Revealed: How much South Australia’s top private schools pay their most senior staff

Senior staff are raking in the big bucks at some of SA’s most elite schools with one reporting an average wage of close to $390k. See what they’re being paid.

South Australian private schools are paying their top staff average salary packages of more than $200,000 – and as much as $389,000 for senior leaders at one campus.

The Advertiser has analysed the wages bills of senior managers at more than 40 Catholic and independent schools published online.

Key staff can include principals and their deputies, heads of curriculum, business managers and other roles, although the documents do not list individual salaries or names.

Trinity College, in Gawler, paid the greatest combined remuneration of $3.35m across a group of 14 key staff – or an average of $239,558.

Trinity College principal Nick Hately at the Evanston South campus. Picture: Supplied

Pembroke School, in Kensington, paid the highest average remuneration of $389,421 – sharing almost $1.17m across three key staff.

By comparison, principal roles at public high schools in SA have been advertised with salaries of up to $175,000 a year, depending on school size, complexity and location.

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The analysis is based on the latest available data on remuneration packages reported to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, either for 2023 or 2022-23.

Head of Trinity College Nick Hately said the organisation was “a very large collective entity” including six school campuses, with more than 4400 students, and the STARplex community facility.

“We are one of the largest, if not the largest educational communities in Australia,” he said, adding the 14 key staff included the head and deputy head of the college, principals and senior business and compliance roles.

Schools have been required to report how much they pay their senior leaders to the ACNC since 2022.

However they appear to have interpreted the reporting criteria differently and included varying numbers or types of staff, or not listed a number of staff at all.

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For example, Seymour College reported a combined pay packet of $1.44m, but listed zero staff.

Two schools Tenison Woods College in Mount Gambier and St Mark’s College (Port Pirie) – reported pay packets of about $328,000, shared among nine staff – while Southern Montessori School reported a $318,000 pay packet shared between two staff.

Association of Independent Schools of SA chief executive Anne Dunstan said it was “exceedingly difficult to make comparisons between schools” because they reported differently on their “unique organisational structures”.

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Ms Dunstan said principals and senior staff at independent schools were responsible for “a wide range of complex tasks” including managing staff, finances, enrolments, policies, marketing, compliance and strategic planning.

“Much like other professions, teaching and school leadership is competitive and there is a strong need to attract more people to these roles in schools,” she said.

“It therefore follows that schools seek to provide appropriate levels of remuneration, strong investment in professional development and other benefits to attract the best talent.”

Catholic Education SA executive director Dr Neil McGoran declined to comment.

Originally published as Revealed: How much South Australia’s top private schools pay their most senior staff