Costs of our classrooms

GEELONG’S richest school rakes in more than $115.7 million in three years and parents wanting to send their kids to the region’s most expensive school have to fork out $22,648, tightly held school statistics reveal.

An independent analysis of school financial records from the MySchool website have shown the massive amount of money some schools make every year, and how little some schools are forced to scrape by on.

The figures revealed Geelong Grammar School in Corio had a higher gross income than any other school in the Geelong region. The school made a gross income of $115.7 million, according to financial records from the three most recently available years.

The region’s second richest school was The Geelong College, in Newtown, which had a gross income of $114.3 million.

The school with the third highest gross income was Kardinia International College which made $103.4 million.

The figures include all fees, charges and parental contributions as well as state and federal government funding and any other private sources over the 2015, 2016 and 2017 years.

It does not include any deductions for capital works or debt servicing.

The analysis does not include special schools or schools that did not have complete financial data in MySchool for one or more of 2015, 2016 or 2017.

Queenscliff Primary School had the lowest gross income of any school in the Geelong region. It made just $1.6 million over the three year period.

However, the small school had only 11 students in 2015 and 2016 and 46 in 2017.

The region’s school most expensive school was The Geelong College in Newtown where the average amount parents had to fork out in fees, charges and contributions in 2017 was $22,648. Geelong Grammar School, in Corio, had the Geelong region’s second highest average parental contributions with $20,871.

The data excludes boarding fees, and the figures include parental donations.

Earlier this year an EdStart report found Geelong Grammar to be the nation’s most expensive school, charging more than $40,000 for year 12 dayboarding fees.

Geelong College claimed the title as the region’s secondpriciest institution, charging $29,284 for year 12 tuition.

The school with the third highest parental contributions according to MySchool was Christian College Institute of Senior Education, where the average contribution was $13,698.