Best value for money Victorian schools revealed
A comparison of top-performing Victorian schools by fees, VCE marks, facilities, alumni and sporting excellence has revealed a few surprises.
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You want to send your child to the best school in Victoria, but which one is truly the pick of the bunch?
Victoria is home to many exemplary schools which appear identical when only comparing VCE results, yet are worlds apart in terms of size, religion, values and sporting excellence.
We’ve lined up our highest-scoring schools – those that topped the state in VCE median study scores in 2022 or 2021 – to see what sets them apart.
They include some of Melbourne’s most elite schools, with 50m swimming pools, rowing sheds, state-of-the-art fitness studios, and jaw-dropping fees nearing $40,000 a year.
But which school is most likely to produce a Supreme Court judge, a state governor, a federal treasurer or a Hollywood star?
Which school is home to world rowing champions and which ones have produced a Test cricketer or an AFL player?
Which has the best facilities and which provides the best value for money?
Ballarat Clarendon College, Ballarat
“Learning comes first” at Ballarat Clarendon College according to its website, and that attitude underpins the school’s consistently excellent academic results.
But the school also has an enviable list of sporting stars among its many prominent alumni, including North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson and a long line-up of Olympians and AFL footballers.
The school also excels at rowing, no doubt helped by the placement and facilities of its magnificent boatshed right on Lake Wendouree.
Ballarat Clarendon College topped the class in 2022, earning Victoria’s highest VCE median study score of 38, despite much lower fees than Melbourne’s most elite private schools.
And in 2021, Ballarat Clarendon College shared equal-top billing as one of Victoria’s best seven performers for VCE median study score, and was the only one outside Melbourne.
The college has also embraced the growing trend for Year 9 students to spend time off campus, and all Year 9s spend eight weeks living at the school’s 50ha Yuulong remote campus on the Great Ocean Road, including hiking and surfing.
School type: Private day and boarding school
Gender: Co-ed
Religion: Uniting Church-associated
Years offered: Early Learning Centre-Year 12
VCE median study score 2022: 38 (top in state)
VCE median study score 2021: 37 (equal top in state)
Campuses: Two Ballarat campuses, Yuulong remote campus on Great Ocean Road (Year 9, 8-week residential program)
Year 12 fees: $21,000 for 2023
Other costs: $20,040 boarding fee (Year 12 rate), $6260 for Year 9s to stay at Yuulong remote campus.
Established: 1864
Enrolments: 1701 students in 2022
Prominent alumni
Sports stars: North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson, many AFL footballers including Bob Davis, Seb Ross, Hugh McCluggage and Percy Beames, several Olympians
Arts and entertainment: Actors Bill Hunter, Kimberley Davies and Simon Maiden, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra principal conductor in residence Benjamin Northey
Politics and military: Nauru president Bernard Dowiyogo, Admiral Sir Guy Gaunt (Chief of British intelligence in the US in WWI)
Campus highlights: State-of-the-art sports facilities including indoor infinity pool, indoor rowing tank for 16 rowers, weights room, fitness studios, spinning studio, exercise pavilion, gymnasium, huge boat shed housing fleet of boats on Lake Wendouree, 200-seat theatre, performing arts centre with large ensemble room and dance studio, cafe, and a science centre featuring a vertical laboratory, 90-seat theatre, 8 classrooms and 6 laboratories
Bragging rights:
Awarded Non-government Secondary School of the Year at 2019 Australian Education Awards.
Won 2023 Ballarat Head of the Lake boys’ and girls’ titles.
Won 2022 Ballarat Associated Schools swimming titles including Boys Aggregate & Senior Girls.
Website: clarendon.vic.edu.au
Haileybury Girls College, Keysborough
Haileybury College and its all-girls offshoot both scored impressive VCE median study scores of 36 in 2022, only two marks off top spot.
But the girls’ school alone hit it out of the park with a state top-equalling 37 in 2021.
It more than validates Haileybury’s decision to formally establish an all-girls school in 2006, six years after first opening its doors to girls.
Haileybury’s “parallel education” model separates boys and girls into single-gender classrooms for their academic studies and for sport and camping programs from Year 5, but allows them to socialise and do extra-curricular activities together at a co-ed campus.
Haileybury is Victoria’s largest school and is known for its enterprising approach to education.
It has several campuses, including a fairly new “vertical school” in Melbourne’s CBD, a boarding school in Darwin, and a school in Tianjin in China, along with a brand new online school.
School type: Private day school, part of Haileybury College
Gender: All girls
Religion: Historic links to Uniting Church
Years offered: Haileybury offers Early Learning Centre-Year 12; Haileybury Girls offer single-gender classrooms from Year 5-12 on co-ed campuses.
VCE median study score 2022: 36
VCE median study score 2021: 37 (equal top in state)
Campuses: Keysborough, Brighton, Berwick, Melbourne’s CBD, Darwin and China, plus new online school.
