Helpful enrolment information
Your application will need to be accompanied by several supporting documents and other information, listed here:
– The application for enrolment fee.
– A copy of the student’s full birth certificate.
– A copy of residency/citizenship papers if the student or both parents were born overseas.
– A copy of the latest school report if the student is of school age.
– Referee details.
– An English proficiency test which may be required for students whose first language is not English. The Registrar will refer parents to a testing organisation.
– Any specific needs that may impact on the student’s education and/or participation in programs provided by the School. Parents are required to submit any further updates both before and after the student is enrolled.
– Court Order or Parenting Plan, if any, relevant to the student. Parents are required to submit any further updates both before and after the student is enrolled.
Junior School
The entry points for Junior School are Transition, Kindergarten, Year 3 and Year 5.
Accepted places in Transition to Year 3 are offered on a first in first served basis and with consideration of the above factors. Once these priorities have been observed, accepted places are offered directly from the waiting list. This process takes place within the second half of each year after girls have had their first birthday.
Abbotsleigh Old Girls are strongly encouraged to make application soon after the birth of their daughter to best ensure a place at Abbotsleigh. Thereafter, consideration will be given to Old Girl factors but places are more difficult to ensure.
Year 5 places are offered via an assessment process which includes a day visit to the school and a review of student reports and other supporting documents. For families requiring firm placement this assessment may occur from Year 3 onwards.
Senior School
There is an automatic progression from Abbotsleigh Junior School to Year 7.
Year 7 new day students gain entry via an entrance test which is held regularly from the commencement of Year 3 onwards at Abbotsleigh. Students may sit the entrance test once only, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Year 7 applicants may also sit the scholarship examination.
Boarders and daughters of Abbotsleigh Old Girls are not required to attend Year 7 entrance testing to gain entry.
Years 8-11 new day students gain entry on the basis of reports, assessment procedures and an interview.
Year 5
Year 5 entrance testing OR try a day in the Junior School
For entry to: Year 5 2026, Year 5 2027
Please note that there are only limited places available for entry to Year 5 in 2026.
Entrance exam dates: Saturday 10 May 2025 and Saturday 25 October 2025.
Online application will open in March (for May) and August (for October) for entry to Year 7 2026, Year 7 2027, Year 7 2028 and Year 7 2029.
Girls wishing to start at Abbotsleigh in Year 5 are initially waitlisted and then invited to spend a day at the Junior School, allowing your daughter to experience the School and interact with other students. Some assessment testing will take place on this day. This Try day may occur from Year 3 onwards.
Please contact the Registrar by email to request a try day. Please include your daughter’s most recent school report so that we may build her enrolment file.
Please note:
Families may select to either have their daughter attend a try day OR register for the formal entrance exam. The next scheduled entrance exam will be held on Saturday 10 May 2025.
Please select the Year 5 exam when registering to attend the formal entrance exam.
Year 7
Entrance testing
Year 7 new day students gain entry via an entrance test which is held twice a year from the commencement of Year 3 onwards.
The entrance test is held at Abbotsleigh on a Saturday morning, 8.30 am start and finishing at 12 noon.
The testing is age specific, therefore if your daughter is taking the test when in Year 3 she will sit a Year 3 exam paper and the same follows for Year 4 and Year 5.
The format and content of the examination: generally, there are multiple choice tasks to test reasoning ability, reading/comprehension, mathematical ability, and a written expression task.
For entry to: Year 7 2025, Year 7 2026, Year 7 2027, Year 7 2028
Entrance exam dates: Saturday 10 May 2025 and Saturday 25 October 2025.
Online application will open in March (for May) and August (for October) for entry to Year 7 2026, Year 7 2027, Year 7 2028 and Year 7 2029.
Girls in Year 3 and up are invited to register for the entrance test.
Parents will be contacted by email advising the outcome from their daughter’s testing. We expect this will take place approximately 6 to 8 weeks after the exam date.
The offer of a place is at the sole discretion of the School. Some factors involved in exercising that discretion include but are not limited to:
– A strong family connection to Abbotsleigh.
– Parent who is in full time Anglican ministry.
– Availability of an appropriate day or boarding place for the student.
– The student’s ability to benefit from Abbotsleigh’s program of preparing students for university.
– The result of an entrance test for Year 7 and an assessment process for Year 5 and Years 8 to 11.
– Documentary evidence of English proficiency for students whose first language is not English.
– Referees.
– The gap between the date of birth and date of Application for Enrolment.
Please note:
– A student is placed on the ‘waitlist’ on receipt of the completed Application for Enrolment. A ‘waitlisted place’ is not a secure place, but it may convert to an offer of an ‘accepted’ place closer to the time of entry.
– An ‘accepted’ place is a place secured after payment of a non refundable acceptance fee.
– A student is ‘enrolled’ when the parents agree in writing to the School’s offer of an accepted place and after all entry procedures are completed and all entry fees are paid.
– Boarding is available from Years 7 to 12 with intakes in each year. Accepted boarding places are offered well in advance for Year 7 and for other years when available.
– Boarders are not required to sit the Year 7 entrance test to gain entry, but they must sit the scholarship examination if they wish to apply for Year 7 scholarships and bursaries.
– Waitlisted boarders gain entry to Senior College on the basis of reports, assessment procedures and an interview. This assessment process also applies to all boarders seeking Year 10 scholarships.
– Priority in boarding is given to rural and regional NSW students.
– Students enrolled as boarders are expected to remain as boarders and our allocation of places depends on this. Boarding is a long term commitment unless the School has previously agreed in writing to the contrary.
– A boarding place will be converted to a day place only in unusual circumstances and only when the boarding/day numbers allow. A change in status, either before or after commencement, is entirely at the discretion of the School.
– Boarders may be waitlisted for day places in the hope that a change of status becomes available. However, boarders in Year 11 must remain as boarders until the end of Year 12.
– At her discretion, the Headmistress may allow a boarder to live at home, but there will be no reduction in the boarding fee if there is no suitable day place available.
– Boarders who become day students must live with their parents and must not live in the care of any other relative or friend, unless specifically approved by the Headmistress.
To ensure your daughter’s place at Abbotsleigh, certain entry fees apply.
- Application fee of $450 – payable when application is made
- Acceptance fee of $1,750 – payable when a position is offered
- Entrance fee of $2,750 – payable two years prior to entry, which finalises the enrolment process for a student
The full Abbotsleigh fee schedule is available as a PDF for your reference. Click here to download the fee schedule.
The Fees in Advance (FADV) Program enables families to pay Tuition Fees (and Boarding Fees if applicable) in advance. In return for the prepayment of fees, Abbotsleigh (the School) will give a discount on future fees. To receive a discount, the prepayment must cover at least the next full year of Tuition Fees and be paid before the end of November in the previous year. For example, the final day to pay fees in advance for 2026 is 30 November 2025.
