Caringbah High School: Years 8 to 11 Entry Through the HAST

Entrance test

Higher Ability Selection Test (HAST), required for entry to Years 8 to 11

Year groups

Years 8, 9, 10 and 11, with one application and one HAST date last cycle

How to apply

Fill in the NSW Department of Education's form, then lodge it by the school's Google Form or at its office

Last cycle (2027 entry)

The school stopped taking applications at 3.00pm on Friday 24 July 2026. First-preference applicants sat the HAST there on Saturday 8 August 2026

2028 entry (exams in August 2027)

No date or fee published yet (checked 3 October 2026)

Last checked 3 October 2026 against Caringbah High School's enrolment page, its online payment steps and the NSW Department of Education's page on Years 8 to 11 applications.

Year 7 entry to Caringbah High School is run by the Selective Education Team at the NSW Department of Education, not by the school. For Years 8 to 11, the school runs the application itself. If entry after Year 7 is new to you, start with our selective school transfer guide, which lists the NSW selective schools and the test each one uses.

How Years 8 to 11 entry works at Caringbah High School

Below is last cycle's process, for 2027 entry, as Caringbah High School's enrolment page sets it out. That page still shows the 2027-entry round, marked closed, so read it again before you apply for 2028 entry in case anything has changed.

1. Pick your selective schools, at most three. Caringbah High School asks families to contact each selective school they want directly. The NSW Department of Education's form says each school on your list gets its own completed form, sent to its principal.
2. Complete the NSW Department of Education's form. Last cycle the school linked the Department's Years 8 to 11 application form, available from Wednesday 17 June 2026. It has a box for each of Years 8, 9, 10 and 11.
3. Pay online and save the receipt. The fee is non-refundable and is paid only online, through the school's payment portal. The school does not take payment at the office. Last cycle it was $140 or $50, depending on your preferences (see below). The school's payment steps show which item to pick.
4. Collect the documents in the "What to attach" list below.
5. Lodge the application by 3.00pm on the closing date. Use the school's online Google Form, uploading every file, or take it to the school office in an envelope marked with your child's name and the year they are applying for. The school will not take an application by post or by email. Last cycle's deadline, 3.00pm on Friday 24 July 2026, had no exceptions.
6. Expect an acknowledgement email. Last cycle every applicant was acknowledged by email a week after the closing date.
7. The HAST itself. Applicants with Caringbah High School as first preference sit it at the school, 85 Willarong Road, Caringbah. Last cycle the date was Saturday 8 August 2026. The school has not published arrival, start or finishing times.
8. Selection. The school selects on your child's HAST performance and on the selection committee's assessment of their two most recent school reports and latest NAPLAN reports.
9. An interview, if your child is being considered for an offer. The school does not publish when interviews are held or how they run.
10. Offers and outcomes. The school's page gives the Department's window for Years 8 to 11 entry: September to October 2026. Under the Department's timeline, successful applicants start in late January 2027.

Year 11 has its own rule. For Year 11, the enrolment page says the principal decides how many new students to take, based on their HAST performance, school reports and an interview.

Eligibility. The school says students applying to a selective high school must be Australian citizens or hold a visa granting permanent residency in Australia. Selective high schools are unzoned, it adds, so you can apply regardless of where you live.

What to attach

For 2027 entry, Caringbah High School asked for:

• the Department's Years 8 to 11 form, completed
• your child's Semester 2, 2025 school report
• their Semester 1, 2026 school report. If it had not been issued yet, the school asked families to email it in once received
• NAPLAN reports. The selection criteria refer to the latest NAPLAN reports
• their birth certificate
• the receipt from the online fee payment

For the Google Form, each file had to be a PDF whose file name gave your child's full name and the year of entry sought. In person, the school wanted photocopies in the marked envelope.

How your preferences set the fee and the test venue

Caringbah High School coordinates its entrance test procedures and results with a group of other selective schools. Last cycle, the fee and the test venue depended on where Caringbah High School sat in your preferences:

• Caringbah High School as first preference. Your child sat the HAST at Caringbah High School, and the fee was $140.
• A coordinating school first, Caringbah High School second or third. You paid Caringbah High School $50. The school's payment steps describe this as not testing at Caringbah High School, so ask your first-preference school about its test arrangements.

The school's page does not cover any other order of preferences. If yours is different, check with Caringbah High School before you pay.

The coordinating schools on Caringbah High School's list:

• Fort Street High School, named for Year 11 entry only
• Girraween High School
• Gosford High School
• Hurlstone Agricultural High School
• Macquarie Fields High School
• Manly Selective Campus
• Penrith Selective High School
• St George Girls High School
• Sydney Technical High School

The list also names a "Hornsby High School", written that way, and says no more about it. If a Hornsby school is your first preference, confirm with Caringbah High School that it counts as a coordinating school.

Source: Caringbah High School's enrolment page, as at 3 October 2026. The fees and the list both belong to the 2027-entry round.

Key dates

Dates from the 2027-entry round (exams in August 2026), last cycle

Caringbah High School's enrolment page still carries these 2027-entry dates, with applications marked closed. The form's release, the closing date and the outcome window are the same as the dates the NSW Department of Education published for Years 8 to 11 entry. Not one of them belongs to the 2028-entry round.

As at 3 October 2026, all six rows describe last cycle, the 2027-entry round.

