The country’s richest schools have been revealed, with the top five in several states having more money than the bottom 300 combined, exposing a major wealth divide between public and private schools.
In exclusive analysis of five years’ worth of financial data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s MySchool database, we ranked schools based on wealth in each state, combining gross income – including fees, government funding, and other sources such as donations.
Find out the top 5 in your state below, and click through to see where your school ranks.
NSW
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The richest school in NSW has banked more money in fees, funding and donations from its wealthy donors over the last five years than the total economic output of five of Australia’s island neighbours.
Knox Grammar School in Sydney’s Upper North Shore brought in $536,440,456 across five years, and increased their revenue by 14.20 per cent from 2017 to 2021. The enormous sum surpasses the GDP of five Pacific island countries in 2021; Tuvalu ($US63.10m), Nauru ($US133.22m), Kiribati ($US207.03m), Palau ($US217.80m) and the Marshall Islands ($US259.54m).
So extreme is the contrast in wealth, Knox’s 2021 income of $112.75 million eclipsed Tuvalu’s GDP in one year alone. On a per capita basis, each Knox student attracts $35,500 – five times as much wealth as one Tuvaluan.
In 2021, the most recent year for which figures are available, the school’s 3176 students were paid out $3811 each by the state and federal governments, with the school receiving a total $12,101,144 in public money.
Non-government schools account for the 56 richest in the state. Cherrybrook Technology High School, a comprehensive secondary school in Sydney’s northwest, is the highest-earning public school over the five year period, amassing $131,029,343 after gleaning nearly $3 million from parents and private sources in 2017 alone.
Top 5 richest NSW schools:
• Knox Grammar School, Wahroonga
• Sydney Grammar School, Darlinghurst
• Barker College, Hornsby
• The Scots College, Bellevue Hill
• Pymble Ladies’ College, Pymble
VICTORIA
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Victoria’s richest school has more money than the poorest 300 combined, new data shows.
Haileybury College, which has 3000 students and a combined five-year income of $677m, has vast funds compared to Glen Park Primary, which has just six students and received just $1.3m over the same period.
However, hundreds of Victorian state schools receive more money per student from the government than the top private schools funded by parents.
Students at Ultima Primary School in the state’s north had an average of $248,000 spent meeting their educational needs, along with 29 other state schools with more than $50,000 spent on each student.
The highest-funding private school per student is Christ Church Grammar, which spends $50,154 a year, followed by Korowa Anglican Girls’ School on $42,759 and Melbourne Grammar on $41,065.
Top 5 richest Victorian schools:
• Haileybury College, Keysborough
• Wesley College, Melbourne
• Caulfield Grammar School, St Kilda East
• Carey Baptist Grammar School, Kew
• Ivanhoe Grammar School, Ivanhoe
QUEENSLAND
See where your Queensland school ranks here
Queensland’s top five richest schools made more money in five years than the poorest 300 combined, exposing a major wealth divide between public and private schools.
In an exclusive analysis, The Courier-Mail collated five years’ worth of financial data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s MySchool database.
The data ranked more than 1600 Queensland schools based on 2017-2021 combined gross income – including fees, government funding, and other sources such as donations.
The funding gulf has triggered renewed calls for the state and federal governments to negotiate to get state school funding up to 100 per cent of the School Resourcing Standard – which was a key recommendation in the Gonski Reviews.
The National School Reform agreement between states and the federal government will expire in December. It includes the allocation of state and federal funding in schools. Experts say the education sector now has the opportunity to balance the government’s school funding model.
The combined gross income for these five schools in 2017-2021 was $1.33 billion.
The combined five-year gross income for the state’s 300 poorest schools was $1.06 billion.
Top 5 richest Queensland schools:
• Brisbane Grammar School, Brisbane
• Anglican Church Grammar School, East Brisbane
• St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly
• King’s Christian College, Reedy Creek
• Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Brisbane
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
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The state’s wealthiest inner-city colleges are raking in up to 100 times more than some small, cash-strapped schools in the country.
All-boys’ St Peter’s College, which charges $29,450 in year 12 and spans across 32 hectares of “magnificent grounds” at St Peters on the edge of the CBD, boasts a five-year gross income of almost a quarter of a billion dollars.
In contrast, at fee-free Port Neill Primary School, in the small coastal town on the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula, the gross income during the same time frame was just over $2.5 million.
An independent analysis of school financial records from the MySchool website reveals huge disparities in school coffers across the state.
Nazareth Catholic College’s senior campus at Findon Park sits fourth with a five-year gross income of $172,608,378, which represents a 35 per cent growth on the five years prior.
Principal Andrew Baker says the healthy figures reflect his school’s enrolment growth with no increase in school fees in the past three years.
Top 5 richest South Australian schools:
• St Peter’s College, St Peters
• Sacred Heart College, Somerton Park
• Westminster School, Marion
• Nazareth Catholic College – Findon Campus, Findon
• Prince Alfred College, Kent Town
TASMANIA
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Tasmania’s richest school has raked in more than $158.3 million in five years with an average cost per student of $29,070, tightly held school statistics reveal.
An independent analysis of school financial records from the MySchool website have shown the massive amount of money some schools make every year, and how little some schools are forced to scrape by on.
The figures revealed The Friends’ School in North Hobart had a higher gross income than any other school in Tasmania.
On the other end of the scale, Cape Barren Island School had the lowest gross income of any school in Tasmania, making just $2.3 million over the five year period.
Top 5 richest Tasmania schools:
• The Friends’ School, North Hobart
• St Patrick’s College, Prospect Vale
• Scotch Oakburn College, Newstead
• The Hutchins School, Sandy Bay
• Launceston College, Launceston
NORTHERN TERRITORY
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MySchool data has revealed Darwin High School had a higher gross income than any other school in the Northern Territory.
The school made a gross income of $118.1m, according to combined financial records from the past five years
The region’s second richest school was Taminmin College which had a gross income of $118m.
Tipperary Station School had the lowest gross income of any school in the Northern Territory making just $2.1m over the five-year period.
Top 5 richest NT schools:
• Darwin High School, The Gardens
• Taminmin College, Humpty Doo
• Good Shepherd Lutheran College, Howard Springs
• Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thamarrurr Catholic College, Wadeye
• The Essington School, Rapid Creek
ACT
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Australian Capital Territory and the NSW border region’s richest school has raked in more than $283.3 million in five years with an average cost per student of $31,604, tightly held school statistics reveal.
The figures reveal Canberra Grammar School at Red Hill had a higher gross income than any other school in the Australian Capital Territory region.
The school made a gross income of $283.3m, according to financial records from the combined past five years.
The school’s income increased by 48 per cent between 2017 and 2021.
The region’s second richest school was Radford College at Bruce, which had a gross income of $228.2m. Its total gross income per student in 2021 was $24,077.
Top 5 richest ACT schools:
• Canberra Grammar School, Red Hill
• Radford College, Bruce
• Canberra Girls Grammar School, Deakin
• St Mary MacKillop College, Isabella Plains
• Marist College Canberra, Pearce
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
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Western Australia’s richest school was Christ Church Grammar School at Claremont which raked in $306 million across five years. That represented at 13 per cent decline.
Top 5 richest WA schools:
• Christ Church Grammar School, Claremont
• Hale School, Wembley Downs
• Scotch College, Swanbourne
• St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School, Karrinyup
• St Stephen’s School, Duncraig
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