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Perth High School Rankings 2026: NAPLAN Performance Compared
Choosing a high school carries more weight than primary, the ATAR pathway, specialist programs, and peer cohort all start mattering in the same way they don't at Year 4. This page ranks the top public (government) high schools in Perth by Year 9 NAPLAN, refreshed automatically as new ACARA data lands. ICSEA and attendance are shown alongside each school as context.
Our ranking methodology
Every public secondary school with a published NAPLAN result is included. The headline Score is a NAPLAN percentile:
- Year 9 NAPLAN domains (reading, writing, numeracy, grammar, spelling) are pooled per school
- The pooled average is ranked as a percentile within the WA public secondary cohort: 90 means top 10%, 50 is metro median
- If NAPLAN is suppressed by ACARA (small enrolments), the percentile falls back to ICSEA, which correlates strongly at school level
ICSEA and attendance are not blended into the score. They are displayed next to every school so you can interpret the NAPLAN result for yourself.
Why we don't include ATAR in this ranking
We get this question constantly. The short answer: there is no reliable WA-wide public ATAR dataset that we can aggregate per school in a fair, current way. SCSA publishes statewide WACE statistics but not a clean school-level breakdown that includes every cohort and every school. ATAR rankings published elsewhere are often based on self-reported data, partial cohorts, or older snapshots. Rather than launder uncertain numbers into a confident-looking league table, we use Year 9 NAPLAN: universally administered, current, and the strongest standardised predictor of Year 12 outcomes we can defensibly source.
The correlation between Year 9 NAPLAN and ATAR isn't perfect, a high-performing Year 9 cohort can still drift in senior school, and gifted-and-talented programs distort top-end results, but at the school-level aggregate it is strong enough to use as a ranking signal. For ATAR-specific comparisons, see Better Education's WA ATAR rankings or the SCSA WACE statistics. We will revisit ATAR when a publicly available, complete dataset exists.
Perth Modern is a special case
Perth Modern School is Western Australia's only fully academically selective public high school. Entry is by test (the Department of Education's Gifted and Talented test), not catchment, and intake is state-wide. Its position at the top of nearly every Perth ranking reflects that selectivity, the cohort is pre-filtered for academic ability before it even arrives. It is a different kind of school than the others on this list, and the comparison is not strictly like-for-like. We include it because parents researching "top Perth high schools" will expect to see it, but we flag the selectivity asterisk every time.
School performance metrics, what we display
Each school below shows four data points:
- Score: NAPLAN percentile (0-100, higher is better)
- ICSEA: 1000 is national average; higher means more advantaged community
- Attendance: percentage of school days attended
- NAPLAN average: mean of all five Year 9 NAPLAN domains, raw score
How the score scale works
| Score | Tier | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 90-100 | Top 10% | Top 10% of WA public high schools by NAPLAN |
| 75-89 | Above average | Well above metro NAPLAN median |
| 50-74 | Median | Around metro NAPLAN median; mainstream public secondary |
| 0-49 | Below median | Below median NAPLAN. Read alongside ICSEA before drawing conclusions |
How to read ICSEA
| ICSEA | Community advantage | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1150+ | Strongly advantaged | Top 10% of Australian schools by socio-educational advantage |
| 1050-1149 | Advantaged | Most affluent Perth suburbs sit here |
| 950-1049 | Average | National average is 1000; most Perth public high schools fall here |
| Below 950 | Less advantaged | ICSEA below 900 indicates significant socio-educational disadvantage |
The 2026 rankings
The top 10 below are the highest-performing public high schools in the Perth metro area as of the latest ACARA data refresh.
How NAPLAN tracks community wealth
Explore the live ICSEA vs NAPLAN chart on Schools. Hover any dot to see the school name, NAPLAN domains, and suburb.
The same pattern visible at primary level holds at secondary: ICSEA explains a large share of the variance in NAPLAN. The schools worth a closer look are the ones above the trend line, NAPLAN above what their ICSEA would predict, where teaching quality is doing measurable work. Use the scatter plot or our Schools explorer to identify them.
Specialist programs change the picture
Several Perth public high schools run gifted-and-talented streams or specialist sport, music, or academic programs that admit students from outside the standard catchment. These pathways matter because they let your child attend a top-ranked school without moving suburbs.
WA runs Gifted and Talented Selective Entrance Programs (GATE) at 24 public secondary schools across academic, arts, and languages streams. The main pathways to know about:
- Academic GATE: Willetton SHS runs the largest selective academic program at 64 places per cohort, entry via the Department's Academic Selective Entrance Test (ASET) in Year 6.
- Languages GATE: Rossmoyne SHS offers 40 Year 7 places across Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, and Japanese. Mount Lawley SHS runs a smaller selective Languages program in Chinese (Mandarin) and Italian. Both schools admit on the Department's Selective Entrance Test plus interview.
- Arts GATE: John Curtin College of the Arts is WA's only fully selective arts college, with seven Gifted and Talented Arts Programs: ballet, contemporary dance, drama, music, music theatre, media arts, and visual arts. Entry is by audition or portfolio.
