Data Notes: Primary schools enrol students in Kindergarten to Year 6. Secondary schools generally enrol students in Years 7 to 12, although some secondary schools only enrol students in the senior years, i.e. Years 11 to 12 or the junior years, i.e. Years 7 to 10. Central/community schools have primary and secondary departments and may be established where there is an enrolment in secondary classes of 20 or more. Enrolments in primary departments and secondary departments are included with the appropriate student data. Schools for specific purposes (SSPs) are for students with specific needs. Most SSPs have permanent enrolments and include schools for students with intellectual (mild, moderate and severe) and physical disabilities, visual or hearing impairment, behaviour disorders or emotional disturbance, and students in juvenile justice centres. Some SSPs have no permanent enrolments because the children temporarily attending them are enrolled and counted in their own schools. These are mainly hospital schools. Data Source: Schools and Students: Statistical Bulletin. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

Data Notes: Primary schools enrol students in Kindergarten to Year 6. Secondary schools generally enrol students in Years 7 to 12, although some secondary schools only enrol students in the senior years, that is, Years 11 to 12 or the junior years, that is, Years 7 to 10. Central/community schools have primary and secondary departments and may be established where there is an enrolment in secondary classes of 20 or more. Alexandria Park Community School, Batlow Technology School, Dubbo School of Distance Education, Evans River Community School, Hunter School of Performing Arts, Lucas Heights Community School and Wadalba Community School are included with central/community schools. Norfolk Island Central School was included in NSW data for the first time in 2016. It has not been designated an SA4 group, so is only included in the NSW total. Schools for specific purposes (SSPs) are for students with specific needs. Environmental Education Centres (EECs) provide environmental education for students, but do not have full time enrolments. Since 2014, the department has used a geographical structure based on the new ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). Groups of ASGS Statistical Area 4 (SA4) boundaries in NSW have been combined into 11 groups for reporting and publication of department data. Previous publications compared enrolments in DEC regions. Data Source: Schools and Students: Statistical Bulletin. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

Data Notes: Includes secondary schools and central/community schools. Secondary schools generally enrol students in Years 7 to 12, although some secondary schools only enrol students in the senior years, i.e. Years 11 to 12 or the junior years, i.e. Years 7 to 10. The Conservatorium High School is included with performing arts schools. Aurora College (NSW Virtual Selective High School) is included with fully selective schools. The number of schools is recorded mid-year. Intensive English only covers standalone Intensive English schools and does not include schools with an attached Intensive English Centre. Data Source: Schools and Students: Statistical Bulletin. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

Data notes Data is collected mid-year (census date: first Friday in August) from NSW government schools as per National Schools Statistics Collection (NSCC). All primary school students are considered to be full-time. From 2020, students in mainstream support classes are reported by their underlying grade of enrolment. Previously, students in support classes in mainstream schools were not included. Students in schools for specific purposes (SSPs) are not included. Students in distance education and Opportunity Classes (OC) are included with their appropriate grade levels. In most scholastic years there are a small number of students in atypical age groups. These have been included in the nearest band. This is indicated with an asterisk. As a result, the sum of each row may not equal the totals reported. See the relevant tables in the Statistical Bulletin for more details. Data source Schools and Students: Statistical Bulletin. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

Data Notes: Data is collected mid-year (census date: first Friday in August) from NSW government schools as per National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC). From 2020, students in mainstream support classes are reported by their underlying grade of enrolment. Previously, students in support classes in mainstream schools were not included. Students in schools for specific purposes (SSPs) are not included. Students in distance education and Intensive English Centres are included with their appropriate grade levels. OC classes are not included in secondary students. IEC students are included. In most scholastic years there are a small number of students in atypical age groups. For students under 18 years, these have been included in the nearest band. This is indicated with an asterisk. As a result, the sum of each row may not equal the totals reported. See relevant tables in Statistical Bulletin for more details. Data Source: Schools and Students: Statistical Bulletin. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

