The Most Expensive Schools in Australia in 2026: the Top 20 by Year 12 Fees

The most expensive school in Australia in 2026 is Geelong Grammar School in Victoria: $55,796 for Year 12. Geelong Grammar has no day-only option in Years 10 to 12, so that figure is its cheapest senior place: a "day boarder", whose fee covers tuition, evening study, and lunch and dinner on school days, but no accommodation. For an ordinary day place, the dearest is The Scots College in Sydney at $54,822, ahead of SCEGGS Darlinghurst ($52,806) and Cranbrook ($52,470). Add full boarding and the biggest bill is Cranbrook's: $99,072 for a Year 12 boarder.

We read the 2026 fee schedules of 70 high-fee schools on 16 October 2026 and ranked them on one comparable number: what a family must pay for a Year 12 student who does not board. Every figure comes from the school's own fee schedule. Where a school no longer links its 2026 schedule — because it has moved on to 2027, or gives the schedule to families directly — we read the school's own 2026 document from its website files or from the Internet Archive's copy. This is a list of prices, not of quality. It says nothing about which school is better.

Key takeaways

• Geelong Grammar is the dearest school in Australia in 2026, at $55,796 for a Year 12 day boarder — $974 more than The Scots College, the dearest ordinary day place ($54,822).
• NSW and Victoria own the list. 17 of the 20 dearest schools are in NSW and three are in Victoria. Queensland's dearest, Brisbane Grammar ($37,960), sits 51st of the 70 schools we checked.
• Boarding nearly doubles the bill. Boarding fees run from $28,580 to $46,602 a year, and 20 schools bill a Year 12 boarder more than $80,000.
• Six years tells a different story. Geelong Grammar's Years 7–12 bill is $354,028 at 2026 prices, because every student boards at its Timbertop campus in Year 9. The Scots College is second at $339,215.
• 2027 fees are already out, about 5.5% higher. Across nine schools that have published both years, the median rise is 5.5%. Geelong Grammar's 2027 Year 12 day-boarder fee is $58,758.

Which are the 20 most expensive schools in Australia in 2026?

All 20 charge more than $47,200 a year for Year 12, and the median is $49,465. The figure is the compulsory annual cost for an Australian-resident student who does not board: tuition plus every levy the school says is compulsory. Voluntary building-fund donations, one-off enrolment fees, uniforms and optional camps are left out.

Per school week spreads the annual cost over a 40-week school year. Next on the list: St Catherine's School, Waverley ($47,059), The King David School ($46,988), St Andrew's Cathedral School ($46,973) and Mount Scopus Memorial College ($46,945).

At the top of the list, a Year 12 place costs about $1,300 to $1,400 for every week your child is at school.

Why is Geelong Grammar's figure a "day boarder" fee?

From Year 10, Geelong Grammar's fee schedule offers only day boarding or full boarding, so $55,796 is the least a Year 12 family can pay there. The day-boarder fee includes tuition, evening study support, and lunch and dinner five days a week; accommodation is included only for full boarders. Its Year 7 and 8 day fee is lower, at $45,956 including GST, and every student spends Year 9 boarding at the school's Timbertop campus.

Are any schools missing?

Four high-fee schools do not have a 2026 schedule that a parent can read in full, so they are not ranked. Ask the school for its fee schedule:

• PLC Sydney — the most recent college fee schedule it has published is for 2024.
• St Aloysius' College — fees are not published on its website.
• Wesley College, Melbourne — its 2026 tuition was $45,206 for Years 10–12, but the 2026 amounts of its compulsory infrastructure levy and consolidated charge are no longer published. Its 2027 total is in the table below.
• Scotch College, Melbourne — only its 2027 schedule is online ($47,853 for Years 9–12).

What does boarding add to the bill?

Boarding costs between $28,580 and $46,602 a year on top of the non-boarding fee at the 42 boarding schools we checked, with a median of $35,170. At the top of the market, that turns a $50,000 place into a bill close to $100,000.

