Queensland state school catchments and academies explained
How Queensland catchments and enrolment management plans work, and what the Queensland Academies and Brisbane State High offer.
Updated 27 September 2026. Rules change yearly; the linked official pages are the final word.
Queensland’s public school system mixes a fairly standard catchment model with a small number of highly competitive selective schools sitting outside it entirely. Here’s how each part works.
How catchments work
Most Queensland state schools have a defined catchment area, and children living in that catchment have priority enrolment at their local school. You can look up your address using EdMap, the Queensland Government’s official interactive map, which shows catchment boundaries for primary, junior secondary and senior secondary provision and flags any enrolment restrictions that apply, per the Department of Education’s enrolment guidance.
Enrolment management plans
Where a state school is approaching capacity, the Department can put a School Enrolment Management Plan (School EMP) in place. A School EMP is introduced when enrolments reach 80% of a school’s assessed capacity, and its main effect is to restrict enrolment of out-of-catchment students so the school can guarantee places for the children who actually live in its catchment, as set out in the School Enrolment Management Plans procedure. In practice, a school with an EMP in place will generally decline out-of-catchment applications outright rather than assess them case by case, because the whole point of the EMP is to protect capacity for local families, including future Prep intakes.
If a school you’re interested in has an EMP, it’s worth checking directly with the school or via EdMap whether any out-of-catchment enrolment is possible at all for your intake year — for a popular, capacity-constrained school, it usually isn’t.
Queensland Academies
Outside the catchment system altogether sit the three Queensland Academies — selective, academically focused state schools with their own separate application and testing process:
- Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology (QASMT), at Toowong, with a STEM focus.
- Queensland Academy for Creative Industries (QACI), at Kelvin Grove, focused on visual arts, design and media.
- Queensland Academy for Health Sciences (QAHS), on the Gold Coast, focused on health sciences.
All three deliver the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in the senior years. QASMT is the only one of the three offering Year 7 entry (applied for in Year 5); the other two, along with QASMT, take Year 10 entry, generally applied for from Term 3 of Year 8.
Applications go through the QA Portal, with a non-refundable application fee, and only one application per student per year is allowed across all three campuses regardless of how many you’d consider. Selection is holistic — it typically draws on an entrance test (delivered by an external testing provider), school reports, NAPLAN results and, for some intakes, an interview, rather than a single test score. Application windows, fees and exact test dates change each cycle, so check the current year’s information via education.qld.gov.au or the individual academy’s own enrolment page rather than relying on a figure from a coaching website (verify current fee and dates each year).
Brisbane State High School
Brisbane State High School, in South Brisbane, runs its own separate academically selective entry process alongside its standard catchment enrolment, using its own testing process distinct from the Queensland Academies’ entrance test. Because the two systems (Queensland Academies and Brisbane State High) use different applications and different tests, a student can apply to both in the same year if timing allows — but each has its own deadlines, so check both schools’ current application windows directly rather than assuming they align.
What this means practically
- If you just want a reliable local public school, start with EdMap to confirm your catchment school and whether it has a School EMP in place.
- If a specific popular school has an EMP, don’t assume you can get in out-of-catchment “if there’s room” — check directly, because EMP schools are specifically trying to avoid taking non-local students.
- The Queensland Academies and Brisbane State High are genuinely separate options from catchment enrolment — they suit academically strong students who want a specialised, selective environment, and involve travel commitments if you don’t already live nearby, since they draw from across the wider region rather than a small local catchment.
- Application fees, test dates and exact entry requirements for the academies and Brisbane State High change from year to year — always check the current cycle’s information before committing to test preparation or travel plans.