St Ignatius’ Senior School, Athelstone crowned richest school in Adelaide’s north, inner-north and north east

One raked in more than $170m in five years - see the wealthiest and poorest schools across the north, inner north and north east of Adelaide.

The wealthiest school in Adelaide’s northern suburbs raked in more than $170m in five years, equalling or beating some of the city’s top private colleges.

Independent analysis of school financial records from the MySchool website revealed St Ignatius College’s Senior School campus in Athelstone had the highest gross income across Adelaide’s north, inner north and north east.

The co-ed Catholic college made $171.4m between 2018 and 2022, averaging a total income per student for 2022 at $26,824.

Principal Lauren Brooks, who last year became the second female to hold the position in the school’s 72-year history, said the school’s funds were invested back into the student body.

“The college is in a strong financial position, and we are excited to be able to use this funding for a range of developments, benefiting our students first-hand – including exciting capital works projects and our teaching and learning programs,” Ms Brooks said.

St Ignatius College Principal Lauren Brooks with Sarah Higgins, 16, and Max Barilla, 17, outside the Andrea Pozzo Centre at Athelstone. Picture: Matt Loxton

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“Our new Andrea Pozzo Art, Design, and Technology Building opened its doors to Senior School students in April.

“The layout of the sleek, light-filled building was designed to aid cross-curriculum collaboration between art, design and technology students.”

Mrs Brooks said the facility was designed by Architects Ink co-director Marco Spinelli – a St Ignatius old scholar.

The northern suburbs’ second-richest school was Roma Mitchell Secondary College, in Gepps Cross, reaching $161.7m in the five-year span and a total gross income per student in 2022 of $24,783

Mark Oliphant College in Munno Para West ranked third, making $153.2m and $20,797 per student.

In comparison, Mercedes College took $147.9m, while Scotch made $177.8m at its Torrens Park campus.

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Ms Brooks said since taking on the principal role at St Ignatius, a range of new experiences, programs and development opportunities had begun.

“We have already seen some wonderful student-led activities take place. This has included our student captains becoming ‘principals’ for a day for the first time, and our annual winter sleepout and charity drive – with students sleeping outdoors overnight in solidarity with the homeless and refugees,” Mrs Brooks said.

“This year has also seen various offerings at the college expanded, including our co-curricular program, a new high-performance program, student tutoring service, and bus service.

“We are always looking for exciting new ways to engage with our students and families – and this has included recently launching our own podcast, Ignatius Talking and a new student voice committee.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the north’s lowest-earning school is Tea Tree Gully Primary School, which made just $8.7m over the five-year period – dropping by 23 per cent.

Second lowest is Paradise Primary School, bringing in $9m – a 9 per cent rise – and $21,948 per student in 2022.

St Mary Magdalene’s School at Elizabeth Grove ranked third lowest, increasing its income by 28 per cent totalling to $10.8m with an average per student at $19,832 for 2022.

The figures curated by MySchool do not include any deductions for capital works or debt servicing.

The analysis does not include special schools or schools that did not have complete financial data in MySchool for one or more of the five years.