New South Wales government schools are administered by the NSW Department of Education. If your child will live in NSW during the school week, that department — not a national office, and not this independent site — is the authority for enrolment, local enrolment areas, Kindergarten starting rules, selective pathways and term dates.
The practical starting point is the NSW School Finder. Enter the residential address and read which public schools sit in the local catchment. The NSW Government’s own explanation is straightforward: if you live inside a school’s enrolment area, a place at that school is the usual right; a place outside the area depends on leftover capacity.
Local enrolment areas
NSW uses catchment zones, also described as local enrolment areas. They exist so every child has a government school that must plan for them. They also exist so a popular campus can still say no to applications from further away once its local students are placed.
School Finder is built for that lookup. The NSW Government notes that the tool lists schools within a large radius of the address, and that families who live a very long way from the nearest campus should look at rural and distance-education information rather than forcing an ordinary suburban reading of the map. If you are on the edge of a zone, take a screenshot or print the result and take it to the school. Do not argue from a real-estate listing.
Out-of-area enrolment is possible. It is not a parallel right. Ask the school whether it is considering non-local applications for the year you need, and keep the local school’s enrolment moving in the meantime.
Kindergarten and the years that follow
The first year of school in NSW is Kindergarten. The NSW Department of Education currently states that children can start at the beginning of the school year if they turn five on or before 31 July that year, and that all children must be in compulsory schooling by their sixth birthday. Starting at five is still a family decision made with the school, a preschool teacher, or a health professional if the child is close to the line. Confirm the wording on the department’s starting-school pages before you treat any summary, including this one, as the form you will sign.
Primary school then runs through Year 6. Secondary school is Years 7 to 12 in government high schools, some of which are comprehensive, some partially selective, and some fully selective. Opportunity classes in primary years are a separate academically selective pathway with their own application. See this site’s selective schools guide and the department’s program pages.
Selective high schools and opportunity classes
NSW runs an extensive academically selective public pathway. Applications, test locations, residency rules and outcome dates are published by the NSW Department of Education. From recent departmental statements, the placement test is held in NSW, and families need to meet living-in-NSW requirements by the start of the entry year. Visa conditions can affect whether an enrolment can actually proceed.
Treat those programs as an extra process. Enrol locally first. A selective application that does not convert into an offer should not leave a child without a comprehensive school place.
Term dates and Western Division
NSW term dates live on the department’s school calendar pages. The statewide grid is not the only grid. Western Division schools in the far west start later in the year. A small number of schools near the Victorian or Queensland borders may also differ; those schools say so themselves. This hub will not reprint a table.
Student-free school-development days sit beside student days. If you are booking leave, read both lists.
My School, and what not to do with it
Once School Finder has named the campus, My School from ACARA can show a published profile. Use it as context. Do not turn it into a ranking of NSW public schools, and do not treat a single published indicator as a reason to abandon the local right. The choosing a public school guide sets out a calmer method.
If you are moving into NSW
Interstate arrivals enrol from scratch. Bring evidence of the new NSW address, the child’s date of birth, and whatever the new school lists for immunisation and previous schooling. The previous state’s enrolment does not transfer a place. If housing is still settling, tell the school — temporary addresses are a known situation, not a reason to delay the call.
Rural and distance education sits in the same department with different eligibility tests. If School Finder cannot show a campus within a workable distance, use the department’s rural and distance-education pages rather than treating a 105-kilometre search radius as a travel plan. Isolated families still enrol; they just enrol into a different delivery model.
For the national process behind these NSW tools, read enrolment and catchments. For official term dates, use the department calendar via school terms.