Cranbrook School and The Scots College have placed 12th and 14th respectively in NSW in a national ranking of private primary schools based on 2025 NAPLAN results, student-teacher ratios, attendance levels and socio-educational advantage.
The rankings, based on analysis of more than 2,000 private primary schools nationwide, place Bellevue Hill among a small number of Sydney suburbs with multiple schools in the state’s top 15. Both schools operate as combined K-12 institutions, meaning families who start their children in primary school here often stay through to Year 12.
Average combined primary and secondary fees at Cranbrook sit at $45,662, and at The Scots College at $40,774.
Cranbrook: from a single Victorian house to a co-educational campus
Cranbrook opened on 22 July 1918, founded by Rev. Frederick T. Perkins as an Anglican day and boarding school at the site in Bellevue Hill. The school’s motto, Esse Quam Videri, translates from Latin as “To be, rather than to seem to be.”
For more than a century it operated as a boys’ school, becoming one of the most recognisable names in Sydney’s eastern suburbs private education landscape. From 2026 it became co-educational, with girls enrolling in Years 7 and 11 as part of a phased transition across the senior school.
The school has 1,693 students, an ICSEA score of 1181, placing it in the 99th percentile nationally, and a student-to-teacher ratio of 9:1. NAPLAN participation in 2024 was 100 per cent, with results well above or above All Australian Students comparators across every year level tested.
The Scots College: 133 years of Presbyterian education on the same hill
The Scots College was founded in 1893 at Brighton-le-Sands by Reverend Arthur Aspinall and the Presbyterian Church of Australia, established to meet the educational needs of Scottish Presbyterian settlers in Sydney. The school relocated to its current Bellevue Hill site in 1895 and has operated there ever since.
It remains one of Sydney’s best-known independent boys’ schools, with day and boarding places, multiple campuses including Brighton-Le-Sands and Kangaroo Valley, and a Pipes and Drums band that has been playing since 1900. The school enrols 2,076 students across its campuses.
In the 2025 NAPLAN testing cycle, 97.5 per cent of Year 3 students across both the Bellevue Hill and Dolls Point campuses achieved in the Strong or Exceeding band, a result the school described as a reflection of the rigorous learning experiences offered to students.
How the rankings were calculated
The rankings assessed more than 2,000 private primary schools nationwide using a formula that weighted academic achievement alongside student engagement, class sizes and community demographics.
NAPLAN scores were assessed against the band distribution for each subject rather than raw averages, which prevents outlier results from distorting the rankings.
Fees were not included in the formula but are published alongside results because they represent a key consideration for families.
Published 3-June-2026
