Abbotsleigh vs Redlands
🇦🇺 Sydney · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
Neither Abbotsleigh nor Redlands sits in a market with a public inspectorate, so both are assessed on verifiable accreditation, curriculum authorisation, and published data rather than an official quality rating. One practical difference: Abbotsleigh offers boarding while the other is day-only — decisive for families who need a residential option. Verify current fees against each school's own figures (see the table below).
Key Facts
| Abbotsleigh | Redlands | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | National | IB / National |
| Ages | 3–18 | 3–18 |
| Languages of instruction | English | English |
| Annual fees | not public | AUD 28,800–47,100/year (2026, domestic); IB elective +AUD 2,950/year |
| Boarding | Yes | Day only |
| Accreditations | NESA, AHISA, AGSA | NESA, CRICOS, IB World School, Round Square |
Strengths
- ✓Long-established (1885), highly regarded girls' independent school with strong brand prestige on Sydney's North Shore
- ✓Sustained record of strong HSC academic results (school-published 2019–2025)
- ✓Full continuous pathway: Pre-K through Year 12, including an Early Learning Centre
- ✓Boarding provision (Years 7–12) — supports interstate/overseas/regional and expat families
- ✓Membership of major Australian independent and girls'-school associations (AGSA, AHISA)
- ✓Genuine dual senior pathway — students can choose the full IB Diploma or the HSC, a real choice rather than a token offering
- ✓Longest continuous IB provider in NSW (since 1988), signalling depth of institutional IB expertise
- ✓Co-educational K–12 continuity on a single Lower North Shore campus from Preschool to Year 12
- ✓Strong school-reported senior outcomes (top IB ATAR 99.95; 247 top-band results in 2025)
- ✓Distinctive experiential program — Round Square membership, the 9-week Year 9 Moonbah residential, and Year 10 Arnhem Land immersion
Trade-offs
- !Girls-only — excludes families seeking co-education
- !Anglican faith heritage may not suit secular or other-faith families (a fit consideration, not a quality flag)
- !High fees typical of elite Sydney independents (exact figures not public in the sources reviewed)
- !No verified IB Diploma pathway — families wanting IB must look elsewhere
- !Public enrolment data is inconsistent across sources; precise current size unverified
- !Day school only — no boarding, so families relocating without a resident parent cannot easily place a child here
- !High fees (≈AUD 47,100/yr senior years) plus extras; the IB pathway carries a further AUD 2,950/yr surcharge
- !Total enrolment is not published on the school site, limiting transparency on school size
- !Publishes HSC and IB results combined and discloses no standalone IB Diploma average points score
- !IB is confined to the Diploma (Years 11–12) — no PYP or MYP, so the IB experience doesn't run through the junior/middle years
Best Fit For
- • Families wanting a prestigious single-sex girls' education in Sydney
- • Families needing boarding (Years 7–12), including expat/interstate/regional
- • Academically ambitious students targeting strong HSC/ATAR outcomes
- • Families comfortable with an Anglican values framework
- • Internationally-mobile families wanting a globally portable IB Diploma without leaving the mainstream Sydney system
- • Families who value being able to switch between IB and HSC depending on the child
- • Parents seeking co-ed K–12 continuity on one campus on Sydney's Lower North Shore
- • Students drawn to experiential and global-citizenship programs (Round Square, residential immersions)
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
School-reported, unverified: a 'sustained history of strong results in the HSC,' with annual HSC results published (2019–2025) as downloadable documents. Exact Band 6/ATAR figures sit inside those PDFs and were not retrieved.
School-reported, unverified: Class of 2025 top IB ATAR 99.95 and top HSC ATAR 99.40; 247 HSC/IB top-band results and 22 students at ATAR 98+ across 158 Year 12 candidates. The school does not publish a standalone IB Diploma average points score.
More Comparisons
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I choose Abbotsleigh or Redlands?
Abbotsleigh is best for: Families wanting a prestigious single-sex girls' education in Sydney. Redlands is best for: Internationally-mobile families wanting a globally portable IB Diploma without leaving the mainstream Sydney system. The right choice depends on target curriculum, budget, and family priorities — the two are not linearly comparable.
How do fees compare between Abbotsleigh and Redlands?
Abbotsleigh: not public. Redlands: AUD 28,800–47,100/year (2026, domestic); IB elective +AUD 2,950/year. Verify against each school's own published fees; some figures are sourced from third-party aggregators.
What curricula do Abbotsleigh and Redlands offer?
Abbotsleigh: National. Redlands: IB, National.
Do Abbotsleigh or Redlands offer boarding?
Abbotsleigh: offers boarding. Redlands: day school only.
This comparison is BrightKey's independent assessment using verifiable public data only. University-placement figures are school-reported and not independently verified. BrightKey takes no payments from schools. Our method →