The King’s School Fees 2027: Parramatta Boarding, Scholarships & Review

The King’s School fees for 2027 are $48,860 a year in Years 7–8, $49,420 in Years 9–10 and $52,380 in Years 11–12 for tuition, with boarding charged on top at $37,540 to $41,980 a year (AUD), according to the official Schedule of Fees 2027 for The King’s School, North Parramatta (checked 3 November 2026). A Year 7 boarder therefore pays $86,400 a year for tuition and boarding together, rising to $94,360 in Year 11. Every family also pays a non-refundable $300 registration fee and, once a place is accepted, a non-refundable $5,000 Student Admission Fee. The fees page now links the 2027 schedules, so this page uses 2027 figures throughout.

A quick note on the name: this page is about The King’s School in North Parramatta, Sydney (New South Wales, Australia) — not The King’s School, Canterbury in England, King’s College in Auckland, New Zealand, or the online school King’s InterHigh. If you searched “The King’s School fees”, “King’s School Parramatta boarding fees” or “is The King’s School worth it”, you probably want more than one number. You want to know what each year costs, what boarding includes, which extras appear on the invoice, how much the whole journey from Year 7 to Year 12 adds up to, how admissions and scholarships work, and how King’s compares with other Sydney boarding schools. This page answers those questions from the school’s own website and fee schedules, compares it with Knox Grammar School and Barker College, and shows how NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (NGA) — a very different option, an online international school for ages 6–18 opening in September 2027 — fits in.

The short answer: who The King’s School suits — and who it doesn’t

• Suits: families looking for a boys’ boarding school in Sydney. Boys can board from Year 7 to Year 12 in five boarding houses on a 320-acre campus in North Parramatta, with Year 7 boarders starting together in their own house, Gowan Brae.
• Suits: country and regional families. The school says it welcomes boys “from the country and the city”, and its fee schedule includes transport to and from sporting fixtures in the boarding fee.
• Suits: families who want a choice of senior credential. King’s teaches the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) with more than 45 HSC subjects, and it is also authorised for the IB Diploma Programme, whose first cohort began in 2025.
• Suits: boys who will enjoy a full co-curricular life. Its Cadet Corps, which the school describes as the oldest in Australia, has over 800 cadets and is compulsory in Years 9–10.
• Harder fit: families on a tighter budget. Tuition and boarding from Year 7 to Year 12 total $540,700 at 2027 prices before extras, and scholarship values are not published on the official site.
• Harder fit: families who want a co-educational secondary school. The Parramatta Senior School is for boys; the co-educational Tudor House campus in the Southern Highlands only runs to Year 6.
• Harder fit: families who want to stay together at home, or who live outside Australia and do not want boarding. For them, a day school in their own city or an online option may fit better.

What The King’s School is

The King’s School describes itself as “Australia’s oldest independent school”. According to its official values and history page, it was founded in 1831 by command of King William IV of England; the Reverend Robert Forrest was appointed the first Headmaster in May 1831, and the school opened in 1832 with three pupils. It was established as a boys’ school and today describes itself as a Christian community and as a specialist in boys’ education. In a history of nearly 200 years it has had 20 Headmasters. Its address is 87–129 Pennant Hills Road, North Parramatta, on 320 acres of parkland that the school describes as being at the “demographic centre of Sydney”.

The school runs two campuses. At North Parramatta, the Preparatory School (Pre-K to Year 6) and the Senior School (Years 7–12) are for boys, and boys can board from Year 7. Tudor House in the Southern Highlands is a co-educational campus for Pre-K to Year 6, with boarding from Year 3. Tudor House has its own separate fee schedule, which this page does not cover in detail; our focus is the Parramatta campus, which is what most families mean when they search for “The King’s School fees”.

The King’s School fees 2027 (official)

All figures below come from the school’s fees and payments page and its Schedule of Fees 2027 (North Parramatta) and Schedule of Fees 2027 for overseas students, checked on 3 November 2026. All amounts are in Australian dollars. The schedule notes that tuition is generally exempt from GST, while GST applies to the food component of boarding fees (and is included in the boarding figures).

