Private School Scholarships in Perth: What's Still Open for 2027, and the 2028-Entry Calendar
26 August 2026
Eighteen of the 21 Perth private schools we checked run scholarship rounds, and most of them award 25% to 50% of tuition at Year 7 entry. For 2027 entry, the main academic rounds closed in February 2026 — but five rounds are still open right now, with deadlines between 1 September and 11 October 2026, including two full-fee means-tested awards. For 2028 entry, the next wave opens in November 2026, closes in early February 2027, and tests in the middle of February 2027.
Every date, value and test provider below was checked on the school's own scholarship page on 25 August 2026. Where a school has not published something, we say so rather than guess. Schools reset their dates every year, so confirm on the official page before you plan around anything here.
Key takeaways
- Still open for 2027 entry: Hale's David Bean, Ryan Murphy and Stow Music rounds (close 4 September), PLC's 100% Foundation award for Year 7 (25 September) and music bursaries (1 September), St Hilda's Year 11 OSA Ammonite (1 September), and Mercedes College's full-tuition Mercy Scholarship (25 September).
- 2028 entry opens in November 2026 at Scotch, Aquinas, Iona and St Hilda's, with Penrhos, Wesley and Hale's boarding round following in late 2026. ACER's cooperative registrations open 21 September 2026, though no Perth school in this set names ACER as its test.
- Perth is an AAS city. Ten of the eighteen scholarship schools use Academic Assessment Services; only St George's uses EduTest and only Trinity runs its own paper. That is the opposite of Brisbane and Adelaide, where ACER dominates.
- Full-fee awards exist but are means-tested: PLC Foundation (100%), MLC Shaping Futures (100%), Penrhos Foundation Impact (95%), Scotch Tàlantach (up to 95%), Hale's David Bean top-up (to 100%), Guildford Grammar's D'Arcy Slater (full tuition, one boy and one girl) and Mercedes' Mercy Scholarship.
- A 50% award at the dearest schools is worth about $16,000 to $17,300 a year — over $100,000 across Years 7 to 12 at today's fees.
- Three well-known schools — Santa Maria, John XXIII and Newman — offer no entry scholarships at all.
What is still open for 2027 entry
If your child is starting Year 7 (or a later year) in 2027 and you missed the February round, these are the rounds with a published closing date still ahead.
| School | Award | Who it is for | Value | Closes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hale School | David Bean Scholarship | Academic, Years 7–11 | Up to 50%; up to 100% means-tested | Fri 4 Sep 2026 |
| Hale School | Ryan Murphy General Excellence | Years 7–11 | Up to 25% | Fri 4 Sep 2026 |
| Hale School | Stow Music Scholarship | Years 7–11 | Up to 50% plus subsidised music tuition | Fri 4 Sep 2026 |
| PLC Perth | Music Bursaries | Years 7–12 | Not stated | Tue 1 Sep 2026 (auditions 14–16 Sep) |
| PLC Perth | Foundation Means-Tested Scholarship | Year 7 | 100% of tuition | Fri 25 Sep 2026 |
| St Hilda's | OSA Ammonite Scholarship | Year 11 | Not stated | Tue 1 Sep 2026 |
| Mercedes College | Mercy Scholarship | New students, Years 8–11, low-income families | Full tuition remission, reviewed annually | Fri 25 Sep 2026 (notified 9 Oct) |
| Mercedes College | Sisters of Mercy and Louise Allen-Arbuckle music awards | AMEB Grade 2 / Grade 4 minimum | Two years of instrumental tuition | Sun 11 Oct 2026 |
| Christ Church Grammar | Building Good Men Regional Boarding (Years 8–10); South West Regional Academic (Years 7–9) | Regional boarders | Up to 50% | "Now being accepted" — no closing date published |
Two of those deserve a second look. PLC's Foundation award and Mercedes' Mercy Scholarship are both full-fee, means-tested and still open, which is the rarest combination in this whole list. Neither requires a February exam result; both require financial documentation. Hale's David Bean round is the other one worth a late application: it is academic, but a family that qualifies on means can see the standard 50% lifted to 100%.
The 2028-entry calendar
For a child starting Year 7 in 2028 — that is, a child in Year 5 now — this is what the schools have published, and what the last cycle tells us to expect where they have not.
Published openings
- 21 September 2026 — ACER's cooperative scholarship registrations open for 2028 entry (test Saturday 27 February 2027, registrations close 7 February 2027). Useful if you are also applying interstate; no Perth school in this list names ACER.
