2026-06-09
Haileybury Rendall School（黑利伯瑞任朵学校）Australia Study Guide: Programs, Entry Requirements, Costs and Student Life
A practical study guide to Haileybury Rendall School in Darwin, NT: the Australian Curriculum to Year 9, a three-year VCE pathway, international admission steps, 2026 tuition and boarding costs, and what student life in Darwin is really like.
Haileybury Rendall School is an early-learning-to-Year-12 independent school in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, operating as part of the same education network as Haileybury in Melbourne. For families weighing an Australian school for a child from overseas, the two things that set Haileybury Rendall School apart are a senior program built entirely around the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), and a boarding option that international students in Years 7–12 can use from day one. This guide covers the school’s programs, entry requirements, costs and daily life, and every figure below comes from the school’s own website and its 2026 international student documents, accessed on 5 August 2026.
About Haileybury Rendall School
Haileybury Rendall School sits on a campus at 6057 Berrimah Road in Berrimah, Darwin. The school describes itself as one of the leading independent schools in northern Australia, offering day, boarding and online study options, and it is closely affiliated with Haileybury, whose five Melbourne campuses and Tianjin campus share the same educational framework. Teaching follows the school’s Explicit Teaching Model in the junior years and the VCE in the senior years.
Darwin itself shapes the experience: a tropical city of roughly 148,000 people with a warm climate all year round, about a four-and-a-half-hour flight from Singapore and often described by the school as Australia’s gateway to South-East Asia. The city is multicultural, and the campus is located in the Berrimah area of Darwin. For international families, choosing Haileybury Rendall School therefore means choosing both a curriculum and a place to live — the school’s boarding houses, or a day arrangement with family or an approved guardian.
Programs and year levels
The curriculum at Haileybury Rendall School runs through an Early Learning Centre, a Junior School (Transition to Year 6), a Middle School (Years 7–9) and a Senior School (Years 10–12). International students are normally enrolled in Years 7–12, with a limited number of places at each year level; primary-age international students may be considered when they live in Darwin with a parent or guardian.
The school follows the Australian Curriculum up to Year 9, then moves into a three-year VCE program for Years 10–12 under the framework of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). In the Middle School, students study English, maths, science, humanities, languages and health and physical education, with electives such as music, visual arts, media, drama, forensic science, computer science, woodwork and food technology; Year 9 adds politics, commerce, entrepreneurship, sports leadership and outdoor education. In the Senior School, students can begin VCE studies as early as Year 10, with each subject offered at Units 1 and 2 (Year 11 level) and Units 3 and 4 (Year 12 level). The school also lists applied learning options and VCE studies in tourism, art, music and sport and recreation for students who want a more practical set of outcomes.
Entry requirements for international students
Admission to Haileybury Rendall School as an international student starts with an Application for Enrolment, followed by literacy and numeracy testing arranged by the school; results are used to confirm that the student is placed at an appropriate year level and given suitable support. Applications are assessed case by case, and a successful applicant receives a formal Offer of Enrolment. Accepting the offer requires payment of the relevant application fee, deposit, entrance fee and tuition fees.
On year level, the school states that it aims to enrol international students from Year 9 and above; students younger than that can only enrol with the special permission of the Principal. Transfer applications from other schools are generally not accepted, although the school may consider them at its discretion. Credit for previously completed units may be awarded to students transferring from overseas in Years 10 or 11 and at the start of Year 12, based on published VCE rules. The school does not publish a single minimum English test score; assessment is based on the school’s own testing, which differs from schools that set a fixed IELTS entry point.
For immigration, international students at Haileybury Rendall School study on a 500-class student visa. The school issues a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) through the PRISMS system so that the student can apply for the visa, and students are responsible for arranging their own visa and travel and providing a copy of the visa once granted. Before a visa is issued, students must also hold private health cover for their time in Australia — the Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) requirement — which the school can help arrange through Medibank Private or its preferred provider.
2026 costs and budget planning
Under Haileybury Rendall School’s 2026 International Schedule of Tuition Fees and Charges, an entrance fee of $2,350 (AUD) is payable on acceptance; it is non-refundable and non-transferable, and $300 of it is collected on behalf of the Old Haileyburians Association as a life membership fee. Annual tuition for 2026 is $37,310 for Year 7, $38,370 for Years 8 and 9, and $38,815 for Years 10, 11 and 12.
Boarding fees for 2026 are a flat $36,320 per year across all year levels, covering term-time accommodation with three meals a day, seven days a week, and including $1,047 GST. Combining tuition and boarding gives annual totals of $73,630 for Year 7, $74,690 for Years 8 and 9, and $75,135 for Years 10–12; day students pay tuition only. Annual fees are charged in advance and cover one semester, with the first semester of the first year payable on acceptance of the offer. Other budget items in the 2026 schedule: a managed device program (MDP) that is compulsory for Years 5–9 costs about $1,441 once (including GST, a three-year warranty and capped accidental-damage protection), textbooks and calculators run to roughly $800 per year, and uniform, stationery and some optional activities are additional. Sibling discounts apply to the tuition portion — 5% for the second child, 10% for the third and 20% for the fourth and subsequent children — but not in combination with other fee assistance.
Application process and term dates
Applications for enrolment at Haileybury Rendall School may be submitted online at any time; the school does not publish a single closing date, but places at each year level are limited, so earlier is better. The process runs: submit the application and required documents, sit the literacy and numeracy testing, receive and accept the offer, pay the entrance fee and first semester fees, receive the CoE via PRISMS, apply for the 500-class student visa, and arrive for orientation. The school also accepts short-stay international enrolments of 4–6 weeks for students who want a shorter Australian school experience.
For planning, the 2027 term dates are: Term 1 from 28 January to 25 March (orientation for new students on 27 January), Term 2 from 13 April to 18 June, Term 3 from 13 July to 17 September, and Term 4 from 5 October to 9 December. In 2026, Term 3 runs 14 July to 18 September and Term 4 runs 5 October to 10 December. Visa processing and pre-departure arrangements take time, so it pays to work back from the intended start date.
Boarding and student life in Darwin
Boarding at Haileybury Rendall School is open to international students in Years 7–12. The school runs three boarding houses with separate male and female residences, space for around 60 students and a mix of single and dual-occupancy rooms. Boarders use the on-site dining hall, swimming pool, basketball courts and recreational ovals, and welfare and accommodation arrangements are managed by the school itself, which removes the need for families to find a separate guardian.
Life outside the classroom is distinctly Darwin: night and weekend markets, the museum and gallery, harbour cruises, the Darwin Waterfront and an outdoor cinema are all within reach, and the Northern Territory’s big landscapes — Litchfield National Park about an hour’s drive away, Kakadu and Uluru further afield — feed into the school’s outdoor education program. Haileybury Rendall School suits families who are comfortable with a tropical climate and want a VCE pathway and boarding managed under one roof.
All information in this guide is from the Haileybury Rendall School website and its 2026 international student documents, accessed on 5 August 2026. Fees, term dates and entry requirements are reviewed each year, so always check the latest version on the school’s website; for advice on your own family’s circumstances, you can talk to the consultants on this site.