HSC rankings: The state’s top school revealed
The HSC results are in, and The Daily Telegraph can reveal the state’s top school. See the full list and who came out on top.
Education
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The bright sparks at North Sydney Boys High School have pipped their counterparts at fellow selective school and long-time table-topper James Ruse Agricultural High School for the second year running amid a shake-up in the top ranks of the HSC schools leaderboard.
By calculating the proportion of students in each subject who achieved a Band 6 result – or a mark 90 or above out of 100 – The Daily Telegraph can reveal how every school in the state with more than 100 HSC entries compares.
North Sydney Boys had almost 65 per cent of their entries in Band 6 (each school may have has many as eight HSC “entries” for a single student), a slight fall from the 69 per cent recorded in 2023, while James Ruse had 63 per cent in the highest band, up from 60 per cent.
Inner city private boys’ school Sydney Grammar School, which charges fees up to $46,000 a year, ranked third and improved its standing by five places with 56 per cent Band 6s, as did Normanhurst Boys High School, ranked fourth overall with 55 per cent Band 6s.
The eastern suburbs campus of Sydney’s for-profit coeducational school Reddam House rounded out the top five, pipped by Normanhurst by a tiny 0.01 per cent.
TOP 20 SCHOOLS
Last year nine of the top 20 schools were public – albeit academically selective – but in 2024 ten made the cut including Sydney Girls High School, which is up four places.
Hornsby Girls High School is up eight places to become the highest-ranked all-girls school, closely followed by North Sydney Girls High School which fell four places to eighth position.
Rose Bay’s Kambala school for girls – which will charge Year 12 families almost $49,000 in 2025 – has seen the most impressive rise among the top schools, moving 14 spots from 26th to 12th, while Greenacre’s Al Noori Muslim School fell from 17th place to 39th.
All of NSW’s fully academically-selective public schools ranked within the top 100, and Caringbah High School was the weakest performer among the selective falling 38 places to 80th on the list with just over 20 per cent Band 6 entries.
Willoughby Girls High School, ranked 55th, is once again the highest ranked non-selective public school with one in four entries in Band 6, while Carlingford High School (72nd) is the highest performing comprehensive, coeducational public school.
Lower in the list, 14 schools jumped more than 200 places including Barrenjoey High School in Avalon which had only 3.6 per cent of entries in Band 6 last year, but increased that proportion to 13.5 this year and leapt into 148th spot as a result.
Scone High School also had a better year with 3.1 per cent Band 6s after having none last year, and Toormina High School in Coffs Harbour went from 2.4 per cent Band 6s to 7 per cent.
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