How much Year 12 costs at Victoria’s top private schools

MORE of Victoria’s elite schools are joining the $30,000 club with parents shelling out rising amounts to put their children through Year 12.

Geelong Grammar School. Corio campus.

MORE of Victoria’s elite schools are joining the $30,000 club as parents shell out big bucks to put their children through Year 12.

At least nine of the state’s most prestigious schools have either smashed the threshold or are nudging it for a year’s tuition, with fees soaring as much as $6000 in four years.

Parents are queuing up to get their children into the top schools with plush grounds and facilities, paying out hundreds of dollars just to put kids on non-refundable waiting lists. The most expensive are now equal or close to the minimum weekly wage of $656.90, or $34,158 a year before tax.

The fees on average increase 5-7 per cent each year.

Prince Charles’s old school, Geelong Grammar, tops the list at $37,328 but Year 12 students stay until evening, and fees include supervised night-time study, lunch and dinner.

Jewish school Mt Scopus College, boasting Solomon Lew as an old collegian, is second at $34,860. Melbourne Girls’ Grammar, which has turned out actors Portia de Rossi (who classmates knew as Amanda Rogers) and Stephanie McIntosh, costs $32,736.

At Lauriston Girls’ School, where Deborah Conway and TV personality Livinia Nixon studied, year 10-12 school fees are $30,840.

Traipsing the same hallowed halls as opposition leader Bill Shorten at Xavier College will set parents back $27,567 including levies.

Following in the footsteps of actors Cate Blanchett and Deborra-lee Furness, and Winter Olympian Alisa Camplin at Methodist Ladies’ College costs $29,660, while Presbyterian Ladies’ College, which counts Rhodes scholar Catherine Anderson among its alumni, is $29,520.

Independent Schools Victoria chief executive Michelle Green said fees varied widely at independent schools which were diverse in size, services and philosophies.

She said when setting fees, schools took into account both education and extra-curricular services, the cost of maintaining and upgrading building and facilities, and government funding.

“Schools charging the highest fees receive the least government funding,” she said.

An ASG Planning for Education Index, released this year, found the cost of private education for a child born in 2016 is expected to be $512,283 in Melbourne, including fees, transport, uniforms, computers, school excursions and sporting trips.

ASG chief executive John Velegrinis said the cost of education was rising at more than twice the rate of inflation.

Regent Consulting managing director Paul O’Shannassy said Victoria’s fees were actually low by global standards which “might be cold comfort”.

He said in the past decade private schools, and girls’ schools in particular, had become a more competitive market, especially with an influx of international students.

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YEAR 12 FEES AT VICTORIA’S ELITE SCHOOLS

Geelong Grammar

Day boarder fees: $37,328

Include lunches, dinners and supervised evening study

Haileybury

Fees: $28,710

Korowa Anglican Girls’ School

Fees: $29,700

Consolidated fee: $2,478

Total = $32,178

Lauriston Girls’ School

Year 10-12 school fees: $30,840

Loretto Mandeville Hall

Fees: $25,206

Compulsory Building Levy: $2,130

Total = $27, 336

Melbourne Girls’ Grammar

Fees: $32,736

Melbourne Grammar

Fees: $30,360

Methodist Ladies’ College

Fees: $28,560

Notebook/Peripherals: $1,100

Total = $29,660

Mt Scopus College

Fees: $33,980

Security Levy: $480

Total = $34,460

Presbyterian Ladies’ College

Fees: $28,800

Technology Levy: $720

Total: $29,520

Scotch College

Fees: $26,148

Device levy (MacBook): $640

Total = $26,788

St Kevin’s

Fees: $17,140

Subject levy: $990

Building Fund Contribution: $1,000 per student

Total = $19,130

St Michael’s Grammar

Fees: $25,088

Levy: $4,004

Total = $29,092

Wesley College

Fees: $29,720

Learning Technology fee: $1,200 per year (laptop etc.)

Consolidated charge: $1,662 (library resources, excursions, some textbooks etc.)

Total = $32,582

Xavier College

Fees: $25,767

Sports Levy: $450

Computer Infrastructure Levy: $250

Capital Levy: $1,100

Total = $27,567

* Some school fees are all inclusive, others charge additional fees and levies