Selective schools · Profile
Tempe High: Selective Entry & Places
Tempe High School is a partially selective co-educational high school in Tempe, Inner West. It offers 60 Year 7 selective places, entered through the Selective High School Placement Test.
An Inner West school (1874), partially selective since 2005, offering selective, enrichment and mainstream pathways in a strikingly multicultural setting.
Tempe High School at a glance
| Type | Partially selective |
|---|---|
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Suburb | Tempe, Inner West |
| Year 7 places | 60, 2027 entry — NSW Department of Education selective-schools list |
| Entry routes | Year 7 via the Selective High School Placement Test.Year 7 is the main selective intake; for Years 8–11 the school manages its own selective vacancies and assessments as they arise. |
| Boarding | None — day school. |
| Official website | tempe-h.schools.nsw.gov.au |
How entry works
Year 7 entry to Tempe 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: Year 7 is the main selective intake; for Years 8–11 the school manages its own selective vacancies and assessments as they arise.
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 Tempe High School that figure was 189/300 (188/300 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 Tempe 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
- One of the oldest public secondary schools in the area, established in 1874.
- Partially selective since 2005, running Selective, Enrichment and Mainstream pathways across Years 7–12.
- A culturally and linguistically diverse student body — the subject of the 1994 SBS documentary "The School of Babel" — with targeted selective places available for Aboriginal students.
Families near Tempe
Other nearby areas: St Peters, Sydenham, Marrickville, Wolli Creek, Arncliffe.