King’s Christian College rakes $280m while Numinbah Valley SS left in the dust

Shocking data shows the true disparity between the Gold Coast’s richest and poorest schools, with one school making less than 1 per cent of the city’s richest. Search the interactive table.

Amaani Siddeek

@AmaaniSiddeek

2 min read

June 28, 2024 - 2:00PM

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The Gold Coast’s poorest school makes less than one per cent in income compared to the city’s richest school, the most recent school funding statistics reveal.

An independent analysis of school financial records from the MySchool website have shown the massive amount of money some schools make every year, and how little some schools are forced to scrape by on.

The figures revealed King’s Christian College in Reedy Creek had a higher gross income than any other school in the Gold Coast region.

The school made a combined gross income of $281.3 million according to financial records from the past five years – making it the fourth richest school in the state.

King’s Christian College is the fourth richest school in the state. Pics Adam Head

During that time the school’s income increased by a whopping 82 per cent with the total gross income per student sitting at $19,271 in 2022.

Meanwhile, The Southport School recorded $234.3 million in gross income, making $31,567 per student in 2022.

And trailing just behind the city’s most prestigious all-boys school, Varsity College ranked as the city’s third-richest school after it made $231.8 million over the past five years coming to $15,106 per student in 2022.

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 2018 to 2022.

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.

Numinbah Valley State School recorded the lowest gross income of any school in the region making just $2.4 million over the five year period – placing it among the poorest schools in the state.

Numinbah Valley State School. Picture Mike Batterham

Springbrook State School was the second lowest with just $4.1 million, only surpassed by Ingleside State School at Tallebudgera Valley which made $8.3 million in the same time.

Within five years, Springbrook SS’ income jumped 55 per cent making $36,034 per student while Ingleside SS rose 37 per cent and made $19,040 per student in 2022.