Private School Scholarships in Brisbane: the 2028 Entry Calendar

If your child is sitting a Brisbane scholarship test for a 2028 start, the date to put in the diary is Sunday 7 February 2027: registration closes that night for ACER's shared scholarship test, held on Saturday 27 February 2027. We read the scholarship pages of the 36 largest non-government secondary schools within 15 km of the Brisbane CBD on 9 October 2026, and seven of them print that 27 February date on their own sites. One sitting can send your child's result to up to six schools. The exceptions matter just as much: two schools run their own EduTest days, Churchie has already closed its Year 7 round for 2028, and five schools say they offer no scholarships at all; four of them run means-tested bursaries instead.

Key takeaways

• 9 of the 36 schools have published 2028-entry dates. Another 13 run scholarships but had not yet posted 2028 dates on 9 October 2026, 5 say they offer no scholarships, and 9 publish no scholarship program.
• One Saturday does most of the work. ACER's shared test is on Saturday 27 February 2027, and registration closes at midnight AEDT on Sunday 7 February 2027, which is 11pm in Brisbane. Brisbane Grammar, Brisbane Boys' College, St Margaret's, Gregory Terrace, Nudgee, Stuartholme and Loreto Coorparoo all print the test date themselves.
• The first deadline comes earlier. St Peters Lutheran College closes EduTest registrations at 9am on Wednesday 3 February 2027, for its own exam on Saturday 13 February 2027.
• Churchie's Year 7 round for 2028 has already closed. It tested in February 2026, two years ahead of entry.
• Five schools offer no scholarships: Brisbane Girls Grammar, All Hallows', St Rita's, Villanova and Iona. Four of them run means-tested bursaries that can cover the full tuition fee.
• A 50% award is not one number. At Gregory Terrace it is worth $12,107 a year at 2026 tuition, or $72,642 across Years 7 to 12. At Brigidine, half tuition is worth $5,346.

What closes first?

Nine schools have published dated 2028 rounds, and seven of them sit on the ACER timetable. Every date below was read on the school's own scholarship page or 2028 guidelines on 9 October 2026.

The academic rounds are not the only deadlines. Stuartholme's music, drama, visual art and sport awards close on Wednesday 3 March 2027. Brisbane Boys' College takes 2028 music applications until 4 May 2027. St Peters Lutheran College's music awards close with its academic round on 3 February, and its boarding scholarships for rural and remote families, worth up to 20% of tuition, close on 1 June 2027. Brisbane Grammar's sport, cultural and bursary applications for 2028 close on Friday 18 June 2027.

Brisbane Boys' College also sets its interview day in advance: shortlisted boys are interviewed on Wednesday 31 March 2027.

Why one Saturday matters so much in Brisbane

Brisbane runs on ACER's shared test, which is the opposite of Melbourne. ACER's Cooperative Program sets one Saturday in February for its member schools. In ACER's own words, "Candidates may register for up to six schools." and "The candidate will sit the test once and have their results reported to all schools within the cooperative program to which they have applied."

For a family applying to several of the seven schools that print 27 February, that is one paper, one morning and one registration fee per school rather than several separate exams. Our Melbourne scholarships guide shows how different the other model is: most Victorian schools set their own dates, and a high mark at one school goes nowhere else.

Two practical details catch Brisbane families out:

• The deadline is in New South Wales time. ACER's registration closes at "midnight AEDT Sunday the 7th of February 2027". Queensland does not use daylight saving, so that is 11pm on Sunday in Brisbane. St Margaret's page uses the same southern-time wording.
• ACER's participating-schools list updates school by school. On 9 October it still showed some Brisbane schools with their 2026 dates. Trust the school's own page over the list, and register through the link the school gives you.

If you have not looked at the test itself yet, our comparison of ACER, EduTest and Academic Assessment Services sets the three formats side by side.

The EduTest schools run their own Saturdays

Five schools in the 36 name EduTest instead of ACER, and none of them shares a sitting with another. Four have said when their 2028 round runs:

• St Peters Lutheran College examines on Saturday 13 February 2027 at its Indooroopilly campus, with registration closing at 9am on Wednesday 3 February 2027. Its guidelines say its scholarships "are available free of means testing", and that the college "does not offer 100% scholarships".
• Northside Christian College tests on Saturday 6 March 2027, with registrations opening in late Term 4 2026. It offers up to four scholarships, each typically up to 40% of tuition.
• Cannon Hill Anglican College says its Year 7 2028 registrations "will open later in 2026", with the exam "in the first quarter of 2027". Awards go up to 50% of tuition.
• Citipointe Christian College opens applications for Year 7 entry in 2028 and 2029 in January 2027, for awards of up to 50% of tuition.

