Most of Melbourne’s high-achieving public schools will remain off limits to non-locals for the 2027 school year, but some top VCE performers remain open to out-of-zone students.
Entry into the public education system’s strongest academic schools can be fraught; six of the top 20 public schools for VCE last year were select-entry, accepting only the state’s most gifted students.
A further six schools – including Balwyn High School, Glen Waverley Secondary College and McKinnon Secondary College – enforce strict enrolment management plans for their year 7 intakes, locking out families from outside the schools’ zones.
Homes within enrolment zones for sought-after schools change hands for premium prices, sometimes fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars more than those in surrounding suburbs.
But Williamstown High School, where students’ performance on their final exams in 2025 placed the school firmly in the top 20, is among those still accepting out-of-zone families.
Principal Gino Catalano said 51 per cent of VCE students got an ATAR score over 80 in 2025.
“Every second student got over 80,” Catalano said. “That opened up many university courses and doors for our young people, so I think that’s a success.”
Williamstown is among seven, six of them around Melbourne and one in rural Victoria, where out-of-zone families can still secure a spot.
The schools: Charlton College, Melbourne Girls’ College, Ashwood High, Koonung Secondary, Doncaster Secondary, Princes Hill Secondary College and Williamstown, all achieved a median VCE study score of 32 last year.
Williamstown expects about a third of its students next year will be the first in their families to attend and will come from outside the zone.
Another third of its cohort will live outside the zone, but have a sibling at the school, and a third will be from within the boundary zone.
Catalano said more than 90 per cent of families inside the zone were now sending their children to Williamstown, up from 30-40 per cent about 15 years ago, when St Kevin’s or Wesley College, both located far to the east, were the schools of choice for local families.
As part of the school’s inaugural Hold Fast Day on Thursday, a celebration named after the school’s motto, Catalano donned a cowboy suit and stressed that there was more to Williamstown High’s appeal than VCE results.
“Our vocational major program is outstanding,” the principal said.
In addition to offering accelerated sports and accelerated achievers programs, Catalano said the school’s horticulture, theatre, art and museum programs were also fantastic.
”We’ve got a 304-seat state-of-the-art theatre,” he said. “We’ve also invested heavily in providing an alumni program where our former top academic students come back and tutor our students … and we’ve got great staff. Obviously, I’m very proud of our school.”
Managing public school enrolments is a complex annual balancing act for the Department of Education, with officials considering school demand and capacity before deciding on zone changes or imposing restrictions.
In 2020, then-education minister James Merlino was forced to intervene when a change in Richmond pushed public housing families out of the zone for Melbourne Girls’ College. The public backlash likened the decision to “education apartheid”.
Today, the department stresses in its communications that schools must provide a spot for each family within their zone, regardless of capacity.
A government spokesperson repeated the Allan government’s often-stated position that “every child, no matter where they live, has access to a world-class public school”.
“The demand we’re seeing for public schools is proof that our record investment is working,” they said.
Across Melbourne, in the city’s inner north, Princes Hill Secondary College sees enrolment trends similar to Williamstown: a third of students from within the zone, a third from outside, and a third have a sibling at the school.
Principal Trevor Smith said he expected the school would accept fewer out-of-zone students in future years, due to increased housing density in Princes Hill.
Currently, most students not inside the zone travel from nearby inner-north suburbs, with a handful commuting from further away.
Smith said families are drawn to the school for its strong arts program, as well as its strong academic performance in VCE.
“This is a school that reflects its community in the inner north. It’s a community that has a large number of people who are well educated,” Smith said.
“It’s also a school community that values a breadth of curriculum and our students tend to have a breadth of interest.
“Students can do well whatever they’re interested in, and they’re going to get a good broad education, as well as the capacity to excel at VCE.”
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