- Specialist sport, music, and language programs at named schools, each with their own selection trial or audition.
All academic GATE applicants sit the Department of Education's Academic Selective Entrance Test (ASET) in Year 6 for Year 7 entry. Apply mid-Year 5 to be eligible for the test window.
Specialist program acceptance does not depend on living in catchment, so a child accepted into a sport or arts program at a top-ranked school effectively skips the catchment lottery.
Catchment vs selective entry
Most public high schools allocate places by local intake area (catchment). Some, Perth Modern, plus Schools of Special Educational Need, admit state-wide via selection tests. Where neither catchment nor selective entry applies, out-of-area applications go through the school's standard enrolment process, prioritised in order: in-area with sibling, in-area without sibling, out-of-area with sibling, out-of-area by proximity. Popular high schools (Rossmoyne, Willetton, Shenton) routinely turn away out-of-area applicants in mainstream entry, which is why specialist programs and GATE streams are often the realistic path in.
If you're choosing between schools, our WA catchment guide walks through the rules and how out-of-catchment applications work in practice.
What about Catholic and independent high schools?
This list covers WA government secondary schools only. The Catholic system (Aquinas, Mercedes, John XXIII, Trinity, CBC Fremantle and around 20 others in the metro area) and independent schools (Hale, Christ Church, Wesley, MLC, Methodist Ladies' and dozens more) operate on different fee, admissions, and selection rules. Mixing them with government schools in one league table would be misleading, they will get their own rankings on separate pages.
Looking at primary school rankings instead?
See Perth primary school rankings 2026 for the primary-school equivalent ranking.
Data & methodology
The Score is a NAPLAN percentile calculated by our data pipeline from ACARA-published Year 9 results. The five NAPLAN domains (reading, writing, numeracy, grammar, spelling) are averaged within each school, then converted to a percentile within the WA public secondary cohort.
ICSEA and attendance are shown alongside each school but do not influence the score. If NAPLAN is suppressed by ACARA (small cohort, typically fewer than 30 students at Year 9), the percentile falls back to ICSEA, which correlates strongly at the school level.
Inclusion criteria: Government sector, Secondary or Combined school type, and a non-null score.
ATAR is excluded because no reliable WA-wide ATAR dataset is publicly available at school grain. Year 9 NAPLAN is a defensible proxy for academic strength, universally administered, and strongly correlated with senior outcomes at the cohort level. For ATAR-specific rankings, see Better Education or SCSA WACE statistics.
Data sources: ACARA / MySchool for NAPLAN, ICSEA, attendance, and enrolments. WA Department of Education for catchment and gifted-and-talented program information. Refreshed automatically when new ACARA releases land.
Nick Lilleyman
Founder & Data Lead, Burb Score
Nick built Burb Score to give Perth families a data-driven view of where to live. He works directly with the ACARA, WA Police, ABS Census, WA Rental Bonds and real estate datasets that power every ranking on this site. Rankings are generated programmatically from official data sources, not opinions, and refresh automatically. No sponsored content or paid placements.
Frequently asked questions
Why isn't ATAR in this ranking?
There is no reliable WA-wide ATAR dataset published at school grain. Existing ATAR league tables (Better Education and others) draw on partial or self-reported cohorts. We use Year 9 NAPLAN instead, universally administered, current, and a reasonable predictor. For ATAR-specific data, see Better Education or SCSA WACE.
What does the score measure?
It's a Year 9 NAPLAN percentile (0-100) within the WA public secondary cohort. 90 means the school sits in the top 10% by NAPLAN. ICSEA and attendance are shown alongside but do not feed into the score.
Can my child attend a top-ranked school if we don't live in the catchment?
For most schools, you can apply out-of-area but you're competing for limited spots and placed on a priority list. Perth Modern admits state-wide via a selection test. Schools with specialist programs (gifted-and-talented, sport, music, academic) typically run their own admission tests and accept applications from outside the catchment. See our catchment guide for the full enrolment rules.
Why is Perth Modern always at the top?
Perth Modern is WA's only fully academically selective public high school. Students are admitted via the Department of Education's Gifted and Talented test from anywhere in the state. The cohort is pre-filtered for academic ability, which is why its NAPLAN and WACE numbers consistently sit at the top.
Why is ICSEA shown alongside the score but not blended in?
Blending hides the question. NAPLAN alone tends to track community wealth. By showing ICSEA on every card alongside the NAPLAN score, you can spot schools punching above their cohort yourself. A school with NAPLAN well above its ICSEA is doing more for its students than one with both numbers aligned.
What is a 'good' ICSEA score?
1000 is the national average. Around 950-1050 covers most Perth public high schools. Above 1100 typically indicates a more advantaged community; below 900 a less advantaged one. ICSEA is not a school quality measure, it's a contextual indicator.
How often do these rankings change?
Rankings refresh automatically when new ACARA data lands in our pipeline (typically annually). Individual school scores move when Year 9 NAPLAN shifts year-over-year.
Are Catholic and independent high schools in this list?
No, this list is government schools only. Catholic and independent sectors will get their own rankings. Mixing sectors with different fee and admission structures produces a misleading comparison.
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