Senior School tuition (Years 7–12, 2027)

The schedule states that Senior School tuition includes Camps Week and curriculum-based excursions, and that “the majority” of academic, extra and co-curricular activities are included in tuition. Year 12 fees are billed over three terms rather than four, which is why the Year 12 termly amount is larger.

Preparatory School tuition (Pre-K to Year 6, 2027)

Preparatory School families also pay an Excursion and Amenities Levy for Pre-K to Year 6; its amount varies with the activities run each year and is not published as a fixed figure. Camps for Years 5–6 are charged separately.

One-off fees, sibling discounts and payment rules

Extras: what the fees do not cover

The schedule says separate fees are charged for items such as technology, textbooks, stationery, excursions, camps and VET subjects. The published amounts are:

• Digital textbooks (Box of Books): $308 a year including GST for Years 7–10; in Years 11–12 the cost depends on subject choices.
• Technology fee (laptop program): $483 a term / $1,932 a year for Years 7–11. In Year 12 the schedule says devices must be purchased through the school’s CompNow Parent Purchase Portal; insurance is optional and extra.
• Day boy daily lunch: $629 a term — $2,516 a year in Years 7–11 and $1,887 in Year 12 (three terms). Boarders’ meals are already in the boarding fee.
• Uniform: about $2,300 initial cost for the full regulation uniform including sports uniform; a Cadet Corps uniform in Year 8 is about $400.
• School bus: King’s-operated services across metropolitan Sydney cost $554 a term.
• VET subjects (Years 11–12), music and other extra-curricular activities, functions and events: advised separately; amounts not published on the official site.

What The King’s School costs from Year 7 to Year 12 (2027 prices)

Using only the official 2027 figures, and assuming no fee rises, no scholarship, no sibling discount and no extras:

• Day boy, Year 7 to Year 12: tuition 2 × $48,860 + 2 × $49,420 + 2 × $52,380 = $301,320, plus $300 registration and $5,000 admission = $306,620. Day boy lunch would add 5 × $2,516 + $1,887 = $14,467 if taken every year.
• Domestic boarder, Year 7 to Year 12: tuition $301,320 + boarding (2 × $37,540 + 2 × $41,060 + $41,980 + $40,200 = $239,380) = $540,700, plus $5,300 in entry fees = $546,000.
• Common extras for a Year 7 starter: technology fee 5 × $1,932 = $9,660 (Years 7–11), digital textbooks 4 × $308 = $1,232 (Years 7–10) and about $2,300 for the first uniform — roughly $13,200 more before Year 12 devices, Years 11–12 textbooks, music or VET.
• Overseas boarder on a student visa, Year 7 to Year 12: tuition and boarding $540,700, plus the Overseas Student / Visa Fee of 6 × $10,186 = $61,116, plus $5,300 entry fees = $607,116, before Overseas Student Health Cover and an HSC fee of about $1,500 charged once in Year 12.

Fees are reviewed every year, so real totals will be higher. Our guide to online vs in-person international school costs puts figures like these in a wider context.

Boarding at King’s: fees and what is included

Boarding is the reason many families outside Sydney look at The King’s School. Boys board from Year 7 to Year 12 in five houses — Baker Hake, Bishop Barker Harris, Broughton Forrest, Gowan Brae and Macarthur Waddy. All Year 7 boarders begin in Gowan Brae and move into a senior house from Year 8, according to the official Boarding at King’s page. Each house is led by a Housemaster with resident staff, a House Matron and mentors; the Senior School page adds that the school provides three meals a day and has a registered nurse on site every night for 24-hour care.

