2024 HSC School rankings: How independent, Catholic and public schools compare

See how the independent, Catholic and private schools stack up against each other – and themselves.

The Catholic school system has been revealed to be the weakest performer in the 2024 HSC of the three school sectors, accounting for fewer than one in ten top-ranked schools, while public schools had the lowest average result.

Among the top 100 schools in the state – based on their proportion of HSC entries in the highest ‘band’ – 62 were independent schools, 30 were government-run and just seven were operated by a Catholic diocese.

Only six of the highest-ranked public schools were neither fully nor partially academically selective.

The highest-ranked Catholic school was St Clare’s College in Waverley at number 48, followed by Westmead’s Parramatta Marist High School (59) and Randwick’s Brigidine College (67).

Catholic schools make up 15 per cent of the leaderboard of almost 700 schools, while one in three schools on the list are independent schools who are over-represented among the top 200 in the state.

Just over half the top 200 are independent – including Catholic, Anglican, other Christian, other religious and secular schools – while 59 are state-run.

Systemic Catholic schools constitute the smallest proportion of the top 200 schools, accounting for only 34 of the best performers, and had an average of 7.61 per cent Band 6s in 2024.

There were only two Catholic schools with no Band 6 results, and 33 independent schools with none.

Government schools had the greatest disparity between the top and bottom-ranked, with top schools having more than 60 per cent Band 6 entries while 21 schools – all but three of which are in regional or rural areas – and an overall average of 6.6 per cent.

Independent schools had an average of 12.45 per cent Band 6 results from their entries.

The Daily Telegraph’s school leaderboard does not report the results of schools with fewer than 100 HSC entries.