The old brick Bank St School was opened in 1912. The current Sundance-Bank Elementary school main building was built in 1967 as an annex to Bank St School. In 1975, Bank St School ceased operating as a public school, and began to house the Victoria College of Art & Design, which operated in the building until the expiry of its lease in 2020.

In 1978, the Sundance Elementary alternative program moved from its original location at 2549 Quadra St to the old Bank St School annex, bringing its name along to the new location. In 2014, budgetary pressures led to the closure of Sundance Elementary, and for the next seven years, the annex building became the home of École Beausoleil, an elementary annex for students at École Victor-Brodeur operated by the Conseil Scolaire Francophone (British Columbia's Francophone school board.) 

In 2021, Sundance-Bank Elementary re-opened as a public elementary school entirely housed in the annex, and initially serving a cohort of Kindergarteners and Grade Oners living in the Oak Bay-Jubilee neighbourhood. Due to the condition of the original Bank St School structure, including the presence of asbestos and lead paint, and inadequate seismic safety, it has been closed and barricaded since the elementary school re-opened.

Each year since 2021, the original two cohorts have progressed through the grades, and new kindergarteners and their families have joined the school community. In fall 2024 and 2025, two new "learning studios" were opened on the school grounds to accommodate the growing enrolment. As of the 2025-26 school year, the school runs from Kindergarten to Grade 4, with the final growth to K-5 planned for 2026-27.

Growing into a new (old) school hasn't always been easy. While the school community includes some alumni from previous incarnations of Sundance, almost everybody—from teachers, to staff, to parents—is new to the school. We don't have the luxury of many of the materials and traditions that longer-running schools have built up over their decades in existence, giving us the opportunity to build these things from scratch, with the support of our community. For example, in Spring 2025, Grade 3 students sold freezies to raise funds for a set of age-appropriate basketball hoops. As the school expands to include Grade 3-5 sports like cross-country, and School District budgets are constrained, the PAC is committed to helping supply essentials like equipment and sports pinnies/uniforms.

To learn more about how you can help, click Get involved.

In 2024, the Greater Victoria School District initiated a public engagement process around the future of the school buildings. While official updates have been scarce, we understand that the District is planning to construct a purpose-built school on the grounds for the next generation of students in the Oak Bay-Jubilee neighbourhood. This will likely require students to bus to a temporary location for the duration of the construction. Based on the information provided by the District, renovating the existing buildings is not feasible.

With the school already at capacity and one more cohort of students on the way, the only option for temporary expansion is a third portable to supplement the four classrooms in the existing annex. As the process moves forward to build a suitable school for our community, the Sundance-Bank parents look forward to painting some of our own brushstrokes on this future vision.