Overseas and interstate applicants

Overseas and interstate applicants

Overseas and interstate families who plan to return or relocate to WA can apply for a Gifted and Talented program for their child.

Your child will be required to meet specific criteria throughout the application, testing and placement process to be eligible for testing and potential placement.

Children enrolled as secondary exchange students are not eligible to apply or enrol in Gifted and Talented programs.

Lodge an application and qualify for testing

Interstate applicants

When submitting your child’s online application, you must attach your child’s most recent school report showing their enrolment in a school outside Western Australia (WA), and in a year level equivalent to the current testing intake (for example, Year 5 in 2023 for entry into Year 7 in 2025). Where interstate school enrolment and attendance can't be verified, we reserve the right to go by the child’s date of birth or to offer local testing in WA only.

Overseas applicants

When submitting your child’s online application, you must attach your child’s most recent school report showing their enrolment in a school outside Western Australia (WA). Western Australian schools primarily consider date of birth when placing students in year levels. A request for an application where a students’ date of birth is outside the standard date of birth parameters for an intake year may be considered in extenuating circumstances with supporting evidence provided. Where overseas school enrolment and attendance can’t be verified, we reserve the right to offer local testing in WA only.

Refer to the applicant guidelines for date of birth ranges for WA school intakes. The guidelines will be added to this page by the end of October 2023.

Testing process

Once an overseas or interstate applicant has been approved for testing, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) will contact you to make the arrangements.

You will be required to source the services of an appropriate third-party invigilator who will administer the testing of your child at their current overseas or interstate school.

An invigilator:

  • must have a relevant qualification
  • cannot be affiliated with the student or their family
  • may be required to show evidence of employment that has no ties to tutoring companies or any other service that might present as a conflict of interest.

Invigilators will need to sign a confidentiality agreement and agree to the terms and conditions.

You will be required to meet all costs associated with testing from your nominated invigilator and ACER. ACER charges cover secure courier, handling and secure storage. You will need to make the payment to ACER in full before any materials can be sent. If payment is not made prior to the deadline ACER will communicate to applicants approved to test, testing will not occur and your child’s application may be cancelled.

ACER charges for the 2024 testing are as follows:

  • overseas applicants $200 
  • interstate applicants $150.

Interstate applicants approved for testing may be able to complete the test at ACER offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or Adelaide. Information regarding this option will communicated to you by ACER where appropriate.

The overseas and interstate testing schedule cannot be postponed or delayed due to an inability to meet the required costs.

Offer of placement to a successful applicant

If your child qualifies for an offer of placement and you indicate you want to accept an offer of placement, you will be required to be cleared through the overseas/interstate applicant eligibility process to confirm your child's eligibility. 

Your child will need to meet the following essential enrolment criteria:

  1. Details of primary carer
    • the primary carer must be a parent or blood relative over the age of 21 living in WA
    • will need to provide accommodation and welfare for the child for the duration of the secondary schooling.
  2. Proof of Western Australian (WA) residential address connected to the primary carer
    • enrolment in Gifted and Talented programs requires a child and their primary parent or carer’s usual place of residence to be in WA
    • successful overseas or interstate applicants need to provide evidence of a WA home address connected to the child’s existing primary parent or carer in which they will live for the duration of their secondary schooling.
  3. Enrolment in Gifted and Talented Secondary programs requires that the applicant is either
    • an Australian or New Zealand citizen
    • a permanent residence visa holder
    • a temporary visa holder with a local enrolment entitlement classification in the Enrolment Framework for Students with a Visa in Public Schools
    • in the process of obtaining any of the above with the reasonable expectation it will be approved prior to the school enrolment deadline for 2025.

Note:

Residential colleges or boarding houses cannot be substituted for verified WA home address or primary parent or carer.

Inability to meet one or more of the above criteria will result in an offer of placement being withdrawn. Once the criteria are met and approved by the Department of Education WA, you will be permitted to enrol your child at the school.

If a place is offered or an enrolment is made on the basis of false or misleading information, the offer or enrolment will be terminated.

Contact our team

Contact our team

For more information about Gifted and Talented Secondary Selective Entrance programs, call 9264 4307 or email gtsu@education.wa.edu.au

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