Private School Bursaries in Australia: Which Schools Offer Means-Tested Fee Help (2026)

A bursary is help with school fees based on what your family can afford, not on a test score, and 20 of the 62 largest independent schools in Australia's capitals publish one that a new family can apply for. We read the scholarship, bursary and fee pages of the eight largest independent secondary schools in every capital (six in Darwin) on 9 October 2026. The pattern is sharp. Ten of the 18 schools billing $30,000 or more a year publish an open, means-tested bursary, against five of the 29 billing under $20,000, where help usually means a concession-card discount or relief for families who are already enrolled. And a half bursary at a $30,000-plus school still costs more than the full fee at most of the others.

Key takeaways

• 20 of 62 schools publish a bursary you can apply for before you enrol. Three more give a fixed discount to concession-card families, six help one group only, 25 help only families already at the school, and eight publish nothing.
• The dearer the school, the likelier the bursary: 10 of 18 schools at $30,000 or more, 2 of 5 at $20,000 to $29,999, 2 of 14 at $10,000 to $19,999 and 3 of 15 under $10,000.
• Nine schools publish help that can reach the full tuition fee: Barker, Hale, Pembroke, Haileybury, Brisbane Grammar, Newington, Radford, Trinity Grammar and Citipointe. Many of those full awards are single places, not offered every year, or limited to certain entry years.
• Half price is not cheap. After a 50% tuition bursary, Barker's Year 7 bill is $24,710, more than the full 2026 fee at 31 of the 52 schools whose fee we hold. The median full fee across those 52 is $17,431.
• Lower-fee schools often use a government card instead. Tyndale Christian School halves tuition for families with an SA School Card, Eastside Lutheran College takes 65% off for families approved under Tasmania's STAS scheme, and Swan Christian College gives 15% off to pension card holders.
• 2028 rounds open now. Haileybury opens on Monday 9 November 2026, Newington in mid-November, and Hale's Year 7 round from Friday 20 November 2026. Canberra Girls Grammar takes bursary applications all year.

What is a bursary, and how is it different from a scholarship?

A scholarship rewards a result; a bursary responds to need. Most schools award scholarships on a test, an audition or a portfolio, and the family's income does not come into it. A bursary starts from the other end: the school asks for your tax returns and expenses, and offers a share of the fee your family could not otherwise pay.

In practice the line is blurred, and the name on the award tells you little. Newington calls its means-tested awards Diversity and Social Justice Scholarships. Trinity Grammar in Sydney says "A number of means-tested scholarships are set aside for candidates who would be unable to afford the normal tuition fees." Hale, Prince Alfred College and St Peter's College in Adelaide attach a means test to scholarships that also need a test result. What matters is whether the school assesses your finances, and that is how we sorted the 62 schools.

Which schools publish a bursary a new family can apply for?

Twenty schools publish one, in every capital except Darwin. Values and dates are as each school printed them on 9 October 2026.

Two of these need a closer read. Carey's Access and Equity award is the most complete on paper: it covers tuition from Year 7 or 10 to Year 12, plus camps, excursions and a laptop, for students "experiencing financial disadvantage or hardship - subject to a financial assessment". Barker's Martire award reaches 100%, but the booklet says plainly that "This scholarship is not offered every year."

The dearer the school, the likelier a bursary

This is the pattern nobody publishes, and it runs against intuition. You might expect the cheapest schools to be the easiest to afford with help. In our data the help is concentrated at the expensive end.

One likely reason is funding. Bursaries at the large fee-charging schools are often funded by foundations and old-scholar donations: Brisbane Grammar's bursary fund was helping 28 students with 25% to 100% of tuition in December 2024, and Churchie's foundation has given $1.4 million to bursaries since 2008. Lower-fee schools rarely have that kind of fund. Their help is real but different: a payment plan, a concession-card discount, or hardship relief once your child is enrolled.

For families, that changes the search. If a $40,000 school is out of reach on paper, it may not be out of reach in practice. If a $7,000 school is the stretch, the help is more likely to be a payment arrangement than a bursary.

How far the published help goes

Nine schools publish help that can reach the whole tuition fee; the rest publish a lower ceiling or no figure at all.

