The Braintree journal

Notes from teachers, parents and students.

Quick Answer: The Braintree Coaching Australia blog is a journal of long-form guides for parents on selective entry and scholarship preparation. Articles cover NSW Selective High Schools and Opportunity Class placement, plus HAST, ASET, EduTest and ACER Scholarship Tests, and link to official programme pages when a test family is named. Use categories and tags to browse by topic; every post names its author, and older articles stay available through pagination.

Long-form pieces on exam strategy, study technique and the parts of preparation that do not fit on a flyer. Articles here are written by our faculty and edited carefully — no listicles, no hot takes.

Parents use this hub as a reading list for one exam pathway at a time: pick the programme your child is sitting, read the section and pacing notes, then confirm dates and eligibility on the official page the article cites. The journal is not a substitute for those Tier-1 sources, and it is not a course catalogue — when you need a practical next step, articles point to tools we maintain ourselves, including our selective entry score calculator and free practice papers.

The journal covers selective entry and scholarship preparation for Australian families: NSW Selective High Schools and Opportunity Class placement (NSW Department of Education), HAST, ASET, EduTest and ACER Scholarship Tests. NSW DoE currently lists 4,338 Year 7 selective places and 1,840 Year 5 Opportunity Class places; both placement tests are computer-based, and older PDF samples do not match the on-screen software. You will find explainers on each test section, honest notes on pacing under timed conditions, and parent-facing guides on building a weekly routine without overloading a primary-school child. Official programme pages above are the Tier-1 references we point parents to when an article names a test family — we do not invent structure or dates from coaching blogs.

Use article categories when you want topic groupings such as exam prep or study tips. Exam topic tags collect related posts across categories — useful when you are researching one skill, such as abstract reasoning or writing structure. Every post names its author; the authors index links to each teacher's archive.

We publish when a guide is ready, not on a fixed calendar. Featured articles on the first page highlight recent work from the faculty; older posts stay available through pagination so nothing disappears behind a paywall or login.