Private School Scholarships in Melbourne: the 2028 Entry Calendar

If you are applying for a Melbourne scholarship for 2028 entry, five rounds close before the end of October 2026 — and three schools have already closed a round. We went through the scholarship pages of 27 Melbourne schools on 16 September 2026; three of those schools block automated readers, so 24 are verified below. The single most important thing we found is this: unlike Sydney, Brisbane or Perth, almost no Melbourne school shares a scholarship exam date with any other. Your child sits a separate test, at each school, on a separate Saturday, and the result goes to that school only.

Key takeaways

• Five verified rounds close on or before 31 October 2026: Ivanhoe Grammar and Melbourne Grammar boarding (both 5 October), Strathcona and Lowther Hall's VCE round (both 9 October), and Oakleigh Grammar (28 October).
• Three schools have already closed a 2028 round. Haileybury's academic round closed on 29 May 2026, Korowa's on 24 July 2026, and Melbourne Grammar's academic round is closed as well — more than a year before the children start.
• There are eight separate exam days across the schools we verified, and on two of them two schools examine at the same time.
• Three different testing systems are in use across the city: Edutest at 8 schools, ACER at 5, Academic Assessment Services at 3, and 8 schools do not name a provider at all.
• Most awards are a part remission, not a free place. Published values run from a 10% choir award to full remission, with means-tested awards the ones that reliably reach 100%.
• We could not read the scholarship pages of Scotch College, Firbank Grammar or Wesley College — all three block automated access — so we publish nothing for them rather than guess. St Kevin's College publishes no 2028 dates yet, so it carries none here.

What is still open right now?

Five rounds we verified close within the next six weeks. Every date below was read on the school's own scholarship page, or on the Australian Council for Educational Research's published participating-schools list, on 16 September 2026.

Two more rounds are already open. Lowther Hall's academic, music and vocal round for Year 5 and Year 7 entry publishes no closing date, but examines on 6 February 2027. Caulfield Grammar, whose page says "Applications for our 2028 scholarships are now open", closes on Wednesday 3 February 2027 and examines on Saturday 13 February 2027.

Ivanhoe's wording is worth quoting exactly: applications close "Monday 5 October 2026 at 4.00pm. Late applications are not accepted."

Which rounds have already closed for 2028?

Three of the schools we checked ran and finished their 2028 round before this article was written. This is the part that catches families out, and it is not intuitive.

Haileybury opened its 2028 academic round on 20 April 2026, closed it on 29 May 2026, examined on 20 and 21 June 2026, and its page now reads "Closed. Outcomes due Friday, 7 August 2026."

Korowa Anglican Girls' School opened on 29 June 2026, closed on 24 July 2026 and tested on 1 August 2026.

Melbourne Grammar has also closed its 2028 academic round — boarding remains open.

A Melbourne family that started looking at scholarships in September 2026 for a 2028 start has already missed three schools' rounds. The planning horizon here is roughly 18 months, not 12.

Why can't my child just sit one test?

Because the shared-exam model that most scholarship advice describes barely operates in Melbourne. ACER runs a Cooperative Program under which, in its own words, "the candidate will sit the test once and have their results reported to all schools within the cooperative program to which they have applied", and candidates "may register for up to six schools".

That is not how Melbourne works. ACER's own guidance for parents states plainly that "most Victorian schools use the alternative date program". Under that option a school "may select any date in the school year", the candidate "must sit the test at that school", and results "are reported to that school only".

Two consequences follow, and both cost money and Saturdays:

• No result sharing. A strong result at one school does nothing for an application to another. Presbyterian Ladies' College puts it bluntly on its own page: "Your daughter is required to sit the ACER scholarship exam specifically set for PLC. We do not share results with other schools."
• Date clashes are real. Where two schools choose the same Saturday, your child cannot sit both.

The clearest example is Saturday 17 October 2026, when both Ivanhoe Grammar and Strathcona examine. They also use different providers — ACER and Edutest — so there is no shared paper to fall back on, and Ivanhoe's page states that "alternate testing dates are not available".

Which test will my child actually sit?

There is no single Melbourne scholarship exam, and the provider changes what your child practises. Of the 27 schools we checked, this is what their own pages say:

Melbourne is an Edutest-leaning city, which is the opposite of Perth. If you want the format differences before you buy any practice material, our comparison of ACER, Edutest and AAS scholarship tests sets them side by side.

Eight of the 27 schools do not name a test provider on their scholarship page at all. That is worth a phone call before you plan any preparation. Two schools bury it: Xavier names ACER only on its Academic Excellence page, not on the scholarships hub, and Trinity Grammar Kew names no provider in its prose but sends applicants to an Edutest registration form.

What is a Melbourne scholarship actually worth?

Most are a percentage off tuition, not a free place. Twelve of the 27 schools publish a value, and we quote each in its own words rather than converting anything to dollars.

The pattern is consistent: general academic awards cluster between 25% and 50%, and the awards that reach 100% are almost always means-tested. Mentone Grammar's Community Scholarship is the most generous we found — it "covers 100% of tuition fees and other charges" plus levies, uniform, a laptop and transport — and only two are awarded, for Year 9 entry. Haileybury's Foundation award, the other one reaching 100%, is means-tested too.

Read the eligibility line before the percentage, because the two biggest-looking bars are not open competitions. Strathcona's 80% Beth Smallwood award is for a hearing-impaired student. Trinity Grammar Kew's 10% choir award attaches to its Holy Trinity choristers, and the same page notes that "exceptional senior students are sometimes offered a 15-20% scholarship" in their final years.

Remember what a percentage is a percentage of. Carey notes its awards "do not cover the cost of application and entry fees, books, uniforms, digital devices, consolidated charges", and PEGS says its academic awards "do not apply to school development or the composite fee component of annual fees." Our Victorian school fees page shows what the underlying bill looks like.

