Sydney Grammar School to charge Year 7-12 students $52k to attend from 2026

A premier Sydney private school will now set parents back $52k if they wish to educate their child there – as more than two dozen regional NSW Catholic schools also cop tuition hikes.

Sydney Grammar School ranks top in the state for HSC and NAPLAN results - and is now charging more than $50,000 a year for its offering.

Sydney’s highest-ranked private school has joined the $50,000 club and more than two dozen regional NSW Catholic schools will cop tuition hikes in the hundreds of dollars, as non-government schools begin to reveal their fee increases for 2026.

Inner-city sandstone selective Sydney Grammar School will charge all Year 7 to 12 students $52,410 next year for the privilege of attending the state’s highest performing independent school, up 7 per cent from last year.

Grammar’s results in the HSC and NAPLAN were eclipsed only by public selective schools James Ruse and North Sydney Boys last year.

It previously charged tuition fees of $49,209 per annum.

The College Street institution is the second Sydney independent boys’ school to confirm its total cost will exceed the $50,000 mark, after Shore released its fee schedule earlier this month and revealed annual tuition would start at $48,100 for Year 12 students – before technology and excursion levies are applied.

Sydney Grammar School on College Street in the Sydney CBD. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

Soon-to-be coeducational Stanmore school Newington College will lift fees 6 per cent to $48,141 in Year 12.

The Canberra and Goulburn Catholic diocese became the first in NSW to confirm fee increases in the Catholic sector last week.

Shore School - The Sydney Church of England Grammar School - in Sydney also recently confirmed fees would next year exceed $50,000. Picture: Supplied.

Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn (CECG) operates 27 schools in NSW including Carroll College at Broulee on the south coast and McAuley Catholic College in Tumut, and will lift fees by 5 per cent across each of them.

Lumen Christi Catholic College in Pambula Beach will increase fees to $5,760 for Year 11 and 12, up from $5,480.

Its 38 ACT schools will face increases as low as 3.5 per cent for secondary colleges and as high as 10 per cent for primary schools.

CECG executive director David de Carvalho, former CEO of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), said higher-than-average inflation in the cost of education – including insurance, travel and stationery costs – were driving the fee rises.

“All the kinds of things that are necessary to provide a quality education are all costing a bit more, but we are doing our very best to keep our fee increases as low as possible,” he said.

David de Carvalho, Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn executive director and former CEO of NAPLAN testing authority ACARA.

“There is a very competitive education market in Canberra and we are looking, particularly in our secondary schools to offer rich experiences in terms of curricular and co-curricular activities.

“These are all expensive things to provide.”

Teachers’ wages are also playing a significant role in the fee increases, with the costs of a new pay deal which gave independent school teachers an extra $12,000 to $20,000 in 2025 passed on to parents.

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Originally published as Sydney Grammar School to charge Year 7-12 students $52k to attend from 2026