Read the eligibility line before the percentage. Pembroke's 100% Community Scholarship is for new students entering Years 10 to 12 only. Hale's David Bean Scholarship starts at up to 50% and "may offer up to 100% remission of tuition fees subsequent to means testing". Scotch College in Perth says its Tàlantach award "can cover between 5–95% of tuition fees", and recipients are means tested every year to set the share.

Half price is not cheap

A bursary makes a dear school possible; it rarely makes it cheap. We took each school's 2026 Year 7 fee, halved the tuition, and added the compulsory levies a bursary usually does not touch.

• At Barker, a half bursary leaves $24,710 a year. That is more than the full 2026 fee at 31 of the 52 schools whose fee we hold.
• Every one of the eight half-price bills sits above the median full fee of $17,431.
• Levies stay at full price at most schools. Barker's compulsory charges add $3,560 to tuition, St Peter's College in Adelaide $2,780 and Canberra Girls Grammar $2,435. A 100% tuition bursary at those schools still leaves that much to pay, plus uniforms, devices and camps.

A few awards do reach past tuition. Carey's covers camps, excursions and a laptop, Citipointe's Equity Scholarship covers "tuition and other agreed expenses", and St Peter's College's Simon Ockley Bursary, for a boy living in the Wattle Range Council, covers 100% of tuition, the IT levy and fixed charges. Ask any school what its bursary leaves you to pay before you accept a place.

At lower-fee schools, a concession card can do the means test

Three schools tie their discount to a government card rather than their own assessment, which makes it quick to check.

• Tyndale Christian School, Adelaide, offers "50% discount off the Tuition Fee" for families eligible for the SA School Card. Its 2026 Middle School fee for a first child falls from $6,800 to $3,400. Families who miss out on School Card can get 15% off with a low-income Health Care Card.
• Eastside Lutheran College, Hobart, takes "65% discount off Standard Tuition Fee after STAS approved", meaning the Tasmanian Government's Student Assistance Scheme.
• Swan Christian College, Perth, gives a 15% tuition concession to families holding a current pension card.

If you hold a concession card, ask every school on your list whether it offers a card discount. Several of the 25 schools that only help enrolled families also take a card into account when they assess hardship.

Help for one group only

Six schools run means-tested awards limited to a particular group.

• Rural and remote boarders: Churchie offers boarding bursaries, "applied to boarding fees only", closing 31 March 2027. Caulfield Grammar runs W.S. Morcom Rural Boarding Scholarships, typically 25% to 50%, with EduTest registration by 19 October 2026. St Peters Lutheran College offers Year 10 Rural Leadership Scholarships to families more than 200 km away who could not otherwise consider the school.
• Refugee and First Nations students: Pymble Ladies' College runs a Foundation Bursary for refugee students (currently closed), and Haileybury Rendall School a means-tested Principal's Indigenous Scholarship. Caulfield also runs Humanitarian and Indigenous scholarships.
• Sons of old boys: Knox Grammar offers up to 50% of tuition to sons of Old Boys who could not attend without financial support, in the scholarship round that runs from 9 November 2026 to 4 February 2027.

Help that starts once you are enrolled

At 25 of the 62 schools, help exists but is for families already at the school. The Essington School in Darwin puts it most clearly: "We do not offer financial assistance to families who are not enrolled at the School to support an application for enrolment."

This is not a reason to rule a school out. Trinity Christian School in Canberra offers fee relief "after their first full year of enrolment", John Paul College's needs-based bursary is for "a current family of the College", and Al-Taqwa College's bursary needs a year at the school first. If your circumstances change after your child starts, these schools have a process; it just is not a way in.

The 25 schools are Malek Fahd, Al-Faisal and Amity in Sydney; Sirius, Penleigh and Essendon and Al-Taqwa in Melbourne; Mueller, John Paul and Groves in Brisbane; St Stephen's, St Mark's, Christ Church and John Septimus Roe in Perth; Concordia in Adelaide; Canberra Grammar, Marist, Burgmann and Trinity Christian in Canberra; Southern Christian and Tarremah in Hobart; and Good Shepherd, Essington, Palmerston, Marrara and Sattler in Darwin.

