Macquarie Fields High School: Joining the Selective Stream in Years 8 to 11

Test used

ACER's HAST (Higher Ability Selection Test), for the selective stream

Can join in

Years 8, 9, 10 and 11 only, in a single round with a single test date

Application

The Department's Years 8 to 11 form and a portfolio of photocopies, handed in at the school office

Interview

Possible, once the Enrolment Committee has assessed the application. Being invited is not an offer

Last cycle (2027 entry)

Lodgement window 17 June to 24 July 2026, closing 3.00pm. HAST held Saturday 8 August 2026, a single sitting

2028 entry (exams in August 2027)

Unannounced by Macquarie Fields High School at our 3 October 2026 check

Last checked 3 October 2026 against Macquarie Fields High School's enrolment page, its HAST information and the Principal's letter to parents about selective entry.

Year 7 entry runs on a different track. Parents apply for Year 7 through the NSW Department of Education, when their child is at the end of Year 5 or the start of Year 6, and the online registration steps on the school's enrolment page belong to that process. For Years 8 to 11, Macquarie Fields High School handles the application itself, on paper, as set out below. There are no intake areas for selective classes, so you do not need to live near the school. Our selective school transfer guide shows how the other NSW selective schools run their Years 8 to 11 entry.

How Years 8 to 11 entry works at Macquarie Fields High School

Here is the school's last round, for 2027 entry, drawn from its enrolment page, the Principal's letter to parents and its HAST information. When we looked on 3 October 2026 nothing newer had been posted, so treat these steps as a guide and confirm them once the school publishes its next round.

1. Work out where Macquarie Fields High School sits in your preferences. You may list up to three selective high schools in order, and each school receives its own application. Your order decides how much you pay Macquarie Fields High School and where the HAST is sat (see "Fees and test venue, by order of preference" below).
2. Get the Department's application form. Macquarie Fields High School uses the NSW Department of Education's own Years 8 to 11 application form. On the 2027-entry version you tick Year 8, 9, 10 or 11 as the year you are applying for.
3. Assemble the portfolio. Photocopy the reports, NAPLAN results and certificates listed under "What to attach" below. Nothing is handed back, so keep your originals at home.
4. Hand it in at the school office, and pay at the same time. Last cycle, applications had to be in by 3.00pm on Friday 24 July 2026. Faxed and emailed applications are refused, and so are late ones. The office opens 8.30am to 3.30pm on weekdays in school term, so allow time for a visit before the cut-off.
5. Keep the receipt and watch for the admission letter. Each applicant is given a payment receipt. First-preference applicants also receive a letter of examination admission, and the school forwards further information about the tests after your application arrives.
6. Sitting the HAST. Test day in the last round was Saturday 8 August 2026. Registration started at 8.30am, the examinations started at 9.30am sharp, and the school did not expect to finish before 12.30pm. Bring photo identification that is no more than 12 months old, either a current passport or a student (school) photo ID card. The school runs a single sitting: no other day is offered to a child who cannot attend, and no child can turn up, book in and pay on the morning.
7. The Enrolment Committee selects. It looks at two things: how your child performed in the HAST, and its own assessment of the application with the supporting documents.
8. Perhaps an interview. Once the committee has assessed the application, it may ask your child to come to Macquarie Fields High School for an interview. Being invited does not mean your child has been offered entry.
9. The outcome comes by email. Macquarie Fields High School emails applicants when the Enrolment Committee has finished, without naming a date. Across NSW, the Department's window for last cycle's Years 8 to 11 outcomes is September to October 2026. The committee also draws up a short reserve list in order of priority; for the 2027-entry round it stays active until the end of Term 1, 2027. New students begin in late January 2027 under the NSW Department of Education's timeline.

Joining in Year 11. According to the school's history page, mainstream and selective students share all their classes once they reach Years 11 and 12. So a student who joins in Year 11 learns alongside the community stream in every subject.