When does each school open its 2028 round?

Most Melbourne rounds open between October 2026 and March 2027. Dates below are as published on 16 September 2026.

Four schools were still showing their 2027 cycle when we looked and had published nothing for 2028: Xavier College, Brighton Grammar, Trinity Grammar Kew and Loreto Mandeville Hall.

Two oddities worth knowing. Kingswood College has moved past 2028 entirely — its page now advertises 2029 entry, opening mid-2028. Yarra Valley Grammar publishes no scholarship programme at all, saying only that information "will be updated on this page if any become available".

Check the date twice before you diarise it

Five of the pages we read contained dates that contradicted themselves: PLC says registrations open "Term 4 2026" in one place, that 2028 information arrives in "Term 4 of 2027" in another, and still shows a 2027 exam date of 31 January 2026; Genazzano lists 12 February 2027 for testing while a leftover line still names 13 February 2026; Mentone gives an opening date of 1 February 2027 and a closing date of 22 May 2026; Melbourne Girls Grammar advertises a 2028 programme opening in November 2026 while still showing a test date of 14 February 2026; and Camberwell's mid-November date covers only its academic and music awards, with General Excellence deferred to 2027. Where a school's own page disagrees with itself, ring the registrar rather than trusting either line.

One school publishes no 2028 dates at all. St Kevin's College says applications for Year 7 and Year 9 entry in 2028 "will open in November 2026" but lists no closing or exam date; the dates still on its sub-pages belong to the 2027 cycle. If you see a February 2027 date for St Kevin's quoted anywhere, including in a search result, treat it as unconfirmed until the school publishes it.

Can you get a scholarship for primary school?

Yes, but they are a small minority and they start later than most parents expect. Among the schools we checked, Strathcona takes applications from children in Year 3 for Year 5 entry, Lowther Hall offers academic and piano awards at Year 5, Caulfield and Haileybury run Year 5 rounds, and Oakleigh starts at Year 6.

The great majority of Melbourne scholarship money, however, attaches to Year 7 entry, with a second cluster at Years 9 to 11. If your child is in Year 3 or 4 now, the realistic target is a Year 7 round that opens in late 2027.

Which schools could we not verify?

Three, and we would rather leave a gap than fill it with a guess. Scotch College, Firbank Grammar and Wesley College all sit behind a bot-protection challenge that returns an error to any automated reader, directly and through a proxy.

Search engines do surface apparent scholarship dates for both. We did not use them, because a search snippet is not a source — and we have been burnt before by pages that look current and are not. Kingswood College is the live example: search results still advertise a "2028 now open" round that the school's own page has replaced with 2029.

If you are applying to either school, go to their admissions page directly or ring them.

What about the schools around you?

Melbourne has 187 non-government secondary schools within 50km of the CBD — 127 independent and 60 Catholic — of which 40 are girls' schools and at least 21 boys' schools. We say "at least" deliberately: our directory records a school's gender as a single value, so schools that are co-educational in primary and single-sex from Year 7 — Melbourne Grammar and Xavier among them — are counted as co-educational even though their secondary years are not. The 27 above are the ones that publish a scholarship programme we could read; you can browse the rest on our Victorian schools directory.

Music and instrumental awards are the most commonly overlooked category in the list above, and they need an audition rather than an exam. Families in the suburbs where these schools sit have local options: Kew lists 14 kids' activity providers and Glen Iris 16, including Haydn Music Centre in Box Hill, Mat Creedon School of Music in Balwyn North and Mary's Piano School in Thornbury. Counts come from our Kids' Activity Index.

Frequently asked questions

Do all private schools offer scholarships? No. Of the 27 Melbourne schools we checked, Yarra Valley Grammar publishes no programme at all, and Mentone Grammar offers exactly one means-tested award for Year 9 entry, saying it is "unable to offer any scholarships beyond the Community Scholarship" because of demand for places.

Why do schools offer scholarships at all? They compete for academically strong, musically able and sporting students, and separately they use means-tested awards to widen access. That is why the two groups behave differently: merit awards cluster at 25% to 50% of tuition, while the means-tested ones are the awards that reach 100%.

How much does it cost to apply? Each school charges its own fee and they are not trivial when you apply to several. Melbourne Girls Grammar states a $140 registration fee, Genazzano a $120 AAS testing fee, and Ivanhoe's general excellence award carries a $150 non-refundable application fee.

We have missed a 2028 round. What now? Apply for a place through the ordinary enrolment process, then target the next entry point — most Melbourne schools run fresh rounds at Years 9, 10 and 11. Several also offer means-tested bursaries on a different timetable, which are assessed on need rather than an exam.

Does a scholarship exam replace the enrolment application? No at every school we read. A scholarship application sits alongside an enrolment application, and missing the enrolment deadline is the more expensive mistake of the two.

Related reading

• Private school scholarships in Sydney — the same calendar treatment, region by region
• Private school scholarships in Perth — an AAS-dominated city, for contrast
• The complete guide to private school scholarships in Australia
• Melbourne private schools: 2026 fees and how to choose
• When should parents start preparing for scholarships? and how to improve your chances without tutoring

How we checked this. Every date, value and test provider above was read on 16 September 2026 on the school's own scholarship page or on ACER's published participating-schools list, and each was re-checked at the source on the same day. Three schools — Scotch, Firbank and Wesley — block automated readers, so we publish nothing for them; St Kevin's has published no 2028 dates, so it carries none. Where a school's page was unreadable or silent we say so rather than estimating. We hold no academic results data and publish no ranking of these schools — for outcomes data, use the ACARA My School website. Scholarship rounds move every year: check the school's page before you rely on a date here.