The table shows a selection; across all the schools we checked, 20 bill a Year 12 boarder more than $80,000, including Barker, Ravenswood, Kambala, Frensham and Pymble. Geelong Grammar prints one all-in full-boarding fee for Years 10–12: $93,840 plus $888 GST, or $94,728. The "what boarding adds" figure is the difference from its day-boarder fee. Wenona bills Year 12 boarding over three terms, so its Year 12 boarder total ($85,056) is lower than its Year 11 total ($90,304).

Two things stand out. First, boarding fees vary far less than day fees. Across the country the boarding fee stays between about $28,500 and $47,000, so in Perth, Adelaide and Canberra it is close to the size of the day fee. A boarder in Perth or Adelaide pays nearly double the day price, not a small extra.

Second, one Sydney school prices boarding very differently. St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill lists $66,816 all-in for a boarder, only $19,107 more than its day fee. Its day fee already includes meals and supervised study until 8pm, which narrows the gap.

Does the government help with boarding costs?

Yes, for families who live far from a school: the federal Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Boarding Allowance pays up to $13,582 per child in 2026. That is a $10,555 basic amount plus up to $3,027 more, which depends on family income and the boarding fees you pay. It is not taxed and can be paid straight to the school.

At Cranbrook, the full allowance covers 29% of the boarding fee; at Riverview, where boarding is $29,565, it covers 46%. Eligibility depends on isolation conditions — for example, your child is geographically isolated or has no reasonable access to a suitable school — so check it with Services Australia's AIC rates page before you budget. For girls' schools that take boarders, our state-by-state list of girls' boarding schools has the full set.

What does six years of high school cost at these schools?

Over Years 7 to 12, the dearest bill is Geelong Grammar's $354,028 at 2026 prices, because its compulsory Year 9 at Timbertop is a full-boarding year ($94,728). The Scots College is second at $339,215, which includes the cheaper of its two Year 9 outdoor programs for day students. Sydney Grammar is third at $314,460 — even though it is only fifth on the Year 12 fee — because it bills the same $52,410 in every year.

The order shifts further down the list too. Redlands moves from 19th on the Year 12 fee to 10th over six years, because its Year 9 total of $54,050 includes a compulsory residential program. Trinity Grammar drops from 6th to 13th and The King's School from 8th to 12th, because their Year 7 to 10 fees are lower. Reddam House goes from 11th to 17th, because its Years 7 and 8 cost $43,915.

These six-year totals use 2026 fees for every year. Fees rise most years, so a child starting Year 7 in 2027 will pay more than these figures. Our guide to how families pay for six years of private school works through what that means for a household budget, and the Year 7 cliff shows where fees jump most.

Have 2027 fees been published yet?

Yes — by mid-October 2026, 12 of the 23 Melbourne and Geelong schools we checked showed only a 2027 schedule, and so did The King's School in Sydney and Canberra Grammar. Most of those 2027 schedules were posted in September 2026. If you are enrolling for 2027, ask for the new schedule, not last year's.

For the nine schools where we could compare the same fee in both years, the median rise for 2027 is 5.5%, ranging from 4.8% at The King's School to 7.9% at Camberwell Girls Grammar.

Geelong Grammar's 2027 full-boarding fee is $98,820 plus $936 GST, or $99,756 — the highest figure on any schedule we read.

Why are NSW and Victoria so far ahead of every other state?

The dearest Year 12 fee we found outside NSW and Victoria is $37,960, at Brisbane Grammar — $16,862 less than The Scots College and $17,836 less than Geelong Grammar. Perth's dearest is PLC at $37,872, Canberra's is Canberra Girls Grammar at $34,905 and Adelaide's is St Peter's College at $34,760.

That gap matches what we found when we looked at the typical school rather than the dearest. In our comparison of private school fees by capital city, the median Year 7 cost at Sydney's biggest independent schools was $45,402, against $6,765 in Darwin — and over half of the 52 schools in that study billed under $20,000. A $50,000 fee is the high end of the market, not what a typical private school costs.