2028 entry (exams in August 2027)

On 3 October 2026 we searched Caringbah High School's website and found nothing about 2028 entry, and the NSW Department of Education still sets out only the 2027-entry timeline. Caringbah High School's site gives no standing rule for when a round opens, so we will not guess a date. Its enrolment page is the page to watch. Which schools have already put a date on 2028-entry applications is tracked in our selective school transfer guide.

Open night

Caringbah High School holds an open night once a year, usually in Term 2, according to its why choose us page. The page does not say whether the night covers entry after Year 7.

The test

The test for Years 8 to 11 entry is the Higher Ability Selection Test (HAST). Caringbah High School's application fee pays ACER, the Australian Council for Educational Research, to set and mark it, and pays external invigilators to supervise it. The school points families to ACER's HAST Student Information Bulletin, which says the number of tests, three or four, depends on the package a school chooses; Caringbah High School's page does not say which package it uses.

For the four HAST tests, their timing and the level set for each year of entry, see our HAST guide.

How we prepare students for Caringbah High School

Caringbah High School's selection committee reads your child's two most recent school reports and latest NAPLAN reports beside the HAST result. Last cycle that meant the Semester 2, 2025 report and the Semester 1, 2026 report, so schoolwork in the year before applying counts, not only test day.

Our HAST tutoring course works on the test itself. Each term your child joins ten two-hour lessons, live on Microsoft Teams in a small group, and sits one full-length HAST-style mock exam, reviewed in detail afterwards. Weekly homework comes back marked, and every lesson is recorded, so a missed class can be caught up at home.

Practice in the course comes from questions written by Selective Success Academy for the HAST: our own material, never ACER's and never past papers.

Free practice and guides

• Free practice: our HAST practice test, with worked answers.
• The application: what each school asks for, and how to make each part strong.
• The interview: selective school interview questions and how to prepare.
• By entry year: Year 8, Year 9, Year 10 and Year 11 entry, every school compared.

The price of our HAST tutoring

Prices as at 1 October 2026.

The live term course is 20 hours of teaching, so $900 works out at $45 an hour. It includes small group classes, lesson recordings, a full-length mock exam with a comprehensive review, marking feedback on weekly homework and the mock, lesson and homework booklets, and online messaging support.

A question bank gives your child practice. It does not contain any teaching hours, and it cannot tell you which school to apply to, what the school report needs to show, or when the application closes.

The timetable lists the days and times of our HAST classes. For courses beyond the HAST, see courses and prices.

Our students at Caringbah High School

As at 2 October 2026, Caringbah High School is among the schools that have made offers to Selective Success Academy students.

Who teaches this

Ilia founded Selective Success Academy and is its head tutor. He has been through this himself: he missed out on selective school at first, then entered North Sydney Boys High School by lateral transfer. He became a North Sydney Boys High School Dux, finished school with a 99.90 ATAR and now studies Medicine at UNSW. His story was featured in The Sydney Morning Herald in April 2026.

What families say

Rated 5/5 from 90+ parent reviews

80+ selective school offers. See our students' results

Questions parents ask about Caringbah High School entry

Does my child have to sit a test to get into Caringbah High School?

Yes. Caringbah High School's enrolment page says testing is required for Years 8 to 11 entry, and the test is the Higher Ability Selection Test (HAST). ACER sets and marks it, paid for by the application fee. Applicants who put the school first sit it there. Our HAST guide explains what is in it.

How many places are there?

Places vary with the school and the year level, and Caringbah High School makes its own decisions on them. For Year 11, its enrolment page says the principal sets the number of new students after weighing their HAST performance, school reports and an interview. Selective Success Academy never quotes a number of places, here or for any other school. If you would like to go over your child's year of entry, book a short call.

Are Caringbah High School's 2028-entry dates out yet?

No. The school's website said nothing about 2028 entry when we checked on 3 October 2026, and its enrolment page still describes the 2027-entry round, marked closed. Last cycle's form came out on Wednesday 17 June 2026, applications closed on Friday 24 July 2026 at 3.00pm, and Saturday 8 August 2026 was test day. Caringbah High School's enrolment page is where to look for the next round.

What fee did Caringbah High School charge for 2027 entry?

Last cycle, for 2027 entry, Caringbah High School charged a non-refundable $140 if it was your first preference, with the HAST sat at the school. It was $50 if Caringbah High School was your second or third preference and your first was one of its coordinating schools. You pay online through the school's payment portal, not at the office. No fee for the 2028-entry round is on the school's page yet.

Will my child have an interview at Caringbah High School?

If they are being considered for an offer, yes: the school interviews those applicants. For Year 11, the interview is one of three things the principal weighs, with the HAST and school reports. The school does not publish when interviews happen or what they involve.

Is a posted or emailed application accepted?

No. Caringbah High School's enrolment page says postal and emailed applications will not be accepted. Lodge it through the school's online Google Form, or in person at the school office in an envelope marked with your child's name and the year they are applying for. Last cycle's closing time was Friday 24 July 2026 at 3.00pm, with no exceptions allowed.

Sources

Each source below was read on 3 October 2026.

• Caringbah High School: Enrol
• Caringbah High School: How to pay online (PDF)
• NSW Department of Education: Years 8 to 11 application form, 2027 entry (PDF)
• ACER: HAST Student Information Bulletin, Secondary (PDF), linked from the school's enrolment page
• Caringbah High School: why choose us
• Caringbah High School: contact us
• NSW Department of Education: selective high schools, Years 8 to 11 applications
• NSW Department of Education: list of selective high schools