Enrolment Information

All students who wish to gain entry to The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School must undertake an entrance examination in June of the year preceding enrolment and be an Australian citizen or have Permanent Residency status.

The Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) will oversee the Entrance examination for entry to Year 9 in 2020 for The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Melbourne High School, Nossal High School in Berwick and Suzanne Cory High School in Werribee. The DET will be responsible for the whole entrance examination enrolment process, the conduct of the examination and the allocation of offers for Year 9 entry.

DET Select Entry Unit is to be contacted for all information and enquiries regarding the entrance examination for Year 9 2020.

An information package will be sent via email to all applicants in the week before the entrance examination. Student identification numbers, transport and venue information and tips for taking the entrance examination will be included. The primary source of contact and correspondence by both the DET and The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School will be through email. Applicants are advised not to provide a Hotmail email address.

Should the applicant happen to undergo a family crisis, illness or injury which would prevent them from undertaking the entrance examination, the DET Select Entry Unit must be contacted before the commencement of the examination. In the case of illness or injury, a doctor's certificate must be produced in support of the applicant.

The Year 9 2020 Entrance Examination will be held on Saturday 15th June 2019 at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton.

Students in the second year of secondary education at government or non-government schools, who are either Australian citizens or who have Permanent Resident status are eligible to sit the Entrance Examination. While the examination is based on the areas of English and Mathematics, the student's potential and ability to reason are assessed rather than the emphasis on knowledge of the curriculum. Past exam papers or practice questions are not supplied by the school. The examination is prepared by an educational psychologist who is employed by the DET on behalf of the following select entry schools: The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Melbourne High School, Nossal High School and Suzanne Cory High School.

The English component of the examination requires students to undertake a Persuasive or Creative writing task in addition to Verbal Reasoning and Reading Comprehension tasks which are both in a multiple choice format. There are two numeracy-based multiple choice sections, Numerical Reasoning and Mathematics. The examination is constructed to allow all students to demonstrate their intellectual capacity rather than curriculum mastery.

Victorian government policy allows for a maximum of 5% of students in Year 8 from any one school to be accepted into a Select Entry High School based solely on the examination each year. For example: if there are 200 Year 8 students enrolled at a particular secondary school, a maximum of 10 students (5% of 200 = 10) from that school can be offered a place across the four Selective Entry High Schools. This means 10 students between The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Melbourne High School, Nossal High School or Suzanne Corey High School, not 10 students at each school. For each Select Entry High School, 85% of the Year 9 enrolment will be filled in this manner. The 5% Rule does not apply to students who are offered a place based on Equity Consideration or Principal's Discretion and the number of places available (i.e. places are offered until all 960 are allocate

There is no particular mark that a student must attain in the entrance examination to be offered a place at a Selective Entry High School. Each year, over 3000 candidates will sit the entrance examination for a total of approximately 960 places (across all four schools). The offers are determined by a combination of entrance examination score, the 5% Rule, Equity Considerations, Principal's Discretion and the number of places available (i.e. places are offered until all 960 are allocated).

The Principal's Discretionary Category places are offered after the Entrance Examination. Students will be invited to apply for a Principal's Discretionary Category place.

The process involves selecting 13 students through application, short listing and interview. These places are not subject to the 5% Rule. The Principal's decision is final and not subject to appeal.

There are a few vacancies at Years 10 & 11 and those that exist are not always known until late in the year. Please note: The number of vacancies for enrolment for Year 10 2020 onwards will be conditional on any vacancies that occur within the cohort (Year 9) of the previous year. This could be anywhere between one to five vacancies and each year will be different.

The school does not offer enrolment at Year 12.

There is an Entrance Examination for these levels. The examination will be held at The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School on Friday 7th June 2019 for entry to the school in 2020. Candidates will receive information relating to commencement times, what to bring to the examination and maps, by email,one week prior to the examination.

At all of these levels students are asked to submit evidence of academic and co-curricular involvement and achievement. Applications will be considered and a short list of candidates will be interviewed by a school panel. While it is preferable that applicants for Year 10 to study one of the four languages offered at the school (French, German, Indonesian and Japanese), it is not mandatory for students entering Year 10 in 2020 and selection will not be based on language choice. Offers of places at Year 11 depend on vacancies occurring in particular subjects: there may be several places available in some subjects, but none in others

After receiving their mid-year report (June), applicants should send photocopies of their two most recent school reports and a summary of achievement in the areas of academic and co-curricular involvement. Photocopied reports and attachments with the applicant's address and year level applied for clearly written will be requested mid-July 2019.

School zone

School zone information is available on findmyschool.vic.gov.au. Findmyschool.vic.gov.au hosts the most up-to-date information about Victorian school zones for 2020 onwards. You can find more information and answers to frequently asked questions on the Department's website under School zones.

For more information

If you have a question about school zones call the VSBA Hotline on 1800 896 950 or email: vsba@edumail.vic.gov.au