Wealthiest Western Sydney school budgets for 2023 revealed

Western Sydney’s wealthiest school has raked in more than $378.3 million in five years with an average cost per student of $40,562, school statistics reveal. See where your kid's school ranks here.

Matt Gazy

2 min read

June 27, 2023 - 5:00AM

Parramatta Advertiser

Cherrybrook Technology High School.

Parramatta

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An independent analysis of school financial records from the MySchool website have shown the massive amount of money some schools make every year.

Data has been curated to feature schools that have taken the most gross revenue over a five-year period.

In the interactive below there is also a breakdown of school revenue by student number.

The figures revealed The King’s School in North Parramatta had a higher gross income than any other school in the Western Sydney region.

The school made a gross income of $378.3 million, according to financial records from the combined past five years.

Figures revealed The King’s School in North Parramatta had a higher gross income than any other school in the Western Sydney region.

The school’s income increased by 25 per cent between 2017 and 2021.

A NSW Department of Education spokesman said all public and private students in NSW receive funding through the School Resourcing Standard (SRS), which provided a combination of federal and state funding for each student.

“The NSW Department of Education makes sure resources are given out fairly, efficiently and openly to individual NSW government schools through the Resource Allocation Model (RAM),” a spokesman said.

They said the RAM model goes beyond the SRS funding, by supporting the unique NSW context and system characteristics.

“RAM provides schools with needs-based funding calculated using three base loadings – location, per capita and professional learning – and four equity loadings – low-level adjustment for disability, Aboriginal background, socio-economic background and English language proficiency,” they said.

Targeted funding is also provided for individual students with special needs, according to NSW Education.

According the NSW Education, the government is working toward providing 75 per cent of the SRS funding by 2025, and 100% during the period of the next National School Reform Agreement with the Commonwealth.

Negotiations on the next Agreement are expected to commence later this year.

Cherrybrook Technology High School is one of the state’s largest schools with over 2090 students, 134 teaching staff and administrative and support staff of over 20.

“Students achieve outstanding HSC results and the school offers a wide range of teaching and learning programs in addition to extra curricular activities,” a spokesman said.

“Cherrybrook Technology High School also has an exceptional wellbeing framework that supports each and every student on their journey through high school.”

The region’s second richest school was Oakhill College, in Castle Hill, which had a gross income of $187.9 million.

Its total gross income per student in 2021 was $21,859.

The school with the third highest gross income was William Clarke College, in Kellyville, which made $181 million.

Its total gross income per student in 2021 was $22,200.

The figures include all fees, charges and parental contributions as well as State and Federal Government funding and any other private sources over the five years from 2017 to 2021.

It does not include any deductions for capital works or debt servicing.

The analysis does not include special schools or schools that did not have complete financial data in MySchool for one or more of the five years.