What boarding includes: the schedule states that boarding fees include all meals, the GST on meals, laundry, bed linen and transport to and from sporting fixtures. Tuition-related extras such as the technology fee, textbooks, uniform and music are charged on top in the same way as for day boys. Occasional boarding — up to three nights a week for boys in Years 7–12 — is charged at $180 a day. The boarding page also mentions casual boarding “subject to availability”. Weekly boarding is listed only for Tudor House; at Parramatta the Senior School page notes that boarders can stay at school at weekends, and many do because of sport and social activities during term.

Boarders and term dates: boarders must be at school by 8.00pm on the night before each term begins. Overseas students on a subclass 500 student visa must board, and their parents must also nominate a local guardian, who is interviewed before enrolment. An Overseas Boarding Liaison staff member supports international boarders. One practical point from the admissions page: if an offer is made for a boarding place, it cannot later be changed to a day place.

Scholarships and bursaries

The official scholarships and bursaries page says applications for the 2028 program are now open. Awards are for boys entering Years 7 to 10, with most going to Year 7 entrants and “limited opportunities” at other year levels. Once awarded, a scholarship generally continues for the student’s enrolment up to graduation from Year 12, subject to the conditions in the offer letter. The page recommends practice tests from Academic Assessment Services, which suggests a written assessment is part of the process; the exact test date and closing date were not shown on the page when we checked.

The page does not list scholarship categories or their value in dollars or as a percentage — those details are in a separate Scholarships and Bursaries brochure — so we mark them “Not published on the official site”. Separately, bursaries help with boarding costs and are based on an assessment of financial need; boarding families apply with a Boarding Bursary Application form. The site also links to “Next Crop” boarding bursaries run through the school’s foundation. Note that sibling discounts do not apply to a boy who holds a scholarship or another fee remission, although they usually still apply to his brothers.

Entry points and how admissions work

According to the official joining page, the main entry years at Parramatta are Pre-K, Kindergarten, Year 5 and Year 7 (at Tudor House: Pre-K, Kindergarten and Year 5). The process has four steps:

1. Registration: complete the online Student Enrolment Registration Form, pay the non-refundable $300 fee, and upload a birth certificate and, where relevant, NAPLAN results and the two most recent school reports.
2. Family interview and assessment: selected applicants and their families are invited to an interview, usually 9 to 18 months before the intended start. Preparatory School and Tudor House applicants also complete school-readiness assessments.
3. Offer of place: families are told in writing whether an offer is made or the child stays on the waiting list. The offer states the year, the entry level and whether the place is day or boarding.
4. Acceptance: both parents or guardians sign the acceptance form, which becomes a binding contract, and the place is secured when the $5,000 Student Admission Fee is paid.

The school says it does not run a chronological waiting list, but it still advises registering early. The joining page does not describe a separate academic entrance exam for general Senior School entry; scholarships are assessed separately.

International students can join the Senior School in Years 7–12 (or Tudor House in Years 3–6), usually at the start of the Australian school year. Applicants for Years 7–11 must submit an AEAS assessment at registration, with minimum scores of 70% for Year 7, 75% for Years 8–9, 80% for Year 10 and 85% for Year 11, according to the international students page. They upload two years of school reports translated into English, a passport and certificates of activities, and the school states that it does not use education agents to recruit overseas students. Australian families living abroad should check with the school which fee schedule applies to them.

HSC, IB Diploma and the school year

The Senior School follows the NSW (NESA) curriculum from Stage 4 to Stage 6 and offers more than 45 HSC subjects; TAFE VET courses can also count towards the HSC. King’s is also an IB World School for the Diploma Programme: IB Australasia’s school listing says it completed IB Diploma authorisation in 2024, began its first IBDP cohort in 2025 and sits its first IB examination session in November 2026. So no IB results have been published yet. The Senior School page describes King’s as one of the highest-achieving non-selective schools, but an ATAR median or Band 6 count was not on the pages we checked, so we do not quote one.

