Scholarship Information for Brisbane Schools

A recent Education Index survey calculated that privately educating a child born in Brisbane in 2015 could be up to $400 000.

And regional Queensland families who choose government schools to educate their offspring don’t receive much change from $52 000.

So what’s the alternative?

School Scholarships!

Although most scholarships are awarded for academic ability, some schools will offer scholarships for those students skilled in particular areas, with music being the most common. However, sports and performing arts scholarships are also available. They can also be for full or part tuition fees, dependent upon the individual schools, the students and the evaluation process.

Students who apply for scholarships will be asked to sit exams to assess their academic potential. This can be done by individual schools, or by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). The testing is not of the student’s IQ but of their scholastic potential or ability.

Queensland School Scholarship Testing and Eligibility

ACER

The ACER scholarship tests consist of a series of academic ability tests used by independent schools to select students for a scholarship award. To sit the tests, applicants must register and pay for each school. Results are marked by ACER and returned to the schools with most tests held in Feb of the previous school year the scholarship is being applied for. For information regarding participating  Queensland schools, click here

Private Schools Directory

The Private Schools Directory lists all private schools in Australia (independent and Catholic) and covers primary and secondary schools. Selecting the schools through a suburb selection leads to a ‘feature’ page that provides extra personalized information regarding each school and their scholarship application process. Click here for more information.

Boarding Schools

Boarding School scholarships can help to ease some of the associated costs with this type of schooling. These scholarships can be either for academic costs or costs associated with boarding. For further information, click here.

Edutests

Edutests is another company that conducts scholarship tests for school across the country, click here for the list of participating schools. They also have online practice tests that may be helpful to prepare the student for the testing process.

Don’t forget that many individual schools also provide information regarding available scholarships so a google search for the particular school you are interested in is always worth a try.

As one can imagine, the process of securing a scholarship is intensively competitive. Belinda Jenkins from the Queenwood School for Girls states:

“While many hundreds of students apply for scholarships each year, there are only a small percentage that can be awarded. The experience itself should be seen as a positive one, even if unsuccessful. The exam experience gained from sitting the scholarship test builds exam techniques for the future.”