- November 2026 — Scotch College opens Year 7 academic, music and boarding rounds; Aquinas College opens registrations (its MADALAH Indigenous round opens mid-November and closes 31 March 2027); Iona Presentation College opens, with exams in February 2027, interviews in May and results in early June.
- Late November 2026 — St Hilda's opens its 2028 intake.
- Late 2026 — Penrhos College and Wesley College open.
- December 2026 — Hale's Brian Clarkson rural boarding scholarship opens.
What the last cycle looked like (2027 entry, all now closed)
| School | Applications closed | Exam |
|---|---|---|
| PLC Perth | Wed 4 Feb 2026 (online 30 Jan) | Thu 12 Feb 2026 |
| Perth College | Wed 4 Feb 2026 | Thu 12 Feb 2026 |
| St Hilda's | Wed 4 Feb 2026 (remote 30 Jan) | Sat 14 Feb 2026 |
| St Mary's Anglican Girls' School | Wed 4 Feb 2026 (remote 30 Jan) | Sat 14 Feb 2026 |
| Penrhos College | Wed 4 Feb 2026, 9pm | Sat 14 Feb 2026 |
| Wesley College | Wed 11 Feb 2026 (remote 6 Feb) | Fri 20 Feb 2026 |
| Christ Church Grammar | Not stated | Sat 21 Feb 2026 |
| Trinity College | Fri 27 Feb 2026, 4pm | Not stated |
| All Saints' College | Fri 10 Apr 2026 | Sat 2 May 2026 |
| St George's Anglican Grammar | Tue 2 Jun 2026 | Sat 6 Jun 2026 |
The pattern is tight: most Perth schools close applications in the first week of February and test in the second and third weeks, roughly 12 months before entry. Expect the same for 2028 — applications closing around early February 2027 and exams mid-February 2027 — with All Saints' (May) and St George's (June) as the late exceptions. Because Perth schools set their own dates, a child can sit for several schools across the fortnight, but each school charges its own application fee.
Perth is an AAS city — and that changes how you prepare
Which test your child sits is decided by the school, and in Perth the answer is overwhelmingly Academic Assessment Services (AAS): Wesley, St Hilda's, MLC, PLC, St Mary's, Perth College, Iona, All Saints' and Aquinas all name it (PLC through its registration portal, Hale in its most recent published guide). St George's is the only EduTest school. Trinity College runs its own free examination. Christ Church, Scotch, Guildford Grammar, Penrhos and Peter Moyes do not name a provider on their pages, so ask.
Practically, that means most Perth families are preparing for one test format, and the three providers differ more than parents expect in structure and timing. Our ACER vs EduTest vs AAS comparison sets out what each one asks of a Year 6 child. AAS does not run a single national test date — "you can run your scholarship tests on whichever dates work best for your school" is its own description — which is why Perth's exam dates cluster in a fortnight rather than on one Saturday, and why registering through several schools' portals means paying several fees.
What is on offer, school by school
Year 7 fee is the school's published 2026 figure from our WA school fees page. Values are as stated on the scholarship page; "not stated" means the school does not publish it.
| School | Year 7 fee | Scholarship types | Entry years | Stated value | Test | Application fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christ Church Grammar, Claremont | $34,660 | Council Academic, Music, Boarding; regional boarding; South West academic; Indigenous; Drama | 7 (Council); 7–10 (others) | Up to 50%; music adds free tuition on two instruments | Not stated | Not stated |
| St Hilda's, Mosman Park | $34,230 | Academic, General Excellence, Boarding, Indigenous, OSA, needs-based bursaries | 7 and 11 (OSA); others not stated | Up to 50%; bursaries for family income under $200,000 | AAS | $120 (remote $200, overseas $350) |
| MLC Perth, Claremont | $34,125 | Academic, Music, Boarding, Shaping Futures (means-tested), MADALAH, Yalari | 7–10 | Up to 50%; Shaping Futures 100% (external applicants only) | AAS | Not stated |
| PLC Perth, Peppermint Grove | $32,725 | Academic, General Excellence, Music, Performing Arts, Foundation (means-tested), First Nations, rural bursaries | 5–10; Foundation Year 7 | 15–50%; Foundation 100% | AAS portal | Not stated |