Like all Australian schools, King’s follows a calendar year with four terms. On the official 2027 term dates page, Senior School Term 1 runs from Thursday 28 January to Wednesday 7 April (with Camps Week from 1 to 7 April), Term 2 from Wednesday 28 April to Friday 25 June, Term 3 from Tuesday 20 July to Thursday 23 September (Year 12 to Friday 24 September) and Term 4 from Tuesday 12 October to Thursday 2 December. Families moving from the Northern Hemisphere should remember that the Australian year starts in late January, so year levels may not line up with a September start. The school runs on Sydney time (UTC+10, or UTC+11 in daylight saving). For a different model, our article on how an online international school day works shows what live classes from home look like.

The King’s School vs NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY vs two other options (official data)

The King’s School vs Knox Grammar School: two Sydney boys’ boarding schools

Knox Grammar School in Wahroonga is the Sydney school that families most often weigh against King’s — both are independent boys’ schools with boarding. On published fees the two are close, but the years differ: King’s has already published 2027 fees, while Knox’s fees page still showed its 2026 fee schedule when we checked. At those published rates, a Year 7 boarder costs $86,400 a year at King’s (2027) and $84,460 at Knox (2026: $42,640 tuition + $41,820 boarding). One-off entry fees are similar ($400 + $2,400 + $2,750 = $5,550 at Knox versus $300 + $5,000 = $5,300 at King’s), but Knox adds compulsory Outdoor Education/Cadets and technology levies, and states that full-fee overseas students add 25% to tuition, whereas King’s charges overseas students the same tuition plus a $10,186 Overseas Student / Visa Fee. The real differences are less about price than about campus, location (North Parramatta in western Sydney versus the upper North Shore) and programme. Our Knox Grammar School fees page covers Knox in detail.

Sources: The King’s School Schedule of Fees 2027 (domestic and overseas), joining, boarding, scholarships, international students, Senior School and term dates pages; IB Australasia school listing; Knox Grammar School fees page and 2026 fee schedule; Barker College fee schedule page (2026; a 2027 schedule was not yet shown). All checked 3 November 2026.

Reviews and common concerns, answered honestly

“Is The King’s School worth it?”

It depends on what you want to buy. The fee pays for a long tradition, a very large campus, boarding from Year 7, a choice of HSC or IB and a broad co-curricular programme including Australia’s oldest cadet corps. If your son will use those fully — especially as a boarder — many families see the value. If you mainly want strong teaching close to home, a day school costs less: at King’s alone, the day route to Year 12 is about $240,000 cheaper than boarding at 2027 prices.

“How much is it really, all in?”

More than the tuition line. For a domestic boarder starting in Year 7, the official 2027 figures add up to $546,000 for tuition, boarding and entry fees, and roughly $13,000 more for the technology fee, textbooks and uniform alone. Music, VET subjects and activities are advised separately.

“Is a boys’ school right for my son?”

The school presents single-sex education as a strength and calls itself a specialist in boys’ education. If you want a co-educational secondary school, look at a school such as Barker College, which is co-educational from Pre-K to Year 12.

“Is the IB Diploma proven at King’s yet?”

Not yet in results: the first IB cohort sits exams in November 2026, so there is no published IB score history. The HSC remains the main pathway, with more than 45 subjects.

“Can we apply from overseas?”

Yes, for Years 7–12 (and Tudor House Years 3–6). Students on a subclass 500 visa must board and need a local guardian, Years 7–11 applicants need an AEAS result at the published minimum, and overseas fees include a $10,186 annual Overseas Student / Visa Fee. Australian time and the late-January start apply.

Alternatives to The King’s School worth comparing

Knox Grammar School is a boys’ school with boarding in Wahroonga on Sydney’s upper North Shore. Its published 2026 tuition runs from $42,640 (Years 7–10) to $45,120 (Years 11–12), with boarding of $41,820 a year on top. See our Knox Grammar School fees page. If you are comparing Sydney’s academically selective day schools too, read Sydney Grammar School fees; and for a boarding comparison outside NSW, Geelong Grammar School fees covers a co-educational boarding school with its famous Timbertop year. For the wider city picture, see international schools in Sydney.