Eight schools publish nothing about fee help on their sites: Ilim and Ivanhoe in Melbourne, Genesis in Brisbane, the Australian Islamic College in Perth, Westminster in Adelaide, Brindabella in Canberra, and Hutchins and Fahan in Hobart. Ask the business office directly; a quiet bursary is common.

How the means test works

Expect to show the school your whole financial position, not just your income. None of the 20 open bursaries publishes an income cut-off. The documents they list are consistent:

• Tax returns. St Peter's College in Adelaide asks for ATO business and personal statements "for the past three financial years"; Daramalan asks for the most recent tax return and payslips.
• Assets, debts and spending. St Michael's Collegiate's form asks for income, weekly expenses, assets and liabilities; Woodcroft asks for tax assessments, payslips and rent or mortgage payments.
• An outside assessor. Brisbane Grammar and Canberra Girls Grammar both use Edstart, an external financial assessment provider, followed by a meeting with the school.
• A yearly review. Brisbane Grammar, Daramalan, St Michael's Collegiate and Pembroke all review bursaries each year, so a change in income can change the award.

Two rules catch families out. A bursary usually replaces other discounts: Haileybury says "We can't apply any reduction if siblings have been granted other forms of fee assistance", and Caulfield allows "only one concession or discount" per student. And many bursary schools still expect the child to clear the ordinary entry bar, often the same test the scholarship candidates sit.

When to apply for 2028 entry

Bursary deadlines are spread from October 2026 to June 2027, and a few never close. Dates are as published on 9 October 2026.

The fee side, from our own data

The 62 schools are the eight largest independent secondary schools by enrolment around each capital (six in Darwin), the same selection behind our private school fees by capital city guide. That guide holds each school's 2026 Year 7 fee, read at the school's own site. Our state fee pages list every school we hold: NSW, Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA, ACT, Tasmania and NT.

Bursary questions in Sydney are often about girls' schools. Our Sydney scholarships guide has a table of the bursaries at Sydney's girls' and Catholic schools, including Meriden, Roseville, Monte Sant' Angelo and Loreto Normanhurst.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a bursary and a scholarship? A scholarship is awarded on merit, usually a test, audition or portfolio. A bursary is awarded on financial need, after the school looks at your income, assets and expenses. Some schools blend the two, attaching a means test to a scholarship, so check how each award is assessed rather than what it is called.

Do bursaries cover the full school fee? Sometimes the full tuition fee, rarely everything. Nine of the 62 schools publish help that can reach 100% of tuition, but levies, uniforms, devices and camps are usually extra. Carey's Access and Equity award and St Peter's College's Simon Ockley Bursary are two that go further.

Is there an income limit for a private school bursary? None of the 20 schools with an open bursary publishes one. They assess the whole picture: tax returns, payslips, assets, debts and regular spending.

Can we apply for a bursary if our child is already enrolled? Yes at many schools. At 25 of the 62, help is only for current families, and several open bursaries also accept current students: Haileybury's, for students whose circumstances have changed, and Newington's.

Will a bursary affect our sibling discount? Often, yes. Haileybury will not apply a sibling reduction where a bursary or scholarship applies, and Caulfield allows only one concession or discount per student.

Related reading

• Private school fees by capital city (2026): the fee index behind this guide
• Help with school costs, state by state: government payments, allowances and fee waivers
• What six years of private school actually costs, and how families pay for it
• The complete guide to private school scholarships in Australia
• Private school scholarships in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth

How we checked. The 62 schools are the eight largest independent secondary schools by enrolment around each capital (six in Darwin), selected from AroundSchools school data. On 9 October 2026 we read each school's own scholarship, bursary, enrolment and fee pages, including fee schedule PDFs, and quote their wording. Fees are each school's published 2026 Year 7 figures from our capital-city fee index, read at source on 7 and 8 October 2026 and re-checked for 13 schools on 9 October; half-price bills are our arithmetic. Where a school's fee schedule or policy sits behind a login or request form, we place it with the schools that publish nothing and suggest you ask. Bursary terms change each year, so confirm with the school before you rely on a figure here.