Methodology
How our rankings work
The criteria, sources and principles behind every School Rankings position.
We rank independent and Catholic schools on our own analysis. Every school is assessed on the same criteria, from the same kinds of source, and no payment can alter the result.
Criteria and sources
- Academic progress
- Student gain between NAPLAN years, compared with schools of a similar ICSEA value.Source: NAPLAN results on the My School website.
- Senior-year outcomes
- ATAR distribution where published, subject range and vocational pathways.Sources: school reports and state and territory curriculum authorities.
- Fees and total cost
- Tuition, levies, capital contributions and compulsory extras to Year 12.Sources: school fee schedules and enrolment policies.
- Class sizes and staffing
- Enrolments, teaching staff and class groupings by year level.Sources: My School figures and school publications.
- Co-curricular programs
- Breadth of programs and the commitments they involve.Source: school publications.
- Wellbeing and learning support
- Pastoral structure and learning-support provision.Source: school policies and publications.
Weighting principles
- Progress counts for more than raw results, so a school is not rewarded for its intake alone.
- No single measure decides a position.
- Small cohorts and incomplete data are treated with caution and noted, never estimated.
Review cycle and corrections
Rankings are reviewed each year after the annual My School data release. If you find a factual error, write to contact@schoolrankings.com.au with the figure and its source. We check it against the source, correct verified errors and record the date of the correction. A position changes only if the corrected data changes the analysis.
Public sources
The My School website, published by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, is our main source of school-level data. For funding and policy context we refer to the Australian Government Department of Education.
