not a fluke year. It runs a STREAM focus programme and a Specialist High Skills Major. It does not offer IB.
A note on the number you may have seen
Wikipedia and several realtor sites currently show St. Augustine at 6th place with 9.6/10. That is the previous edition of the report. The 2025 edition, published November 2025, places it 1st at 10.0. Ranking editions are the single biggest source of wrong numbers in this space, so always check which year is being quoted.
Access is not purely about your address
Catholic secondary admission in Ontario layers board eligibility rules on top of catchment. Buying a house inside the boundary does not by itself guarantee a place. Confirm the current admission policy with the York Catholic DSB before you make school access part of your purchase decision.
3Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School (9-12)
Opened in 2002, Pierre Elliott Trudeau serves northern Unionville and draws from Cachet, Angus Glen and Berczy Village. Its 9.5 rating and 6th-place provincial rank make it the strongest public secondary option in Markham. Confirmed feeder schools include Castlemore, Ashton Meadows, Beckett Farm, Stonebridge, Milliken Mills and Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
The French Immersion angle
The school’s French Immersion stream draws from Stouffville and most of Markham, well beyond the regular catchment. If immersion is your goal, you may not need to buy inside the boundary at all. The regular English stream is address-driven; the immersion stream is not.
Specialist programmes
Specialist High Skills Majors in business, health and wellness, and arts and culture.
4Markville Secondary School (9-12)
Markville opened in 1990 and sits in Unionville with a 9.0 rating and a five-year average of 9.1, which is the most stable record of any school on this list. Its OSSLT first-time pass rate was reported at 95.2 per cent, although that figure dates from 2019 and current EQAO results were not verifiable.
This is the one where address genuinely decides
Markville was enrolment-capped for 2025-26, which means out-of-boundary students cannot attend. Priority ran to in-boundary York Region Grade 8 students registered before 31 October 2025, then later in-boundary registrants, then reassigned Grade 9s, then a non-YRDSB waitlist. For 2026-27 the cap has lifted but the school remains closed to transfers. In practice, an in-boundary address is the only reliable way in.
What that means for the maths
Where access is mechanically gated by address, the school genuinely capitalises into house price. That is a defensible reason to pay more for a Markville address. It is not the same as the vague catchment-premium figures quoted elsewhere.
5Unionville High School (9-12)
Unionville ties Markville at 9.0 and 18th provincially, with a five-year average of 8.9. It is best known for Arts Unionville, formerly Arts York, a four-year enriched regional arts programme in dance, drama, music and visual arts with a $150 annual programme fee.
Arts Unionville is an audition, not an address
Entry requires a successful audition or presentation plus completion of the regular Grade 8 programme, and it is Grade 9 entry only. Eligibility varies by discipline: dance, drama, visual arts, winds and vocal draw from CEC East only; strings from CEC East and North excluding the Alexander Mackenzie catchment; and piano is open to all of York Region with no boundary restriction at all. Applications run through Edsby in the autumn.
The regular stream is a different story
Like Markville, the regular stream was enrolment-capped in 2025-26 and is closed to transfers for 2026-27. So the academic school is address-gated while the marquee arts programme is not. Buyers frequently get this backwards.
Side-by-side comparison
| School | Level | Type | Area | Access | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlemore PS | Elementary | Public YRDSB | Berczy Village | Address | 9.2 |
| St. Augustine CHS | Secondary | Catholic YCDSB | Cachet / Angus Glen | Address + board eligibility | 10.0 |
| Pierre Elliott Trudeau HS | Secondary | Public YRDSB | Northern Unionville | Address (immersion region-wide) | 9.5 |
| Markville SS | Secondary | Public YRDSB | Unionville | Address only, closed to transfers | 9.0 |
| Unionville HS | Secondary | Public YRDSB | Unionville | Address; arts by audition | 9.0 |
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best school in Markham?
On the Fraser Institute 2025 figures, St. Augustine Catholic High School at 10.0/10 and ranked 1st of 747 Ontario secondary schools. Among public secondary schools it is Pierre Elliott Trudeau at 9.5, ranked 6th. Bear in mind that these ratings are built from EQAO and OSSLT results alone.
Do I have to buy inside the catchment to get into Markville or Unionville?
Effectively yes for the regular academic stream. Both were enrolment-capped for 2025-26 and both remain closed to transfers for 2026-27, so an in-boundary address is the only reliable route. Unionville is different for its arts programme, which is audition-based.
How much more does a house in a top Markham catchment cost?
Nobody can tell you honestly. Every Markham-specific premium figure circulating online is either a decade old or realtor marketing with no stated methodology. The widely quoted GTA-wide figures of 20 to 36 per cent and up to $800,000 date from 2015 and 2017 respectively. Treat any precise Berczy or Unionville premium number with suspicion.
Are the Fraser Institute rankings reliable?
They are consistent and transparent about their method, but they are built from EQAO and OSSLT scores alone. They do not account for special education needs, English language learners or household income. Several school boards formally object to them on exactly those grounds. Use them as one input, not as a verdict on a school.
Is St. Robert Catholic High School in Markham?
Yes. St. Robert at 8101 Leslie Street is frequently marketed as a Thornhill or Vaughan school because the Fraser report prints its city as Thornhill. Thornhill straddles Yonge Street: west is Vaughan, east is Markham. St. Robert is on the Markham side.
- Fraser Institute, Report Card on Ontario’s Secondary Schools 2025 (published November 2025, 2023/24 data, 747 schools ranked)
- Fraser Institute, Report Card on Ontario’s Elementary Schools 2025 (published January 2026, 2023/24 data)
- compareschoolrankings.org
- York Region DSB, enrolment-capped secondary schools list
- York Region DSB school profiles and school locator
- Unionville High School, Arts Unionville programme pages
Ratings quoted are from the 2025 editions. Rankings are published annually and are contested by several Ontario school boards. Verify any individual figure at compareschoolrankings.org before relying on it, and confirm catchment boundaries with the board’s own address lookup.