Brunswick Forest addresses are assigned to Town Creek Elementary, Town Creek Middle and North Brunswick High, and the two Town Creek schools are the stronger half of that run. Town Creek Middle exceeded its growth expectation in 2025-26 while North Brunswick High did not, so the honest answer depends on how old your kids are.
This is one of the first questions we get from families relocating to Leland, and it is also one of the easiest to get wrong. Brunswick Forest spans more than 4,500 acres along US 17, so people assume it must feed the schools with Leland in the name. It does not. We checked four Brunswick Forest addresses on different sides of the community in Brunswick County Schools’ own address lookup on November 3, 2026, and all four came back the same: Town Creek Elementary, Town Creek Middle, North Brunswick High.
If you have seen Leland Elementary or Leland Middle attached to a Brunswick Forest listing, that is worth checking before you fall in love with a floor plan. Listing feeds and community pages repeat school names that are close by rather than assigned, and the only answer that counts is the one the district gives for your exact address. Our Brunswick Forest community guide walks through the rest of what the community is like.
What the 2025-26 state data says about each school
North Carolina releases a school-by-school data file every fall. The 2025-26 numbers below come from the NC Department of Public Instruction’s own school assessment and indicator data set, which we downloaded and read on November 3, 2026. Grade-level proficiency means the share of tests scoring Level 3 or above. Growth is a separate measure that compares how much students learned against what the state expected of them, and it is the number we tell parents to watch, because it describes the school rather than the neighborhood’s income.
- Town Creek Elementary: 71.1 percent grade-level proficient across 1,111 end-of-grade tests; 75.5 percent in math, 64.3 percent in reading; growth Met, index 0.40 NC DPI 2025-26 school assessment and indicator data, read November 3 2026
- Town Creek Middle: 58.2 percent proficient across 1,015 tests; growth Exceeded, index 2.65, with reading 2.29 and math 2.06 NC DPI 2025-26 school assessment and indicator data, read November 3 2026
- North Brunswick High: 60.3 percent proficient across 1,523 end-of-course tests; four-year graduation rate 89.7 percent; growth Not Met, index -3.17 NC DPI 2025-26 school assessment and indicator data, read November 3 2026
- Statewide for comparison: 73.0 percent of all North Carolina schools met or exceeded growth in 2025-26, and the state four-year graduation rate was 88.8 percent NC DPI 2025-26 Annual Testing Report
Read together, that is a run of schools that starts solid, peaks in the middle grades and gets shakier in high school. Town Creek Elementary is comfortably above the state average in math and close to it in reading, and it met its growth expectation. Town Creek Middle has lower raw proficiency, which is normal for middle grades everywhere, but it exceeded growth in reading and in math, which means students there gained more than the state predicted. That combination is what a school on the way up looks like.
The high school is the part to look at hard
North Brunswick High beats the state on some lines and trails it on others. Its four-year graduation rate of 89.7 percent is a little above the statewide 88.8 percent, NC Math 3 proficiency of 75.5 percent is well above the state’s 68.9 percent, and Biology at 62.4 percent beats the state’s 58.5 percent. NC Math 1 at 41.6 percent sits right at the state’s 42.1 percent. All of those are from the same 2025-26 DPI file.
The number that gives us pause is growth. North Brunswick’s overall growth index for 2025-26 was -3.17, which the state classifies as Not Met, in a year when 73.0 percent of North Carolina schools met or exceeded growth. One year of growth data is not a verdict on a school, and growth bounces around more than proficiency does, especially at high schools where the measure rests on fewer tested courses. But if you are moving a rising ninth grader, that is the line to ask the principal about rather than the line to ignore.
How far are the schools from Brunswick Forest?
Farther than most buyers expect. The district’s lookup reports driving distance from each address to each assigned school. From the Brunswick Forest addresses we checked, Town Creek Elementary came back between 7.7 and 8.9 miles, Town Creek Middle between 7.9 and 9.1 miles, and North Brunswick High between 5.0 and 7.9 miles depending on where in the community the house sits. Town Creek Elementary and Town Creek Middle sit next to each other on US 17 toward Winnabow, south of the community.
That is a real bus ride, and it is longer for a kindergartner than the mileage suggests once you add stops. Families who care about a short school run tend to look at where in Brunswick Forest they buy, because the spread between the near and far ends of the community is better than a mile of it. We walk buyers through that street by street, the same way we do with the rest of Leland.
What changes in 2028
Brunswick County Schools is building a new elementary school in Leland on a 64-acre site in the Jackey’s Creek area, approved as part of a project of nearly $100 million, with 750 seats and an expected opening in the 2028-29 school year, according to WECT’s July 16, 2025 report on the board vote. In the same coverage the superintendent said every Brunswick County school is projected to be over capacity within ten years and that attendance lines have not been finalized, so some families will change schools.
For a buyer, that cuts both ways. A new elementary school eight miles closer than Town Creek would be a genuine improvement for Brunswick Forest families. It also means the assignment you buy into today is not guaranteed to be the assignment your second grader finishes in.
School quality is the one factor in a home search where our opinion should carry the least weight. We can tell you what the state data says and which address feeds which school, and we have done both above. We cannot tell you whether a 58.2 percent proficiency rate with strong growth beats a higher-scoring school with flat growth for your particular child, and any agent who answers that confidently is selling you something. The other honest limit: this is one year of data. If the high school’s growth number recovers in the 2026-27 release, the picture changes. Go tour the buildings, ask about the rising ninth grade specifically, and treat our numbers as the start of that conversation rather than the end of it.
Related questions people also ask
Does Brunswick Forest feed into Leland Middle School?
Not for any of the addresses we checked. Four Brunswick Forest addresses run through Brunswick County Schools’ own address lookup on November 3, 2026 all returned Town Creek Middle for grades six through eight, not Leland Middle. Listing sites and community marketing pages sometimes name Leland Elementary and Leland Middle because they are nearby, but proximity is not assignment in Brunswick County. Run your specific street address through the district’s lookup before you write an offer.
How long is the bus ride from Brunswick Forest to Town Creek Elementary?
The district’s lookup reports driving distance rather than ride time, and for the Brunswick Forest addresses we checked on November 3, 2026 it came back between 7.7 and 8.9 miles to Town Creek Elementary. A bus covering that distance with stops takes considerably longer than a car would, so ask the district’s transportation office for the actual route and pickup window for the street you are considering. Families who want a shorter run sometimes drive their own children in the elementary years.
Will Brunswick Forest’s school assignments change before my kids graduate?
Possibly, and the district has said as much. WECT reported on July 16, 2025 that the school board approved a new 750-seat elementary school in the Jackey’s Creek area of Leland, expected to open in the 2028-29 school year, and that attendance lines had not been finalized, with the superintendent noting some families may have to switch schools. Growth in Leland is the reason, and it is not slowing. Buy the house and the neighborhood first, and treat the current assignment as accurate rather than permanent.
Before you tour, send us the two or three Brunswick Forest streets you are considering and we will run each one through the district lookup, pull the current state data on whatever school comes back, and tell you how far the bus actually goes from each. If you would rather talk it through first, schedule a consultation and we will walk the schools question and the rest of the Leland picture with you in one sitting.
Sources: Brunswick County Schools address and school eligibility lookup (Edulog WebQuery, edutracker.bcswan.net), four Brunswick Forest addresses checked November 3, 2026; NC Department of Public Instruction, 2025-26 School Assessment and Other Indicator Data and 2025-26 Annual Testing Report, read November 3, 2026; WECT, Brunswick County School Board moves forward with new Leland elementary school, July 16, 2025; Tidal Realty Partners Brunswick Forest and Leland community guides.
