It’s been an age-old battle between the public schools vs private schools in Brisbane to determine which is the best route of education for students.
Both sides argue its supremacy, with public defending the low costs and broad opportunities their schools offer, and private offering its facilities and consistently high results.
Choosing a school is one of the biggest decisions a family will ever make for their child and we want to make it easier for you!
Keep scrolling to check out the research we’ve done to discover the top public and private schools in Brisbane!
Top Public ATAR Schools in Brisbane
Top Private ATAR Schools in Brisbane
Which is better — private vs public schools in Brisbane?
How We Calculated the Scores
To calculate the ranking, we gathered publicly released data for each school, and averaged publicly released data from each school on the percentage of students who achieved above 80, 90, 95 and 99 ATAR results. We then averaged those percentages into a single score.
This was mapped against the state distribution (using the publicly released QTAC information), and then bravo! We are then able to identify the number of times (outperforming percentage) that a school performs above the state distribution.
Curious about the difference in ATAR results between co-ed and single-sex schools? Check out the top Boys, Girls, and Co-ed schools in Brisbane!
The Top Public ATAR Schools in Brisbane
The Public School list is really where a lot of the insights lie, considering we’re seeing Mansfield, The Gap, Corinda and Kenmore all taking a place within the Top 5 for the first time! All of these schools are great options should you be looking for a public school to attend!
| Ranking # | School | Outperforming Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brisbane State High School | 224% |
| 2 | Mansfield State High School | 191% |
| 3 | The Gap State High School | 71% |
| 4 | Corinda State High School | 71% |
| 5 | Kenmore State High School | 51% |
| 6 | Stretton State College | 27% |
| 7 | Indooroopilly State High School | 21% |
| 8 | Balmoral State High School | 21% |
| 9 | Mount Gravatt State High School | 21% |
| 10 | MacGregor State High School | 17% |
Brisbane State High School and Mansfield are clearly a cut above the rest.
The Top Private ATAR Schools in Brisbane
Nothing is too different in the top private school lists, as we see that many of the names are familiar from the Top Overall ATAR ranking for schools, however we can see that they significantly outperform the public schools in results.
| Ranking # | School | Outperforming Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brisbane Grammar School | 353% |
| 2 | Brisbane Girls Grammar School | 346% |
| 3 | St Aidan's Anglican Girls' School | 235% |
| 4 | Anglican Church Grammar School | 224% |
| 5 | All Hallows' School | 214% |
| 6 | St Margaret's Anglican Girls School | 201% |
| 7 | Ormiston College | 172% |
| 8 | Redlands College | 172% |
| 9 | Mt St Michael's College | 139% |
| 10 | Somerville House | 129% |
| 11 | Ipswich Girls' Grammar School | 121% |
| 12 | Villanova College | 104% |
| 13 | Brisbane Boys' College | 103% |
| 14 | Stuartholme School | 89% |
| 15 | Cannon Hill Anglican College | 87% |
| 16 | Sheldon College | 86% |
| 17 | Mount Alvernia College | 81% |
| 18 | Marist College Ashgrove | 73% |
| 19 | Moreton Bay Boys College | 72% |
| 20 | Northside Christian College | 65% |
Which is better — private vs public schools in Brisbane?
So… what’s the verdict? If we are to simply make a call based on pure results and school performance, the data highlights that Private schools are the most optimal in terms of academic success.
Private schools dominated the 2023 Top School Ranking, with the majority of institutions outperforming the state average to 3 figure percentages.
In simple academic terms, Private schools as a category in the Top 50 schools outperform State schools by 21%.
However, there are a lot more factors to consider, such as cost, distance, and actual ROI, which is why we’re not done unpacking this topic just yet.
Check out which schools come out on top based on cost efficiency and ROI here!
Don’t see your school on here? It’s likely that your school does not publicly publish their ATAR data! Publicly submit your data in 2023 or contact us at [email protected] to submit your results to Art of Smart.
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