Qld’s top 20 schools with the poshest parents revealed

The Queensland schools attracting the state’s richest families have been revealed – and the winner might surprise you. FULL LIST

Brisbane Girls Grammar School boasts the highest median income among Queensland students’ families

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Brisbane’s sibling grammar schools have been revealed as attracting the state’s richest families – but it’s the girls who have the edge.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School students boast a median family income of $343,000, new federal figures show.

The school, founded in 1875, charges more than $30,000 a year in Year 12 fees.

Queensland’s next poshest parents send their offspring to Brisbane Grammar School, where the median family income is $323,000. The school charges $32,000 in Year 12.

These are followed by Anglican Church Grammar School, with a median parental income of $295,000, St Margaret’s Ascot ($293,000) and St Jos­eph’s College Gregory Terrace ($280,000).

The figures are for adjusted taxable income, taking into ­account superannuation contributions and capital gains tax concessions, meaning the total incomes of the richest families are likely to be much higher.

Fifty-four of the nation’s top 100 highest-earning school parents are from NSW, followed by 25 from Victoria, nine each from Queensland and WA, and three from the ACT.

SCEGGS Darlinghurst has emerged as the school with the poshest parents in the nation, with families raking in a median income of $495,000 – more than five times the national average wage of around $98,000, according to the ABS.

The top 10 poshest schools in the nation are all in NSW, with many clustered among Sydney’s inner-city beachside suburbs, including Mosman, Cre­morne, North Sydney, Kirri­billi and Bellevue Hill.

Deakin University senior research fellow Emma Rowe said while most schools marketed themselves as accessible for everyone, the reality was “you can only go to certain schools if you have enough money to pay for those schools”.

“It’s a real problem because we’re seeing a lot of segrega­tion in our schools,” she said.

Analysis from the Save Our Schools state school lobby group shows the wealthiest private schools also benefit from billions of dollars in taxpayer funding, with many continuing to be overfunded by hundreds of millions of dollars.

National convener Trevor Cobbold said this shows the innate unfairness of school funding in Queensland.

The new figures reveal that 19 private schools in Queensland with a median taxable family income of $200,000 or more will be overfunded by $141m over a six-year period. The same schools will receive $1bn in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.

“The (federal and state) governments must ensure that public schools are genuinely fully funded under the next bilateral funding agreement,” Mr Cobbold said.

Dr Rowe said much private school funding was wasteful.

“Some schools are ordering limestone blocks from Scotland for their library or they’re getting pools with movable floors,” she said.

“The public taxpayer shouldn’t be subsidising that choice.”