Year 12 fees: $35,920 tuition fees (2023)
Established: 2006 (offshoot of Haileybury College, established 1892)
Enrolments: 4432 students (all Haileybury College) in 2022
Prominent women alumni: AFLW players Alice Burke and Isabella Eddey, Commonwealth Games dual gold medallist sport shooter Laetisha Scanlan
Other Old Haileyburians:
Sports stars: Several Olympians including silver-medallist swimmer John Marshall, Test cricketer James Pattinson, dozens of AFL footballers including Ty Vickery, Cody Weightman, Angus and Andrew Brayshaw, Jack Gunston, Luke Davies-Uniacke, Ben and Max King
Arts, entertainment and media: News presenter Ian Henderson, musician Ross Wilson, animator Adam Elliot
Law and academia: Ethicist Julian Savulescu, Supreme Court judge Lex Lasry and High Court justice Sir Wilfred Fullagar
Campus highlights: 50m swimming and diving pool, weights room, university-style campus layout, sports hall, gym, sports courts, playing fields, drama, visual arts and music complex
Bragging rights:
Awarded Best Student Wellbeing Program and Best Remote Learning Program in 2021 Australian Education Awards.
Current Haileybury CEO/principal Derek Scott named Principal of the Year in 2019 Australian Education Awards.
In 2017, Haileybury became the first Australian school to have students launch an experiment on to the International Space Station.
Website: haileybury.com.au
Bialik College, Hawthorn
Apart from producing consistently spectacular academic results, Bialik College bills itself as a Jewish community school where children of all ages grow together on one campus.
Melbourne’s oldest Jewish school has a strong Zionist ethos, and calls itself Australia’s only “cross-communal Jewish school”, embracing the entire Jewish community regardless of affiliation or practice.
Jewish life and customs are interwoven into all aspects of school life, from the classroom to camps, and the school offers a small, family-like environment.
School type: Private day school
Gender: Co-ed
Religion: Jewish
Years offered: Creche-Year 12
VCE median study score: 37 in 2022 and 2021
Campus: Hawthorn only
Year 12 fees: $38,473 (2023)
Other costs: $522 annual security levy
Established: 1942
Enrolments: 926 students in 2022
Prominent alumni: Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Mossad spy Ben Zygier, Anthony Goldbloom (co-founder of Kaggle, a subsidiary of Google).
Campus highlights: 25m swimming pool, gymnasium, 2 championship basketball courts, weights and fitness centre, mod grass court and 3 outdoor sports courts; art and technology centre with fully equipped recording studio, theatrette, performance studio with green screen, and art studios.
Bragging rights:
Even among Melbourne’s high-performing Jewish schools, Bialik College is a standout, and it consistently ranks in the top 5 schools in Victoria for VCE marks.
In 2022, Bialik equalled the VCE median study score of the better-known Mount Scopus Memorial College, and in 2021 it beat its rival by a nudge, 37 to 36.
Principal Jeremy Stowe-Lindner won a 2021 National Excellence in Teaching Awards gong for exemplary school community leadership in a year of pandemic.
Website: bialik.vic.edu.au
St Catherine’s School, Toorak
Some of Victoria’s most distinguished women have attended this elite Toorak school, from the late philanthropist Dame Elisabeth Murdoch to Governor Linda Dessau, the first woman to hold the position.
In 2022, St Catherine’s regained its status as the no. 1 girls’ school in Victoria.
While this small school is rightly known for its exemplary academic results and reputation for producing well-bred women, it also now boasts world champions in rowing.
Last year, the school’s First VIII rowing crew became world champs after winning the Prince Philip Challenge Trophy at the Henley Royal Regatta in the UK.
School type: Private day and boarding school
Gender: All girls
Religion: Non-denominational Christian
Years offered: Early Learning Centre-Year 12
VCE median study score: 37 in 2022 and 2021
Campus: Toorak only
Year 12 fees: $38,420 (2023)
Other costs: Up to $5600 (Year 9 rate) for composite fee to cover camps and excursions, $32,480 a year boarding fee.
Established: 1896
Enrolments: 630 students in 2022
Prominent alumni: Philanthropists Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Lady Marigold Merlyn Baillieu Southey, Governor Linda Dessau, pioneering racing driver Joan Richmond, cosmetics entrepreneur Natalie Bloom, arts patron Sunday Reed, Country Court judges Jane Campton, Anna Robertson, Wendy Wilmoth and Carolene Gwynn
Campus highlights: Sports and aquatic centre with indoor 25m lap pool, learners’ pool, 1m springboard, cardio gym and yoga room, gymnasium, rooftop tennis and netball courts, cafe, performing arts theatre (and rowing club on the Yarra River).
