OC Reserve Lists & Results — Three Years of Band Tracking

The legend

What reserve bands A to E actually mean

A reserve band is a waiting-time estimate, not a rank — and it's per school, not per child: a family can hold an offer at their third preference while still sitting on the reserve lists of their first two.

An offer is likely within 1 month

An offer is likely within 2 months

An offer is likely within 3 months

An offer may come, but likely after 3 months

An offer is unlikely

Three years of tracking

How reserve lists actually move

We've recorded the reserve band each OC school was quoting through three placement cycles — readings the Department no longer publishes anywhere. Lists work down the alphabet as offers are declined and places refill, so the direction isn't the story. How far and how fast each list moves is.

Schools tracked

Held A or B throughout

Ended the cycle on E

Hit E in the first three readings

Where every reserve list sat at each reading (2025)

18 Sep

22 Sep

6 Oct

11 Oct

17 Oct

21 Oct

28 Oct

3 Nov

10 Nov

12 Nov

28 Nov

A — likely within 1 month B — likely within 2 months C — likely within 3 months D — likely after 3 months E — unlikely

Most of the movement happened between 22 September and 6 October. Across those two readings the distribution changed more than in the following eight weeks combined — consistent with the reserve decision date, when families holding accepted offers come off every list at once.

Every school's reserve list, reading by reading

Alexandria Park

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Alstonville

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Armidale City

18 Sep B D 28 Nov

Artarmon Highly Competitive

18 Sep B B 28 Nov

Ashfield

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Balgowlah Heights Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Balmain Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Bathurst West

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Beecroft Highly Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Biraban Competitive

18 Sep B B 28 Nov

Blacktown South Highly Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Blacktown West Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Blaxcell Street

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Bradbury Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Brookvale Highly Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Camden South

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Caringbah North Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Casula

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Cessnock West

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Chatswood Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Colyton

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Coonabarabran

18 Sep A A 28 Nov

Cudgegong Valley Competitive

18 Sep A B 28 Nov

Doonside

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Dubbo West

18 Sep E E 28 Nov

Dural Highly Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Earlwood Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Ermington Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Georges Hall Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Glenbrook

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Goonellabah

18 Sep A A 28 Nov

Gosford

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Goulburn West

18 Sep B C 28 Nov

Greenacre

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Greystanes Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Guildford West

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Harrington Street Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Holsworthy Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Hurstville Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Illaroo Road Competitive

18 Sep B C 28 Nov

Ironbark Ridge Highly Competitive

18 Sep A B 28 Nov

Jewells

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Kingswood Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Leumeah

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Lindfield East Highly Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Lithgow

18 Sep E E 28 Nov

Maroubra Junction Competitive

18 Sep B C 28 Nov

Maryland Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Matthew Pearce Highly Competitive

18 Sep A B 28 Nov

Miranda

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Mona Vale Competitive

18 Sep B C 28 Nov

Moree Competitive

18 Sep A A 28 Nov

Moss Vale Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Neutral Bay Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

New Lambton

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Newbridge Heights Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

North Rocks Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Penrith

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Picnic Point Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Port Macquarie

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Quakers Hill Highly Competitive

18 Sep A C 28 Nov

Queanbeyan South Competitive

18 Sep A C 28 Nov

Richmond Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Rutherford

18 Sep B D 28 Nov

Ryde Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Smithfield

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Soldiers Point Competitive

18 Sep B B 28 Nov

South Grafton

18 Sep A A 28 Nov

St Andrews

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

St Clair Competitive

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

St Johns Park

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Sturt

18 Sep A E 28 Nov

Summer Hill

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Sutherland

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Tahmoor Competitive

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Tamworth Competitive

18 Sep A B 28 Nov

Tamworth South

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Tighes Hill Competitive

18 Sep A B 28 Nov

Toongabbie

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Toormina Competitive

18 Sep A A 28 Nov

Wahroonga Highly Competitive

18 Sep B C 28 Nov

Waitara Highly Competitive

18 Sep B D 28 Nov

Wentworth Falls Highly Competitive

18 Sep B B 28 Nov

Wilkins

18 Sep B E 28 Nov

Wollongong Highly Competitive

18 Sep B B 28 Nov

Woollahra Highly Competitive

18 Sep B B 28 Nov

Wyong Highly Competitive

18 Sep B B 28 Nov

A light grey square means the school published no reserve list at that reading; an outlined square means no reading was taken.

Cycle vs cycle

Three cycles, side by side

67 schools appear in all three cycles. We deliberately don't boil them into a single "competitiveness score" — the spread is the finding.

Schools in all three cycles

Ended on the same band all three

Swung across 3+ bands

Only 7 of 67 schools ended on the same band three years running. Artarmon went E → B → B. Chatswood went E → B → E. Colyton went E → A → E. An average of that would look authoritative and predict almost nothing — you're better served seeing all three years and drawing your own conclusion.

School	2023	2024	2025
Colyton	E	A	E
Cudgegong Valley	E	A	B
South Grafton	E	B	A
Toormina	E	A	A
Alstonville	C	B	E
Armidale City	E	B	D
Artarmon	E	B	B
Balmain	B	E	E
Bathurst West	E	B	E
Beecroft	B	E	E
Biraban	E	B	B
Blacktown South	C	B	E
Blaxcell Street	E	B	E
Bradbury	E	B	E
Caringbah North	B	E	E

Sorted by how far each school swung, widest first. Bands are compared at the last reading of each cycle; the observation windows are close but not identical, and our 2023 tracking started later in the cycle than the other two years. The OC programme also grew over this period — 75 schools tracked in 2023, 87 in 2025 — so the yearly distributions aren't drawn from the same set of schools.

Max the alien ticking off a clipboard as data streams from a phone

Results arrive on 9 September

We believe in open data to keep families informed. No email required, completely anonymous. Share your data with us, and we'll keep you notified on results and what is happening across schools.

Make sense of your child's OC result

What reserve bands A to E actually mean

How reserve lists actually move

Where every reserve list sat at each reading (2025)

Every school's reserve list, reading by reading

Three cycles, side by side

Results arrive on 9 September

Further reading