Other years. The Principal's letter says this round covers Years 8, 9, 10 and 11 only. For any other year, contact the school.

What to attach

The 2027-entry round asked for the completed form with a portfolio of photocopies:

• the completed Years 8 to 11 application form from the NSW Department of Education
• your child's latest two school academic reports, photocopied
• their most recent NAPLAN results
• photocopied certificates of attainment from the last two calendar years

Send copies, never originals: the school does not accept original documents and retains everything submitted. The Principal's letter explains why the portfolio matters: it gives the selection panel "an indication of the student's attitude, achievements and willingness to be involved in school activities".

Neither the Principal's letter nor the HAST information lists a birth certificate. The NSW Department of Education, in its general guidance on Years 8 to 11 applications, does list the student's birth certificate, citizenship or passport as something to include, so ask Macquarie Fields High School whether it wants one.

Fees and test venue, by order of preference

Last cycle, Macquarie Fields High School coordinated its Years 8 to 11 entry test with a group of selective schools that use the HAST, all testing on Saturday 8 August 2026. Your fee and your child's test venue turned on where Macquarie Fields High School came in your list:

• First preference. $130, a fee the school says covers all examination costs. The HAST was sat at Macquarie Fields High School, 2 Harold Street, Macquarie Fields.
• Second or third, after another school on the coordinating list. $50. Macquarie Fields High School still needed a full application package from you so it could record your preference. The HAST was sat at a school higher on your list, which you applied to and paid separately.
• Second or third, with no coordinating school above it. The payment table lists $130, yet the school's HAST information is not consistent about where the test would be sat. Ask the school to confirm both before paying.

Payment is made in person when the application is lodged. Check with the school which payment methods it takes, and its position on refunds.

The coordinating schools Macquarie Fields High School names, other than itself:

• Caringbah High School
• Fort Street High School (Year 11 entry only)
• Girraween High School
• Gosford High School
• Hornsby Girls High School
• Hurlstone Agricultural High School
• Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly Campus
• Penrith High School (the school's wording)
• St George Girls High School
• Sydney Technical High School

The list says "Penrith High School". If a Penrith school is among your choices, ask Macquarie Fields High School which school it means. Applying to a selective school that is missing from the list? The school's advice is to get in touch with that school yourself.

As at 3 October 2026, from Macquarie Fields High School's HAST information. Both the list and the fees belong to last cycle, the 2027-entry round.

Key dates

Last cycle's round, for 2027 entry (exams in August 2026)

All of these dates belong to the closed round for entry in 2027. The opening and closing days matched the NSW Department of Education's Years 8 to 11 dates; the 3.00pm cut-off and lodging at the school office are Macquarie Fields High School's own rules.

As at 3 October 2026, each row as its source published it. No row is a 2028-entry date.

2028 entry (exams in August 2027)

Nothing about 2028 entry has come from Macquarie Fields High School yet. We went through every page of its website and its selective entry documents on 3 October 2026: none mentions 2028, and the 2027-entry round is still the only one on its enrolment page. The school does not describe a usual month for its round either, so this page gives no forecast. Look at the enrolment page every so often for the new round. Some selective schools have already announced when they will take 2028-entry applications; they are listed in our selective school transfer guide.

The test

Macquarie Fields High School's selective stream uses the HAST, a test that ACER, the Australian Council for Educational Research, prepares; the school says the examinations help it compare the merits of students from different schools. The Principal's letter gives the timings: Reading Comprehension takes 45 minutes, Mathematics 40, Abstract Reasoning 30 and Written Expression 25. ACER's participating schools list shows the school at three levels, junior, middle and senior secondary, and ACER sets the level by the year of entry.

Our HAST guide goes through each of the four tests and how ACER matches a level to each entry year.

How we prepare students for Macquarie Fields High School

Two things decide selection here: the HAST, and a portfolio built from records your child already has. Those records are the two latest school reports, the latest NAPLAN results and certificates from the last two calendar years, so what your child does at school in the months before applying ends up in front of the committee.