| Hale School, Wembley Downs | $32,370 | Foundation Academic, David Bean, Ryan Murphy, Stow Music, boarding, rural boarding, Indigenous | 7–11 | Academic 25% flat; Bean up to 50% (100% means-tested); Murphy up to 25%; Stow up to 50% | AAS (per most recent guide) | $120 metro in the last published guide |
| Scotch College, Swanbourne | $32,280 | Academic, Music, Boarding, Tàlantach (means-tested), Music Fellowships, Indigenous, bursaries | 7 and 11 | Tàlantach 5–95%; fellowships 100% of music tuition; others not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Wesley College, South Perth | $29,530 | Council Entrance, General Excellence, Rural, Council Music, Craft Music, Year 10, Indigenous, OWCA | 7 and 10 | 25–50%; "does not offer full scholarships" | AAS | $150 (remote $200, music $75, interstate $300) |
| Penrhos College, Como | $28,910 | Academic and General Excellence, Margaret Way alumni, Foundation Impact, Boud boarding, Red Dragon, Music Fellowships, MADALAH | 7–9 | 25–50%; Foundation Impact 95% plus $2,000 uniform stipend | Not stated | Not stated |
| St Mary's, Karrinyup | $28,820 | Academic (five named awards), Boarding, part-funded Foundation (means-tested) | 7–11 | 25–50%; part-funded no less than 50% | AAS | Not stated |
| Perth College, Mount Lawley | $28,368 | Council Academic, General Excellence, Music, Performing Arts, rural boarding; Foundation and Old Girls' awards; MADALAH | 5, 7–11 | Part remission; Old Girls' awards 25% and 50% | AAS | Not stated |
| Guildford Grammar, Guildford | $26,180 | Council Academic, D'Arcy Slater, Harry Campbell Pope all-rounder, Calder Crowther (local state-school students, even years), boarding, music, Go Forward, Indigenous | 7; 8–10 (Go Forward) | Up to 50%; D'Arcy Slater full tuition for one boy and one girl | Not stated | Not stated |
| All Saints' College, Bull Creek | $22,253 | Academic, Indigenous, Dance and Drama, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Music, Old Saints' | 5, 7, 10 (academic); 7–12 (others) | 50%; Indigenous up to 100% | AAS | $150 academic, $100 others, $50 Old Saints' |
| Aquinas College, Salter Point | $18,801 | Academic, Music, Schola Cantorum, MADALAH, nine named bursaries | 7–10 | Up to 50%; Schola 35%; Bourke bursary up to 100% | AAS | Not stated |
| Trinity College, East Perth | $16,605 | Academic (Years 4 and 7), Music, Edmund Rice, Karrik, refugee and TOBA bursaries | 4, 7, 11 | Year 7 academic up to 75%; Edmund Rice all or part of tuition | School's own free exam | Free |
| St George's Anglican Grammar, Perth | $12,530 | Academic, General Excellence, Music, First Nations | 7–11 | 25% or 50% | EduTest | $100 |
| Iona Presentation College, Mosman Park | $12,440 | Seven named senior awards (academic, general excellence, music); junior General Excellence | 4, 7, 10 | 25% or 50% | AAS | Not stated |
| Peter Moyes, Mindarie | $7,505 | Merit, general excellence, performance and community awards — all with a financial-needs test | Secondary; not stated | Remission of tuition and levies (IT levy excluded) | Not stated | Not stated |
| Mercedes College, Perth | Not published | Mercy Scholarship, MCA Year 7 awards, music awards, MADALAH | 7–11 | Mercy: full tuition; MCA: $2,500 each | No exam | Not stated |
What a scholarship is actually worth
Because the standard award is a percentage, its dollar value depends entirely on the school's fee. Half of Christ Church's $34,660 is about $17,300 a year; half of Iona's $12,440 is about $6,200. Over six years at today's fees, a 50% award at any of the six dearest schools removes more than $95,000 from a family's bill — and none of those six raises fees by less than the rest of the market.
Read the fine print on what a percentage is a percentage of. Most awards remit tuition only; building levies, endowment or "family confirming" fees, uniforms, devices and camps are usually excluded (Hale states outright that scholarship holders still pay its endowment fee; Trinity's Edmund Rice bursary excludes levies and the resource fee). Wesley says plainly that it "does not offer full scholarships". And the full-fee awards — PLC Foundation, MLC Shaping Futures, Penrhos Foundation Impact, Scotch Tàlantach, Hale's David Bean top-up, Guildford's D'Arcy Slater, Mercedes' Mercy — are all means-tested, with financial statements required.
