NSW selective and opportunity class placement
What is a reserve band?
A reserve band is the letter the NSW Department of Education gives a child who is on a school’s reserve list. It says roughly how soon an offer might come if one comes at all — A is soonest, and the last letter means an offer is unlikely. Selective high schools use bands A to F. Opportunity classes use A to E. It is not a score, not a rank, and not a position in a queue.
Where the band comes from
When outcomes are released, a child is either offered a place, placed on a reserve list, or unsuccessful. Only the reserve rows carry a letter. You find it by logging in at shsoc.education.nsw.gov.au, opening the application and choosing View outcomes.
What each band means
Selective high school, Year 7 — bands A to F
| 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 | within 4 months of the outcome notification |
| E | within 5 months of the outcome notification |
| F | unlikely to get an offer |
Copied word for word from the Department’s page, Selective high school Year 7 reserve list bands. The Department publishes months, not calendar dates, and calls them estimates only.
If you are in band A to E you are likely to receive an offer, but there is no guarantee that you will. If your child is in band F, you are unlikely to get an offer.
NSW Department of Education — Selective high school Year 7 reserve list bands
Opportunity class, Year 5 — bands A to E
| 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.
NSW Department of Education — Opportunity class reserve list bands
The two sides are not the same shape. Opportunity classes have five bands rather than six, and band D is worded differently — after three months rather than within four.
How a reserve list actually moves
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
That is the whole mechanism, and it has a consequence worth sitting with: an offer exists only because a family ahead said no. How many offers a band receives has nothing to do with how many children are standing in it. A band is not worked through and finished, and reaching band D does not mean a school has been through every child in A, B and C — there may be nobody in them on that side of the list.
How long a child stays on a reserve list
Selective high school: Your child can remain on a reserve list and be placed up until the end of Term 1 of the entry year.
Opportunity class: 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
Why parents track this themselves
The Department tells each family its own band and nothing else. It no longer publishes, school by school, how far down each reserve list offers have actually reached — so a family in band C has no way to know whether their school’s list has moved at all. That gap is why this site exists: parents post which band they are in and the date an offer arrived, and everyone can read it.
See where the lists have reached →
What you will find there is parents reporting to each other — unverified, incomplete, and small in number at most schools. It shows movement, not official standing.