Barker College in Hornsby is co-educational from Pre-K to Year 12, with co-educational boarding from Year 9. Its official 2026 fee page lists tuition from $42,300 (Years 7–9) to $44,720 (Years 10–12) and boarding of $38,830 a year — an option for families who want a co-educational Sydney boarding school.

NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (NGA) is an online international school for ages 6–18 focused on Asia and Oceania, opening in September 2027 (planned), with a first cohort of 100 students. It is operated by NIJIN Inc. in Japan, whose alternative school NIJIN Academy has more than 1,000 students. Classes are small live dialogue groups of about 8, with subjects learned in English, a bilingual (English–Japanese) mentor, CEFR-based English levels, social co-creation projects with companies and governments, and international exchange; an optional Cambridge IGCSE / A-Level pathway is listed on the curriculum and timetable page. There is no academic entrance exam and no English requirement. It can run alongside a local school or as the main school, and it travels with the family if they relocate. Tuition is not yet published; NGA says it will be far more affordable than a typical international school, with no enrolment, facility or uniform fees, materials included and sibling discounts. Free trial classes run monthly from September 2026. The timetable is built for Asia–Oceania daytime, so it fits an Australian day well.

Be clear about the trade-offs: NGA is not yet open, is not yet accredited and has no graduates or track record. It does not award the HSC or the IB Diploma, and it offers no boarding, no cadets and no campus life. If you want a residential Sydney education with a recognised senior credential, The King’s School, Knox and Barker are the schools to compare.

For a wider view, see our online international schools compared guide or online school options in Australia.

See how NGA admissions work →

Comparing Sydney boys’ schools? See Trinity Grammar School Sydney fees 2027.

FAQ

How much does The King’s School cost per year?

For 2027 (AUD), Senior School tuition is $48,860 in Years 7–8, $49,420 in Years 9–10 and $52,380 in Years 11–12. Preparatory School tuition is $32,460 to $44,460. Boarding adds $37,540 to $41,980 a year, so tuition and boarding together cost $86,400 to $94,360 (official 2027 schedule, checked 3 November 2026).

What are The King’s School boarding fees, and what do they include?

Boarding is $37,540 a year in Years 7–8, $41,060 in Years 9–10, $41,980 in Year 11 and $40,200 in Year 12, on top of tuition. It includes all meals (and the GST on meals), laundry, bed linen and transport to and from sporting fixtures. Occasional boarding is $180 a day.

Is The King’s School accredited, and does it offer the IB?

It teaches the NSW HSC and is authorised for the IB Diploma Programme (first cohort 2025, first exams November 2026). It is registered to enrol overseas students under CRICOS 02326F.

Can international students enrol?

Yes, in Years 7–12 at Parramatta (and Years 3–6 at Tudor House). Students on a student visa pay the same tuition and boarding plus a $10,186 Overseas Student / Visa Fee, must board, need a local guardian and, for Years 7–11, an AEAS score of 70%–85% depending on year.

Is The King’s School worth it, and what are the alternatives?

It can be for boys who will make full use of boarding, cadets, sport and the HSC or IB. Families often compare Knox Grammar School and Barker College. NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY is a very different, online option for ages 6–18 with no academic entrance exam and no English requirement; it opens in September 2027 and is not yet accredited.

Choosing calmly, with the whole picture

The King’s School offers something few schools can: nearly two centuries of history, a huge campus in the middle of Sydney, boarding from Year 7 and a choice of HSC or IB. The most useful step now is to decide whether boarding and a boys’ school suit your son, then add the entry fees, the boarding fee and the extras to every year you expect him to stay. Whichever school you choose, the right one is the place where your child will be known, stretched and happy.

Tuition and admissions details were checked on the official websites on 3 November 2026. Schools revise fees every year — always confirm on the official site before applying.

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