Revealed: The Sydney schools where parents earn $500,000-plus

Parents at four Sydney private schools now have a median annual household income exceeding half a million dollars.

Four schools – Wenona, Queenwood, SCEGGS and Mosman Church of England Preparatory School – were the first to join the $500,000 club last year after parents’ median family pay packets crossed that income threshold, tax office records show.

At Cranbrook, the median parent income for that school jumped by $83,000 in two years, or 9 per cent annually, to $485,000, outpacing recent fee increases. Year 12 fees now stand at $52,000.

Across 14 schools, median parent income jumped by $50,000 or more between 2023 and 2025, including at Shore, Monte Sant’ Angelo and St Catherine’s.

Other schools where parent income surged included St Vincent’s, St Ignatius and Stella Maris colleges.

While some high-fee schools have total incomes of half a million dollars, some others are much lower. At King’s, the median is $260,000 and at Pymble Ladies’ College, it is $235,000, while it is $265,000 at Trinity.

The government started collecting data on parent salaries using tax office data under its Direct Measure of Income method to distribute funding in 2022. It ranks schools based on parents’ income to determine how much government funding flows to each school.

Independent Schools Australia chief executive Graham Catt said the education funding model was based on the principle of needs-based support for every student.

“It is more accurate to think of funding for students, not institutions. Governments spend, on average, about $26,140 per student in government schools and $13,550 per student in independent schools,” he said.

“Students at the highest capacity-to-contribute independent schools attract considerably less again, and the parent-income data you are examining is already built into the funding.”

The data was obtained in the federal parliament by Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne, who said private schools were heaping above-inflation fee hikes on parents while also receiving taxpayer funding.

“It doesn’t pass the pub test that the richest schools in the state, attended by kids of the wealthiest families, plunder billions every year from the public purse while every single public school in NSW remains underfunded,” she said.

“The private school lobby claims they’re relieving pressure on the public school system but that’s a false economy.

“Public schools are so underfunded that out-of-pocket costs are soaring and teachers are dipping into their own pockets to pay for classroom supplies. Meanwhile, private schools heap above-inflation fee increases on parents.

“Our funding model is failing our kids. Australia has one of the most segregated and privatised school systems in the OECD. Instead of giving every kid the chance to thrive, we’re entrenching privilege and worsening inequality.”

Education Minister Jason Clare said recent funding agreements would result in $20 billion flowing into public schools in coming decade under the needs-based Gonski funding model.

“It fixes the funding of our public schools,” he said. “We’re the first government to ever do this. This is the Gonski model. It’s based on need.

“Schools with parents on higher incomes get less funding, and vice versa. Schools with parents on lower incomes get more funding.”

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