Elite school that costs $52k to attend

Independent high schools across the country are increasing their fees for 2025, with one school charging more than $52,000 for a single year 12 student.

Despite their high fees, independent schools still receive sizeable public money, while public schools say they are underresourced.

The most expensive school in Australia, Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, counts King Charles among its alumni and will charge more than $52,000 for a year 12 student in 2025. While this fee includes lunch and dinner for its students, it’s an increase of 5.1 per cent and well above annual headline inflation.

Geelong Grammar School in 2023 received $7028 in annual recurrent government funding for each student, accounting for more than $9.6m or about 16 per cent of its income. The school in 2023 spent more than $2.6m on capital expenditure across its coeducational boarding campuses, with the school saying all income “is to enable the ongoing provision of an exceptional holistic education for all students and to fund the sustainability of the school”.

Australian Education Union (AEU) data found that in 2024 there were significant reports of underresourcing at Victorian public schools.

In a survey of more than 1300 public school staff, more than 80 per cent of teachers and principals reported teacher shortages at their schools.

The union found on a federal level what the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) describes as “a staggering $30bn funding gulf between the nation’s public and private schools” in relation to capital expenditure.

“The federal government has continued to administer policies and provide funding to programs that have helped deliver Olympic-standard swimming pools, gymnasiums and performing arts centres to private schools,” the NSWTF said in 2024.

The Kings’ School at Parramatta in Sydney’s west will charge more than $47,000 in 2025, an increase of 8 per cent on 2024. In 2005, this number was $18,225.

The school reports annual government funding for each year 12 student at $7678.

A dozen Sydney independent schools will charge more than $45,000 in fees and mandatory levies this year.

While federal and state governments provide more funding per student to public schools, these schools have little ability to secure further funding through fees and levies compared with private schools.

Government funding per student is determined by the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), a government estimate of how much public funding it takes for a school to meet the educational needs of its students.

Responding to a 2024 report that found the funding gap between public and private schools was worsening in NSW, AEU president Correna Haythorpe said “this unfair private school funding advantage” was putting public schools at further risk.

“Some private schools in NSW are receiving up to $6219 per student more in government funding than similar public schools with very similar student profiles. In some cases, those schools are just around the corner from each other,” she said.

“The challenges are too great and the cost of inaction too high for governments to continue to fail on funding.”