Bragging rights:
First VIII rowing crew became world champions last July after winning the Prince Philip Challenge Trophy at the Henley Royal Regatta in the UK.
First VIII rowing crew were also Australian champions and back-to-back Head of Schoolgirls champions.
Won 2022 senior A grade hockey (Girls Sport Victoria).
Website: stcatherines.net.au
Huntingtower School, Mount Waverley
Christian values underpin Huntingtower’s philosophy, where every individual is viewed as an “unlimited expression or spiritual reflection of God”.
With a heavy emphasis on students’ spiritual development, Huntingtower is founded on the principles of Christian Science.
This small school with top-notch, modern facilities states its mission is “to be a beneficial presence in the world, to uplift thought and to bless mankind”.
The school’s alumni include rising star Elizabeth Debicki, who recently played Diana, Princess of Wales in The Crown after a string of Hollywood roles.
Debicki was vice-captain, a house captain and the school’s Year 12 dux in 2007, with perfect scores in drama and English.
School type: Private day school
Gender: Co-ed
Religion: Christian Science
Years offered: Early Learning Centre-Year 12
VCE median study score: 36 in 2022, 37 in 2021
Campus: Mount Waverley only
Year 12 fees: $25,620 (2023)
Other costs: Up to $3420 consolidated charge (Year 11 rate in 2023) covers items such as camps, excursions and sport.
Established: 1927
Enrolments: 736 students in 2022
Prominent alumni: Actors Elizabeth Debicki and Simon Westaway, tennis champion Alison Burton, Paralympian Matthew Silcocks, RAAF Flight Lieutenant Patrick Terpening, who won the Distinguished Flying Cross
Campus highlights: Huge aquatic centre including 8-lane 25m swimming pool and 12.5m teaching pool, 750-seat performing arts centre, orchestral room, dance studio, gymnasiums, tennis courts, running track, hockey field, soccer field
Bragging rights:
2022 swimming trophy holders (boys and girls) for Eastern Independent Schools Melbourne (EISM) Sporting Association.
2021 and 2022 chess premiers (senior and junior) for EISM.
2022 premiers in senior boys basketball and indoor cricket; senior girls indoor cricket, soccer, indoor soccer and netball; senior mixed tennis and badminton, in EISM eastern division.
Website:huntingtower.vic.edu.au
The Mac. Robertson Girls’ High School, Melbourne
Mac. Rob, as it’s known, is one of Victoria’s four government-run selective-entry secondary schools for high achievers, but the only one for girls only.
The school is not zoned, and students from all over Victoria sit a challenging entrance test during Year 8 to vie for a much sought-after place at the Year 9-12 school.
Located on Kings Way next to Albert Park Lake, Mac. Rob is the sister school to the selective-entry boys’ school, Melbourne High.
Mac. Rob consistently achieves the same or better marks than Melbourne’s most expensive and elite private schools, despite charging no tuition fees.
School type: Selective-entry government high school for high-ability students
Gender: All girls
Religion: None
Years offered: 9-12
VCE median study score: 36 in 2022, 37 in 2021
Campus: Kings Way, Melbourne only
Year 12 fees: No tuition fees
Other costs: Annual voluntary contributions requested
Established: 1934
Enrolments: 1136 students in 2022
Prominent alumni: Author Alice Pung, historians Christina Twomey and Alice Garner, feminist activist Beatrice Faust, entrepreneur Tan Le, Victoria’s first female surgeon Ellen Balaam
Campus highlights: New theatre; Lakeside Building recently renovated, including state-of-the-art learning resource centre, dynamic new classroom spaces, and integrated outdoor performance and recreation areas
Bragging rights:
Won 2022 girls chess national title
Won 2022 state senior girls softball championships (School Sport Victoria).
2022 state finalists for intermediate cricket
Website: macrob.vic.edu.au
Leibler Yavneh College, Elsternwick
Leibler Yavneh describes itself as a Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist school, and Jewish studies are integrated throughout the curriculum from creche to Year 12.
In 2021, it shot up the ladder from 25th place the year before, overtaking Mount Scopus to become Victoria’s second-highest scoring Jewish school in VCE that year after Bialik.
The school states its aim is to be Melbourne’s pre-eminent Jewish day school.
School type: Private day school
Gender: Co-ed
Religion: Jewish Modern Orthodox
Years offered: Creche-Year 12
VCE median study score: 34 in 2022, 37 in 2021
Campuses: Elsternwick and Caulfield
Year 12 fees: Unavailable
Other costs: Unavailable
Established: 1962
Enrolments: 570 students in 2022
Prominent alumni: Belinda Goldman, CEO of FoodFilled food rescue charity.
Campus highlights: Theatre, sports courts, plans for new VCE study centre.
Website: yavneh.vic.edu.au
Sources: www.myschool.edu.au, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, school and sport association websites
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