Our HAST course prepares your child for the test itself. A term is ten weekly lessons, each two hours long, taught live over Microsoft Teams to a small group. Every lesson is recorded, the lesson and homework booklets are supplied, weekly homework is marked, and there is a full-length mock exam with a thorough review afterwards.

Last cycle, the school's HAST took up the whole morning: four timed examinations from 9.30am until at least 12.30pm, with 25 minutes for Written Expression. Our full-length mock exam lets your child rehearse a complete HAST-style paper before the real one, and it comes back marked.

Selective Success Academy writes the practice material in the course for HAST preparation. None of it comes from ACER, and none of it is past papers. ACER publishes its own HAST Student Information Bulletin, linked from the school's enrolment page, with practice questions; it is worth reading early.

Unsure how to order your preferences, or what to put in the portfolio? Book a short call to go through it together.

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.

How much our HAST tutoring costs

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.

Our HAST class times are listed by day on the timetable. For our other courses and their fees, see courses and prices.

Our students at Macquarie Fields High School

As our records stood on 2 October 2026, Selective Success Academy students had received offers to Macquarie Fields High School.

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 Macquarie Fields High School entry

What test does Macquarie Fields High School use for Year 8 to 11 selective entry?

It is the HAST, or Higher Ability Selection Test, which ACER prepares. The Principal's letter lists four examinations, and applicants whose first preference is Macquarie Fields High School sit them at the school. Year 7 selective entry is a separate application, made to the NSW Department of Education. For what each examination covers, our HAST guide has the detail.

How many places are there?

Places differ from school to school and between year levels, and every school sets its own. Here, the selective stream's intake is Macquarie Fields High School's decision. The NSW Department of Education leaves vacancies, assessment and placement decisions to each selective school. Selective Success Academy does not publish or quote numbers of this kind. Book a short call and we can look at your child's options for their year of entry.

When do applications for 2028 entry open at Macquarie Fields High School?

No date has come from the school yet. On 3 October 2026 its enrolment page still covered only the 2027-entry round. Applications for it were accepted from Wednesday 17 June 2026 until 3.00pm on Friday 24 July 2026. Its test day was Saturday 8 August 2026. The school's enrolment page is the one to keep checking.

What was the application fee last time?

For 2027 entry, the fee Macquarie Fields High School charged was $130 when it was your first preference, a fee covering all examination costs, and $50 when it came second or third behind another school on its coordinating list. Families paid in person at the school office on lodging the application. No 2028-entry fee has been published.

Can the application be emailed, or the fee paid on test day?

Neither. The school refuses faxed and emailed applications, so the form, portfolio and fee are handed in at the school office. In the last round, applications had to reach the school by 3.00pm on Friday 24 July 2026. No late application was accepted. On test day nobody can book in and pay, and a child who misses the single sitting is not offered another day.

Are selective students taught apart from the community stream?

Not in elective classes, and not at all in Years 11 and 12. The school's history page says mainstream and selective students join in elective classes, and share all their classes once they reach Years 11 and 12. It says nothing about how other classes are arranged before Year 11, so ask the school if that matters for the year your child would join.

Sources

Every source below was checked on 3 October 2026.

• Macquarie Fields High School: Enrol
• Macquarie Fields High School: parent information letter, Selective 8-11 (PDF)
• Macquarie Fields High School: HAST information, Entry into Selective Stream Years 8 to 11, 2027 (PDF)
• Macquarie Fields High School: school history
• Macquarie Fields High School: contact us
• NSW Department of Education: Years 8 to 11 application form, 2027 entry (PDF)
• NSW Department of Education: selective high schools, Years 8 to 11 applications
• NSW Department of Education: list of selective high schools
• ACER: HAST participating schools
• ACER: HAST student support
• ACER: HAST Student Information Bulletin for secondary students (PDF)