Data Notes Class size audits are conducted by CESE (Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation) in March each year. Audits were not conducted in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. Data for 2020 should be treated with caution. The collection took place in March when schools were impacted by COVID-19, so fewer data checks were carried out. Students attending schools for specific purposes (SSPs), students in support classes in regular schools and distance education students are excluded from average class size calculations. The average class size for each grade is calculated by taking the number of students in all classes that a student from that grade is in (including composite/multi age classes) divided by the total number of classes that includes a student from that grade. This can result in a lower Kindergarten to Year 6 average class size than any individual year level. From 2017, school size is based on primary enrolment rather than school classification. Schools change size, so data in Table 2 is not necessarily comparable to previous iterations in earlier fact sheets. Data Source Education Statistics and Measurement, Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. Data quality statement The Class Size Audit Data Quality Statement addresses the quality of the Class Size Audit dataset using the dimensions outlined in the NSW Department of Education's data quality management framework: institutional environment, relevance, timeliness, accuracy, coherence, interpretability and accessibility. It provides an overview of the dataset's quality and highlights any known data quality issues.

This dataset includes the number of enrolments in NSW government schools from 1848 to 2023. Data Notes: Since 1993, some students have enrolled part-time. All enrolments are reported in full-time equivalent (FTE) units and include full-time and part-time students. Student enrolments are rounded to the nearest whole number. From 1881 to 1907, primary enrolments relate to students undertaking ordinary public school courses. However, post-primary pupils in superior public schools are included in the primary figures. Primary correspondence school (later distance education centres) pupils are also included from 1938, and the school of the air pupils from 1976. From 1938, post-primary enrolments relate to student undertaking post-primary courses in high, intermediate high, district, junior high, central, superior public schools and correspondence school (later distance education centres). Pupils undertaking post- primary courses in small primary schools are also included. Evening continuation school pupils are not included. For the period from 1881 to 1907 it has not been possible to isolate the number of post-primary pupils in superior public schools and consequently they are included under primary enrolments. This is the reason for the large jump in post-primary enrolments in 1908. From 1962 to 1983, all pupils in special schools or classes (except those in some community care schools who were not counted until 1981) are included as appropriate in the primary or post-primary figures and in the total. Since 1984, students in Schools for Special Purposes have been counted separately. Prior to 1962 it was difficult to ascertain if these pupils are included. Children in hospital schools and schools for the physically and intellectually disabled are sometimes included in the primary figures during the late 1950s, but physically and intellectually disabled children in special classes in ordinary schools are included from the late 1940s. The enrolment figures between 1848 to 1918 are for the December quarter, with those for 1848 to 1851 and 1866 being estimates. From 1919 the annual census figures are used resulting in a sharp drop in primary and rise in post-primary enrolments in 1919. Pupils from the ACT are included until 1973, at which date they numbered 30,457. Data source: Schools and Students: Statistical Bulletin. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

The data shows the change in enrolments of government and non-government schools in each year since 2011, and selected years from 1901. ** Data Notes** Government and non-government school data for 1901-1961 include students in ACT schools. From 1993 the table includes full-time and part-time students, reported in full-time equivalent units (FTE). FTE is determined by the formula: 0.1 x the number of units studied and represented as a proportion of the full-time enrolment of 1.0. For further information visit Schools: InBrief Mid-Year Census produced by the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. ** Data Source:** Australian Bureau of Statistics, Schools Australia.

Data Notes: Data is collected mid-year (census date: first Friday in August) from NSW government schools as per National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC). Data excludes support students. Students in Years 11 or 12 can enrol to study as a part-time or full-time student. For the annual census, a part-time student is enrolled in less than 10 units, regardless of where those units are studied. All Kindergarten to Year 10 students are considered to be full-time. Student enrolments are generally reported in full-time equivalent units (FTE). The FTE for students studying less than 10 units, the minimum workload, is determined by the formula: 0.1 x the number of units studied and represented as a proportion of the full-time enrolment of 1.0 FTE. In most scholastic years there are a small number of students in atypical age groups. For students under 18 years, these have been included in the nearest band. This is indicated with an asterisk. As a result, the sum of each row may not equal the totals reported. Mature-age students’ data (18 years old and above) is not anonymised. Data Source: Schools and Students: Statistical Bulletin. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.