Selective schools · Profile

Caringbah High: Selective Entry & Places

Caringbah High School is a fully academically selective co-educational high school in Caringbah, Sutherland Shire. It offers 150 Year 7 selective places (75 boys, 75 girls), entered through the Selective High School Placement Test.

The only co-educational selective high school in the Sutherland Shire, selective since 1989, with an unusually broad music program of more than twenty ensembles.


Caringbah High School at a glance

TypeFully selective
GenderCo-educational
SuburbCaringbah, Sutherland Shire
Year 7 places150 (75 boys, 75 girls), 2027 entry NSW Department of Education selective-schools list
Entry routesYear 7 via the Selective High School Placement Test.Places for Years 8–11 are filled when vacancies arise, through the Department's statewide Selective High School Years 8 to 11 application process.
BoardingNone — day school.
Official websitecaringbah-h.schools.nsw.gov.au

How entry works

Year 7 entry to Caringbah High runs through the statewide NSW Selective High School Placement Test, sat in Year 6. There is no separate school exam and no catchment for selective places — you nominate the school among your preferences, and offers are made from a single statewide placement score. The steps and deadlines are in our application walkthrough.

About one applicant in four receives a selective place across the state. A miss says very little about a capable child — with roughly four applicants for every place, the maths alone means most well-prepared children miss out, and are fine.

Later years: Places for Years 8–11 are filled when vacancies arise, through the Department's statewide Selective High School Years 8 to 11 application process.


The last-published entry score — read this honestly

The last time the Department published a per-school minimum entry score was for 2021 entry, on the retired 300-point scale. For Caringbah High School that figure was 194/300 (196/300 the year before).

That is a historical record, not a current cut-off. The test and its scoring have changed since — four equally-weighted components, computer-based, no school-assessment mark — the Department no longer publishes per-school minimums, and it states plainly that there is no set entry score. Treat any "current" cut-off you see quoted for Caringbah High as an estimate, not a fact.

Where these figures come from, why the Department stopped publishing them, and how to sanity-check any number you read: our cut-off scores guide.


Known for

  • A government-funded, fully academically selective, co-educational secondary school for Years 7 to 12. source
  • Opened in 1960 and became academically selective in 1989; the only co-educational selective high school in the Sutherland Shire. Motto: "Omnia Vincit Diligentia" (Diligence conquers all). source
  • Runs a large co-curricular music program of twenty-two ensembles, alongside sports including water polo, rugby league and cricket. source

Families near Caringbah

Many families sitting for Caringbah High come from the surrounding suburbs. We compare the selective coaching options — centre by centre, with published prices — for Hurstville and Kogarah.

Other nearby areas: Miranda, Cronulla, Sutherland, Sylvania, Gymea.


Whichever schools end up on your application, it is one test, sat on a computer. The single advantage every family can control is screen familiarity — hours on the real on-screen format before the day. Our full-length selective practice papers run in a player built to mirror that screen, and the first paper in each subject is free, no card required.