For the full picture in each city, see our fee comparisons for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra, or browse every school that publishes fees on our school fees pages.

Can you pay less than the sticker price?

Often, yes — the dearer the school, the more likely it is to publish a means-tested bursary. In our bursary study, 10 of the 18 schools billing $30,000 or more offered an open, means-tested bursary, against 5 of the 29 billing under $20,000. Several schools in this top 20 also publish:

• A discount for paying the year upfront — for 2026, Wenona offered 3%, Kincoppal-Rose Bay and Redlands 2.5%, if the year was paid before it began. Ask whether the 2027 schedule repeats it.
• Sibling discounts, usually 5% to 20% for second and later children; Ascham's is smaller, at 1.5% of tuition.
• Scholarships with test dates for 2028 entry — see our list of 20 schools offering scholarships.

Ask each school what applies to your family before you compare totals. The discount rules are on each school's fee schedule.

How we checked these fees

On 16 October 2026 we read the 2026 domestic fee schedule of every school above in the school's own PDF or on its own fees page, and re-read the highest figures ourselves. Some schools no longer link their 2026 schedule from their fees page. For those, we read the school's own 2026 document either from its website files — The Scots College, Ascham, Wenona and Melbourne Girls Grammar still host theirs — or from the Internet Archive's saved copy, as for Geelong Grammar, The King's School and Lauriston. We started from the schools with the highest senior fees in our directory, added the high-fee independent schools families most often ask about in every capital, and ranked only schools whose 2026 schedule we could read. The ranking uses Year 12; the six-year totals add each year level's 2026 figure. Boarding figures are the Year 12 full-boarding fee for an Australian resident. Kambala and Kincoppal-Rose Bay list compulsory charges whose amounts are not printed in full, and Ascham bills compulsory camps and excursions at cost, so their real totals are a little higher than shown.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most expensive school in Australia?

Geelong Grammar School in Victoria. In 2026 its cheapest Year 12 place, as a day boarder, costs $55,796, and full boarding costs $94,728. For an ordinary day place, The Scots College in Sydney is dearest at $54,822. The biggest Year 12 boarding bill is Cranbrook's, at $99,072.

What is the most expensive school in Sydney?

The Scots College, at $54,822 for Year 12 in 2026 including its compulsory IT fee, followed by SCEGGS Darlinghurst ($52,806) and Cranbrook ($52,470). The King's School has already published 2027 fees: $52,380 Year 12 tuition.

What is the most expensive school in Melbourne?

In Victoria, Geelong Grammar near Geelong is the most expensive. Within Melbourne, the highest 2026 Year 12 figure we could read is St Catherine's School in Toorak, at $49,300, followed by Melbourne Girls Grammar at $47,524. Wesley College's 2026 levies are no longer published; for 2027, its Year 12 total of $52,574 is the highest Melbourne figure published so far.

How much does boarding school cost in Australia?

At the schools we checked, boarding adds about $28,500 to $46,600 a year. Among the schools in our boarding table, a Year 12 boarder's total runs from $66,620 at St Peter's College, Adelaide to $99,072 at Cranbrook in Sydney.

Do the most expensive schools get government funding?

Yes. Non-government schools in Australia receive Commonwealth and state funding per student, which is why international students at these schools pay higher fees than Australian residents. Ask the school for its domestic fee schedule.

Does a higher fee mean a better education?

This list measures price only. It does not rank teaching, wellbeing or results. Visit, ask questions and compare what each fee includes — our questions to ask on a school tour are a good starting point.

Related reading

• Private School Fees by Capital City (2026)
• Sydney Private School Fees 2026: Cheapest to Most Expensive
• Private School Bursaries in Australia
• Girls' Boarding Schools in Australia, State by State

Fees as published by each school for 2026 (and for 2027 where marked), read on 16 October 2026. Schools change fees each year; check the school's current schedule before you enrol. Cite this: AroundSchools, "The Most Expensive Schools in Australia in 2026", aroundschools.com.au.