VCE rankings: Suburbs where public schools outperform private
Parents can get value for money at these public schools which outperform private schools in VCE results. Search the top 100 schools.
Education
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A number of high schools across Melbourne offer top value education, with VCE results better than many expensive private schools, new My School data shows.
Parents can get great value for money in suburbs such as Narre Warren, Cranbourne, Frankston, Canterbury, Kew and Mount Waverley, with schools the academic equals of their expensive private peers.
Those at Narre Warren South P-12 pay as little as $229 a year for a school that has higher year 12 results than many top-shelf private schools.
Another standout budget performer is East Loddon P1-12 in the tiny town of Dingee, north of Bendigo which charges parents annual average fees of just $627. The seven students who did VCE last year got a median score of 34 out of 50.
This puts the school on an academic par with many leading private schools including Caulfield Grammar, Camberwell Grammar, Melbourne Grammar, Mentone Grammar and Xavier College which charge parents fees up to $36,000 a year.
East Loddon P-12 has just $4.3 million annual funds compared to Caulfield Grammar which has $104 million in net income and charges year 12 fees of $33,000.
Other budget superstar schools include non-selective state high schools such as Narre Warren Sth P-12, Melbourne Girls College, McKinnon Secondary College, East Doncaster Secondary College, Casterton Secondary College, Canterbury Girls Secondary College and Balwyn High. These schools all have median VCE scores of 33 and cost around $2000 a year in fees.
These VCE scores put them in the same achievement band as schools that charge upwards of $25,000 a year including Carey Grammar, The Knox School and Peninsula Grammar.
Many of these private schools have significant funds in the bank, including Carey Grammar which receives $63 million a year and has accumulated capital funds of $51 million.
This compares to Casterton Secondary College which has an annual income of just $3 million, $1 million in capital funds and charges a mere average fee of $497 a year.
Tiny Mortlake College is another top value school with a median VCE mark of 33 and average parents’ fees of just $826 a year.
Other good-value performers include University High, Princes Hills Secondary College, Glen Waverley Secondary College, Koonung Secondary College and Box Hill High School which all have a median VCE mark of 32 and charge fees of around $1500 a year.
This puts them in the same academic band as elite schools such as Wesley College, St Michael’s, Geelong College, Ballarat Grammar, Eltham College and Ivanhoe Grammar.
High schools with median VCE scores of 31 include Northcote High, Mount Waverley Secondary College, Kew High, Frankston High, Cranbourne East Secondary College and Auburn High.
This puts them on par with private schools such as Loreto College, Mount Evelyn Christian School, Oakleigh Grammar, Alphington Grammar and Billanook College.
New My Schools data shows the state’s best three performing schools with median VCE scores of 38 – Mount Scopus, Bialik College and Ballarat Clarendon College – all have fees of between $13,000 and $23,000.
Other top-performing state schools include those with selective entry such as MacRobertson Girls’ High (37 out of 50), Melbourne High (37) and Nossal High (36) and Suzanne Cory (34) which charge just a few thousand.
The data is provided as part of the My School website update which includes new information on school profiles, finance and post-school destinations.
The cancellation of NAPLAN for May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic means there is no new NAPLAN data.
Covid has also affected the updating of school attendance data, Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority CEO David de Carvalho said.
Narre Warren South P-12 College vice principal Steve Mahoney said the secret to the school’s success was having “highly dedicated” staff.
“The maths room for any student doing Year 11 or 12 maths is open at 8am, recess, lunch and until 4.30pm every day and English is the same,” Mr Mahoney said.
“Every student has the opportunity to catch up with any teacher during lunchtime or after school, so there’s designated help areas, we also do practice SACs in the holidays and we have 100 per cent attendance.”
Mr Mahoney said parents had given the school outstanding feedback in its surveys.
“We’ve received 99 per cent positive feedback because we include the parents at all stages, so if there’s a student struggling we contact the parent straight away.
“There are progress reports every four weeks once students are in the senior school, parents are kept informed about their child’s progress constantly.”
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