Private School Scholarships in Melbourne: the 2028 Entry Calendar

Two Melbourne scholarship deadlines fall in the next fortnight, and everything else for 2028 entry opens or closes between November and March. Caulfield Grammar's music scholarships and its W.S. Morcom rural boarding award close on Monday 19 October 2026, and Oakleigh Grammar's academic and general excellence round closes on Wednesday 28 October, with its ACER exam on Saturday 7 November. The next big wave starts on Tuesday 1 December, when PEGS and PLC open. We re-read the scholarship pages of 27 Melbourne schools on 15 October 2026, and eight of them have already finished their 2028 academic round. Unlike Sydney, Brisbane or Perth, most Melbourne schools set their own exam date and report the result to that school only, so a child sits a separate paper for each school.

Key takeaways

• Open now, with a deadline this month: Caulfield Grammar's music and W.S. Morcom rural boarding awards (Mon 19 Oct) and Oakleigh Grammar's academic and general excellence round (Wed 28 Oct).
• Open now, closing later: Trinity Grammar Kew music (Mon 30 Nov), Ivanhoe Grammar General Excellence (4pm Mon 14 Dec, no exam) and the Genazzano and Caulfield academic rounds (both Wed 3 Feb 2027). Lowther Hall's Year 5 and Year 7 round and Melbourne Grammar's boarding awards are open but print no closing date, so ask the school.
• Opening next: Haileybury's means-tested Foundation round on Mon 9 Nov; St Kevin's, Melbourne Girls Grammar and MLC in November; PEGS and PLC on Tue 1 Dec.
• Eight schools have finished their 2028 academic round: Melbourne Grammar, Ivanhoe, Strathcona, Korowa, Haileybury, Scotch, Firbank and Kingswood. Haileybury (Mon 22 Mar 2027), Firbank (June 2027), Strathcona (Term 3 2027) and Ivanhoe (August 2027) have said when their next rounds open.
• Most schools run their own test. On Saturday 13 February 2027 three schools test the same morning, and a child can sit only one.
• Most awards are a part remission of tuition, not a free place. The means-tested ones are the awards that reliably reach 100%.

What is open right now?

Five rounds are open with a closing date before Christmas. Every date below was read on the school's own scholarship page, or on the Australian Council for Educational Research's (ACER) participating-schools list, on 15 October 2026.

Oakleigh's page says: "Registrations for the 2028 Scholarship exam are now open until Wednesday 28 October, 2026." Ivanhoe's General Excellence round opened on Monday 12 October, and its page adds that "late applications will not be considered".

Four more rounds are open with a closing date in February 2027, or none printed.

What opens next?

Most Melbourne rounds open between November and the end of 2026. Haileybury's means-tested Foundation round is first, on Monday 9 November.

Xavier College, Brighton Grammar and Loreto Mandeville Hall still show their 2027 cycle and have printed nothing for 2028 yet.

Which 2028 rounds have already closed, and when can you try again?

Eight schools have finished their 2028 academic round. This is the part that catches families out, and it is not intuitive.

• Melbourne Grammar closed its Year 7 and Year 9 academic and music registrations and held the exam on Saturday 29 August 2026. It now sits the exam about 18 months before entry. Boarding is separate (above), and general excellence applications open the year before entry.
• Ivanhoe Grammar closed its academic round on Monday 5 October, and its page says academic scholarships reopen in August 2027.
• Scotch College closed on Monday 5 October for Year 7, 9 and 10 entry. Its AAS exam is on Saturday 17 October and music and drama auditions on Sunday 25 October. Only First Nations scholarships are still accepted, at any time, and Visual Arts is not offered for 2028 entry.
• Strathcona Girls Grammar says its 2028 program "has now been completed" and that the 2029 program opens in Term 3 2027.
• Korowa Anglican Girls' School ran one combined round: open from Monday 29 June, closed on Friday 24 July, tested on Saturday 1 August 2026.
• Kingswood College ran one round for entry in 2027 and 2028, closed on Wednesday 2 September and tested on Saturday 12 September. Its next round, for 2029 entry, opens in mid-2028, so any listing that still advertises a 2028 round as open is out of date.
• Firbank Grammar runs one round a year, in June. Its page says applications for 2028 scholarships are closed and the 2029 round opens in June 2027.
• Haileybury's academic page now shows only the 2029-entry round: registrations open Monday 22 March 2027 and close at 4pm on Friday 30 April, with tests on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 May 2027. Its 2028 academic round, open from 20 April to 29 May 2026 when we read the page in September, is no longer shown.

A Melbourne family that starts looking at scholarships in October 2026 for a 2028 start has already missed eight schools' academic rounds. The planning horizon here is closer to 18 months than 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 in which, in its own words, "the candidate will sit the test once and have their results reported to all schools within the cooperative program", and candidates "may register for up to six schools". For 2028 entry the national cooperative sitting is Saturday 27 February 2027, with registrations closing at midnight AEDT on Sunday 7 February.

That is not how most Melbourne schools work. ACER's own note to parents says 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 high score at one school does nothing for an application to another. Presbyterian Ladies' College says so on its page: "We do not share results with other schools." Caulfield Grammar notes that it "does not disclose testing results" and that they remain the school's property.
• Date clashes are real. ACER tells families to check that schools on the alternative date program are not testing on the same day, because then "you can choose only one school" for that date.

The clearest example is Saturday 13 February 2027, when Caulfield Grammar (Edutest), PEGS and Peninsula Grammar (both on ACER's list) all test. A second pile-up falls on Saturday 13 March 2027, with PEGS Years 9 and 11, Cornish College and St Kevin's Years 9–10. A third falls on Saturday 17 October 2026, when Scotch College (AAS) and Ivanhoe Grammar (on ACER's list) both test.

