NSW opportunity class · Year 5 entry
Opportunity class reserve bands, A to E
An opportunity class reserve band is one of five letters, A to E, given to a child placed on the reserve list for a Year 5 opportunity class. The Department publishes an estimate of how soon each band might receive an offer. Band E means an offer is unlikely.
| Band | Estimate based on the previous year |
|---|---|
| A | within 1 month of the outcome notification |
| B | within 2 months of the outcome notification |
| C | within 3 months of the outcome notification |
| D | after 3 months from the outcome notification |
| E | unlikely to get an offer |
Copied word for word from the Department’s page, Opportunity class reserve list bands. The Department publishes months, not calendar dates, and calls them estimates only.
If you are in band A to D you are likely to receive an offer, but there is no guarantee that you will. If your child is in band E, you are unlikely to get an offer.
Your child can remain on a reserve list and be placed up until the end of Term 1 in Year 6.
NSW Department of Education — Opportunity class reserve list bands
Three ways OC differs from selective high school
Five bands, not six
Opportunity classes run A to E; selective high schools run A to F. The last letter means the same thing on both sides — an offer is unlikely — but it is a different letter.
Band D is worded differently
On the selective side, band D is “within 4 months of the outcome notification”. On the OC side it is “after 3 months from the outcome notification”. That is a floor rather than a ceiling, and it is the Department’s own wording, not a rewording of the selective estimate.
The list runs to the end of Term 1 in Year 6
“Your child can remain on a reserve list and be placed up until the end of Term 1 in Year 6.” — so a placement can still happen well after the child has started Year 5 somewhere else.
How an offer comes
When a parent or carer declines their offer at a school, the offer is then made to the next eligible student on the reserve list.
NSW Department of Education
How opportunity class places are published
The Department publishes one figure per school — the number of Year 5 places for 2027, boys and girls together. It is not a figure per sex. It also explains what those numbers mean in practice:
Some opportunity classes are composite classes that have 15 Year 5 and 15 Year 6 students in the one class.
Schools that offer 15 Year 5 places have: 1 composite (Year 5 and Year 6) OC class.
Schools that offer 30 Year 5 places have either: 2 single Year OC classes (1 just for Year 5 students; and the other for Year 6 students); or 2 composite (Year 5 and Year 6) OC classes. Please check the school’s website or contact them to confirm.
NSW Department of Education
From the 2027 intake the Department makes an equal number of places available for girls and boys in opportunity classes as well as selective high schools. It publishes the rule and the total, but not a split — and a class of 15 does not divide into two equal halves.
See the opportunity class board →
Parents’ own reports, not an official record.