The fifth, Prince of Peace Lutheran College, still shows its 2027-entry round.

Churchie is the third model. It prefers the Academic Assessment Services test and accepts ACER results, saying "While we prefer AAS, we regularly award scholarships to boys who have only sat the ACER exam."

Churchie: the Year 7 round for 2028 has already closed

Anglican Church Grammar School tests two years ahead of Year 7. Its page reads: "Applications have now closed for students entering Years 7 to 11 in 2027, and for students entering Year 7 in 2028." Students sit Churchie's test from Year 5, and the school says it often makes between 12 and 15 offers a year.

Its next round, which the page says "will open in late 2026", is listed as "2028 testing". Ask the school which entry years that round covers before you register. The lesson for families with younger children is the same one Melbourne teaches: for some schools the planning horizon is closer to two years than one. Citipointe works the same way, opening its January 2027 round to students entering Year 7 in either 2028 or 2029.

Thirteen schools that will publish 2028 dates later

These schools run scholarships but had not posted 2028 dates on 9 October 2026. Several still show last year's round, which is the best guide to the shape of the next one, but not to its dates.

Last year's pattern is a fair guide to timing. St Aidan's, Brigidine and Lourdes Hill all closed their 2027-entry rounds on 8 February 2026, in line with ACER's 2026 deadline, and Prince of Peace examined on 28 March 2026. If you are interested in one of these schools, ring the enrolments office now and ask to be told when 2028 registration opens.

Five schools that offer no scholarships, and what they offer instead

Brisbane is unusual in how many well-known schools have stepped away from merit scholarships altogether. Five of the 36 say so on their own sites:

• Brisbane Girls Grammar School: "Girls Grammar does not offer scholarships." Its means-tested bursaries "cover up to 100 per cent of tuition fees (only)" and run until the student finishes at the school.
• All Hallows' School: "All Hallows' School does not offer scholarships." Its Catherine McAuley Bursary is means-tested and covers 20% to 100% of tuition, generally from Year 7.
• St Rita's College, Clayfield: "St Rita's College does not offer scholarships." Its bursaries cover 25% to 100% of tuition, are all means tested, and take applications all year from families who have lodged an enrolment. They recognise music (AMEB Grade 5 or higher) and sport (state representation) as well as need.
• Villanova College, Coorparoo: "The College does not offer scholarships." Its Terry Hendle Bursary gives full or partial tuition support based on financial need, reviewed each year.
• Iona College, Lindum: "we do not offer scholarships for entry". Its inclusive fee for one student in 2026 is $13,784.

The contrast is sharp. Four schools with merit scholarships say plainly that they offer no 100% awards: St Peters Lutheran, Stuartholme, Nudgee and Prince of Peace. Four of the five bursary schools publish a ceiling of the full tuition fee. If the question is whether your family can afford the school at all, a bursary is usually the bigger door, and it is assessed on need rather than a test score. Brisbane Grammar runs both: its bursaries are means tested, give "full or part remission of tuition fees for up to six years", and close on Friday 18 June 2027 for 2028 entry.

What a Brisbane scholarship is actually worth

Most awards are a share of tuition, so the dollar value depends on the school's fee. We multiplied each published percentage by the school's own 2026 Year 7 tuition. No school in the 36 had published 2027 fees when we checked.

Three things follow from the numbers:

• Gregory Terrace's 50% is worth $12,107 a year. Over Years 7 to 12 at 2026 tuition that is $72,642, and the real figure will be higher because fees rise every year.
• The tuition left to pay can land close to another school's full fee. After a Terrace scholarship, the tuition line is $12,107, a little under the full 2026 tuition at St Laurence's College ($12,440). Both schools bill levies on top.
• Percentages never cover the levies. Gregory Terrace adds a $116 book hire levy, a $791 technology levy and a $1,318 family capital levy. St Peters Lutheran says its scholarships "do not apply to levies or other costs e.g. uniforms". Budget for the levies at full price.