Which test will my child actually sit?

There is no single Melbourne scholarship exam, and the provider changes what your child practises. This is what each school's own page, or ACER's list, says:

Seven of the 27 schools do not name a test provider on their scholarship page, and several of those have not opened their round yet. That is worth a phone call before you plan any preparation. 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 form.

Melbourne is an Edutest-leaning city, with ACER and AAS close behind; Perth, by contrast, is mostly AAS. 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.

What is a Melbourne scholarship actually worth?

Most are a percentage off tuition, not a free place. Where a school prints a value we quote it in the school's own words and convert nothing to dollars.

The pattern is consistent: general awards cluster between 25% and 75% of tuition, and the awards that reach 100% are the means-tested ones. Mentone Grammar's Community Scholarship is the most generous we found. It "covers 100% of tuition fees and other charges" from Year 9 to Year 12, plus levies, uniform, a laptop and transport, and two are awarded a year. Haileybury's means-tested Foundation round is the other that can reach 100%, in a published range of 50–100%. Firbank publishes one range for every award it offers: 15–50% of tuition.

Read the eligibility line before the percentage, because two of the longest bars are not open competitions. Strathcona's Beth MacLaren Smallwood award, up to 80% of tuition, is for a girl with significant hearing impairment, and applications are accepted at any time of year. 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 15–20%.

Remember what a percentage is a percentage of. Caulfield Grammar's awards are a part remission of tuition fees to the end of Year 12, Genazzano's cover tuition only, and PEGS says its academic awards "do not apply to school development or the composite fee component of annual fees". The underlying bill is on our Victorian school fees page, and our sport, music and all-rounder scholarships guide covers the non-academic awards school by school.

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, Caulfield Grammar offers a Year 5 round at its Shelford, Malvern and Wheelers Hill Junior campuses, Strathcona takes applications from children in Year 3 for Year 5 entry, Lowther Hall offers academic and piano awards for Year 5 entry, Melbourne Girls Grammar and MLC list Year 5 awards, and Haileybury runs Year 5 rounds. Kingswood's round, which closed on 2 September, took entry from Year 4 in 2028, 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 or 2028.

Check the date twice before you diarise it

Several school pages still carry last cycle's dates beside this cycle's. Lowther Hall's VCE scholarship page says "Applications are closing soon" beside Friday 9 October 2026; that deadline is for Year 11 in 2027, and the page lists Friday 8 October 2027 for Year 11 in 2028. Mentone Grammar prints a closing date of Friday 22 May 2026 next to its 1 February 2027 opening. Melbourne Girls Grammar's FAQ still quotes a February 2026 test, MLC's boarding page still says 2027 applications are open, and Wesley's online forms are still headed 2027. Trinity Grammar Kew's web page describes its music round as 2027, while the linked information sheet is for 2028 entry. Kingswood's landing page mentions only 2029, although its sub-pages describe the round that closed on 2 September. ACER's list shows a Saturday 30 January test date for PLC with the year printed as 2026; 30 January is a Saturday only in 2027, which matches the school's own page.

Where a school's page disagrees with itself, ring the registrar rather than trusting either line.

What about the schools around you?

Melbourne has 192 non-government secondary schools within 50km of the CBD — 130 independent and 62 Catholic — of which 39 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. The 27 schools above are the ones whose scholarship pages we read; you can browse the rest on our Victorian schools directory.

Music and instrumental awards are the most commonly overlooked category, and they need an audition rather than an exam. Families in the suburbs where these schools sit have local options: Kew lists 77 kids' activities within 5 km and Glen Iris 58, 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 each suburb's hub page and our Kids' Activity Index.

Frequently asked questions

Do all private schools offer scholarships? No. Mentone Grammar offers exactly one means-tested award, for Year 9 entry, saying it is "unable to offer any scholarships beyond the Community Scholarship", and Yarra Valley Grammar offers limited scholarships for Years 9 to 12 only, with registration details due in Term 1 2027.

Why do schools offer scholarships at all? They compete for academically able, musical and sporting students, and separately they use means-tested awards to widen access. That is why the two groups behave differently: general awards cluster between 25% and 75% of tuition, while the means-tested ones are the awards that reach 100%.

How much does it cost to apply? Each school sets its own fee, and they add up when you apply to several. Ivanhoe's General Excellence round costs $200, MLC's registration $137.50, Melbourne Girls Grammar $140, Caulfield's Morcom boarding round $130, Genazzano $125 for its AAS test, and Caulfield's music scholarships nothing.

Can one test cover several schools? Only inside ACER's cooperative sitting, on Saturday 27 February 2027, where a candidate may register for up to six schools. Most Melbourne schools use their own date, so each needs its own paper and its own 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, and several also offer means-tested bursaries on a different timetable. Haileybury, Firbank, Strathcona and Ivanhoe have already said when their next academic rounds open.

Does a scholarship exam replace the enrolment application? No. 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 Brisbane — an ACER-cooperative city, for contrast
• Private school scholarships in Perth — an AAS-dominated city
• Private school bursaries in Australia — means-tested fee help, school by school
• 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 15 October 2026 on the school's own scholarship page, or on ACER's participating-schools list and parent information page, and the dates that matter most this fortnight were read a second time at the source. Scotch, Firbank and Wesley block automated readers, so those three schools' pages were read in a browser. Where a school's page was silent, we say what to ask 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.