For Australia’s wealthiest parents, pouring more than $30,000 a year into a private school education is not a guarantee of top academic success – and new test results show a number of lower-fee schools outperform their more prestigious rivals.

Individual school results of the 2024 National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests – known as NAPLAN – released on Wednesday show children at Australia’s most expensive private school, Geelong Grammar, perform better on average when compared to all students across all Australian schools – from Toorak to Tennant Creek.