Remember too that a scholarship changes the fee, not the school. A 50% award at a $32,000 school still leaves a $16,000 bill, which is more than the full fee at three-quarters of Perth's private schools. Our WA school fees page shows the whole range, and our guide to how families pay for private school fees covers the rest of the bill.
Schools that do not offer scholarships — and the public alternative
Three schools parents often ask about run no entry scholarships. Santa Maria College at Attadale says on its site that it "does not currently offer scholarships" through its fund, and its Catherine McAuley bursary is for current students holding a concession card. John XXIII College at Mount Claremont offers a Foundation bursary for financial need, with no published value or dates. Newman College at Churchlands states that it "does not offer academic, spiritual, cultural or sporting scholarships", only music scholarships covering lesson costs and an Aboriginal bursary program.
The other route Perth families weigh against a scholarship is Perth Modern School, the state's academically selective public school. It is free, and entry is by the Department of Education's Gifted and Talented (GATE) process, not a scholarship. For 2027 entry, applications opened 14 October 2025, closed 6 February 2026, and the Academic Selective Entrance Test ran on Saturday 7 March 2026 for Year 7, with first-round offers on 22 June 2026. The 2028-entry dates were not yet published on 25 August 2026; the department asks families to register their interest. Note that the GATE round closes at almost exactly the same time as the private scholarship rounds, so a family pursuing both is running two applications in the same fortnight.
How to prepare from here
If you are aiming at 2028 entry, you have about five months before applications close and six before the exam fortnight. Our complete guide to private school scholarships covers the application step by step, when to start preparing sets out a realistic runway, and improving your child's chances without tutoring is the honest version of what actually moves a result. For the national picture — including Hale and PLC alongside eighteen eastern-states schools — see our top 20 Australian private schools offering scholarships.
One Perth-specific piece of advice: because the exams cluster in one fortnight and the dearest schools cluster in one part of town — Claremont, Mosman Park, Peppermint Grove, Swanbourne, Wembley Downs, South Perth — shortlist for the commute you can actually live with before you shortlist for the award. What is on around each suburb after school is on the AroundSchools hubs linked above, and the national view is in our Kids' Activity Index.
Frequently asked questions
When do Perth private school scholarship applications open for 2028 entry?
Most open in November 2026 (Scotch, Aquinas, Iona and St Hilda's have said so), with Penrhos, Wesley and Hale's boarding round following in late 2026. Based on the 2027-entry cycle, expect applications to close in the first week of February 2027 and exams to run in the second and third weeks of February 2027.
Are any Perth scholarships still open for 2027 entry?
Yes, as at 25 August 2026: Hale's David Bean, Ryan Murphy and Stow Music rounds (close 4 September), PLC's music bursaries (1 September) and Foundation means-tested award (25 September), St Hilda's Year 11 OSA Ammonite (1 September), Mercedes College's Mercy Scholarship (25 September) and music awards (11 October), and Christ Church's regional boarding and South West academic rounds, which have no published closing date.
Which Perth schools offer full scholarships?
Full-fee awards are means-tested: PLC's Foundation Scholarship (100% of tuition, Year 7), MLC's Shaping Futures (100%, external applicants), Penrhos' Foundation Impact (95%), Scotch's Tàlantach (up to 95%), Hale's David Bean (up to 100% for families who qualify on means), Guildford Grammar's D'Arcy Slater (full tuition, one boy and one girl) and Mercedes College's Mercy Scholarship (full tuition, low-income families). Wesley states it does not offer full scholarships.
Which scholarship test do Perth schools use?
Mostly Academic Assessment Services (AAS): Wesley, St Hilda's, MLC, PLC, St Mary's, Perth College, Iona, All Saints', Aquinas and Hale. St George's uses EduTest. Trinity runs its own free exam. Christ Church, Scotch, Guildford Grammar and Penrhos do not name a provider on their websites.
Can my child apply to several Perth schools?
Yes. Perth schools set their own dates, so exams fall on different days across mid-February, and a child can sit more than one. Each school charges its own application fee — $100 to $150 where published — and registers you through its own AAS portal.
Is Perth Modern School a scholarship?
No. Perth Modern is a free, academically selective public school. Entry is through the WA Department of Education's GATE process and the Academic Selective Entrance Test, which for 2027 entry closed on 6 February 2026 and tested on 7 March 2026.
Every date and value above was verified on the school's own scholarship page or the WA Department of Education's GATE pages on 25 August 2026. Schools change their programs annually — confirm on the official page before applying. Year 7 fees from aroundschools.com.au/school-fees/wa, correct as at August 2026.