Our Brisbane private and Catholic school fees guide has the full fee picture, and the Queensland school fees page lists every school we hold.

Nine schools that publish no scholarship program

St Laurence's College, Ambrose Treacy College, Clairvaux MacKillop College, Mt Maria College, Mt St Michael's College, San Sisto College, Brisbane Christian College, the Australian International Islamic College and Hillbrook Anglican School do not list a scholarship program on their websites as at 9 October 2026. Several point to help with fees instead:

• Clairvaux MacKillop directs families to the Mary MacKillop Brisbane Catholic School Access Fund, applied for through the Catholic Foundation, which can cover tuition, textbooks, uniforms and local excursions.
• San Sisto and Mt Maria offer means-tested fee concessions to families in financial hardship.
• St Laurence's has an Old Boys' Foundation that helps disadvantaged boys attend.

If one of these is your local school, the enrolments office is the place to ask. Help with fees is often arranged quietly rather than advertised.

Preparing for an audition: what is around these schools

Music awards need an audition and, at several schools, a minimum AMEB grade. St Rita's bursaries recognise music at Grade 5 AMEB or higher, and Stuartholme and Nudgee set instrument grades for their music awards. Brisbane Boys' College, St Peters Lutheran, Stuartholme and Brisbane Grammar all run 2028 music or cultural rounds with the deadlines above.

Our directory lists kids' activities within 5 km of the suburbs where many of these schools sit: Spring Hill has 96 (Brisbane Grammar, Brisbane Girls Grammar and Gregory Terrace), East Brisbane 78 (Churchie), Ashgrove 75 (Marist College Ashgrove and Mt St Michael's), Coorparoo 74 (Loreto and Villanova), Toowong 64 (Brisbane Boys' College and Stuartholme) and Indooroopilly 34 (St Peters Lutheran and Brigidine).

Example local music teachers in our directory include Independent Music Academy in Ashgrove, Adrian Keys Music in Norman Park, B Sharp Music in Carina, Music Masters Music School in Gordon Park and Charles Bluett Piano Studio in Carindale. Counts come from our Kids' Activity Index.

Frequently asked questions

When is the ACER scholarship test in Brisbane for 2028 entry? Saturday 27 February 2027. Registration opened on 21 September 2026 and closes at midnight AEDT on Sunday 7 February 2027, which is 11pm in Brisbane. Seven of the 36 schools we checked print the date on their own pages.

Can my child sit one test for several Brisbane schools? Yes, if the schools are in ACER's Cooperative Program: a candidate can register for up to six schools and sit once. The EduTest schools are different. St Peters Lutheran examines on 13 February 2027 and Northside Christian on 6 March 2027, each on its own campus.

Which Brisbane private schools don't offer scholarships? Brisbane Girls Grammar, All Hallows', St Rita's, Villanova and Iona say so on their own sites. All but Iona offer means-tested bursaries, and four of the five publish a ceiling of the full tuition fee.

Do Brisbane scholarships cover the whole fee? Rarely. St Peters Lutheran, Stuartholme, Nudgee and Prince of Peace say they offer no 100% scholarships, and published awards mostly run from 25% to 50% of tuition. Levies, camps and uniforms are extra almost everywhere. Full tuition is more often reached through a means-tested bursary.

We've missed the February round. What now? Several later deadlines are still open for 2028: Stuartholme's arts and sport awards (3 March 2027), Brisbane Boys' College music (4 May 2027) and Brisbane Grammar's sport, cultural and bursary applications (18 June 2027). Many schools also run entry rounds at Year 9, 10 or 11.

Related reading

• Brisbane private and Catholic school fees in 2026: the fee side of the same schools
• Private school scholarships in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth
• The complete guide to private school scholarships in Australia
• 20 Australian private schools that offer scholarships for 2028 entry
• When should parents start preparing for scholarships? and how to improve your chances without tutoring

How we checked. We took Brisbane's 36 largest non-government secondary schools within 15 km of the CBD (600 or more students, from AroundSchools school data) and read each school's own scholarship, bursary and fee pages on 9 October 2026, along with ACER's published dates for 2028 entry. Every date, value and quote above comes from those pages; dollar values are our arithmetic on each school's own 2026 tuition. Where a school's page still shows last year's round, we say so and print no 2028 date for it. We publish no ranking of these schools. Scholarship rounds change every year, so check the school's page before you rely on a date here.