Entrance Requirements for Penrith High School | High School Guide

In this article, we discuss the entrance requirements for Penrith High School, so you can make an informed decision to applying, including Year 7 admissions and Years 8-11 transfers.

How hard is it to get into Penrith High School?

Penrith has high standards for admission. Most students enter Penrith in Year 7, after sitting and excelling in the Selective High School Admission Test.

Penrith High School has a high cut-off score; it is consistently in the top quarter of all Selective High Schools. Here are the cut-off marks for Penrith High School for the past 5 years:

You can find more data about the minimum cut-off marks for Selective schools on the NSW government website, here. On average, only 1/3 of applicants are accepted into a Selective School and only a fraction of these students are accepted into Penrith High.

Students can also transfer to Penrith High School during Years 8-11 without completing a Selective High School Admission Test. However, these students will need to complete a High Ability Selective Test (HAST) instead.

Entrance requirements for Penrith High School

There are 2 ways to be admitted into Penrith High School.

1. You sit a Selective Admissions Test in Year 8
2. Completing the HAST in Years 7-10

Year 7

In order to be considered for entry in Year 7, students must apply in November of Year 5, and sit the Selective High School Test in March of Year 6.

You’ll find more detailed information about this process in the next part of the Guide, applying to Penrith High For Year 7 admission

Year 8-11

Students can also enter the school during Years 8 – 11 with a direct application to the school.

This involves sitting a High Ability Selection Test at Penrith, or another Selective High School if they are you first choice, and providing supporting documents.

Supporting documents include proof of extra-curricular participation, high academic achievements from previous school reports and NAPLAN results, and evidence of high achievement in external competitions like ICAS.

Note that, there are a limited amount of places opened each each for student transferring into the school from years 8-11.