myschool

name	myschool
description	Query ACARA My School data for every Australian school — school profiles, student-to-teacher ratios, neighbourhood demographic indicators (ICSEA), enrolments, and locations with coordinates. Use this skill when the user asks about schools near a property, what schools exist in a postcode or suburb, student-to-teacher ratios, or neighbourhood character via school demographics, even if they don't mention ACARA or My School directly.
compatibility	Requires python3 and internet access.

My School

Query school profile data for every school in Australia via ACARA's free datasets (School Profile + School Location). Data is downloaded once and cached locally.

Uses scripts/myschool (python3, stdlib only). Outputs JSON — pipe to jq for extraction.

This skill does NOT contain school performance data (NAPLAN results, attendance, or ratings). ACARA locks performance data behind a formal application process. This is profile and demographic data only.

Usage

scripts/myschool <command> [args...] [--limit N] [--radius km]

Command	Description
postcode <code>	Schools in a postcode, sorted by ICSEA.
search <name>	Search schools by name substring.
suburb <name>	Schools in a suburb, sorted by ICSEA.
nearby <lat> <lon>	Schools near coordinates (default 5km radius).
top [state]	Highest ICSEA schools, optionally filtered by state.
lga <name>	Schools in a local government area.
refresh	Clear cache and force re-download.

Examples:

scripts/myschool postcode 3095
scripts/myschool postcode 3095 | jq '[.[] | {school_name, student_teacher_ratio, icsea, sector, school_type}]'
scripts/myschool search "Grammar"
scripts/myschool suburb Eltham --limit 10
scripts/myschool nearby -37.7130 145.1530 --radius 3
scripts/myschool nearby -37.7130 145.1530 | jq '[.[] | {school_name, student_teacher_ratio, distance_km}]'
scripts/myschool top VIC --limit 10
scripts/myschool lga Nillumbik

Output Fields

Field	Description
school_name	Official school name.
sector	Government, Catholic, or Independent.
school_type	Primary, Secondary, Combined, or Special.
year_range	Year levels offered (e.g., "7-12").
total_enrolments	Total student enrolments.
girls_enrolments	Girls enrolment count.
boys_enrolments	Boys enrolment count.
teaching_staff_fte	Full-time equivalent teaching staff.
non_teaching_staff_fte	Full-time equivalent non-teaching staff.
student_teacher_ratio	Enrolments / FTE teaching staff (lower = smaller classes).
icsea	Parental education/occupation background index (mean 1000).
icsea_percentile	National percentile of ICSEA score.
suburb	School suburb.
state	State or territory.
postcode	Postcode.
latitude / longitude	Coordinates.
lga_name	Local government area name.
school_url	School website.
distance_km	Distance from query point (nearby command only).

Gotchas

• ICSEA is not a school rating — it measures parental education and occupation background, not teaching quality, wealth, or school performance. It's a neighbourhood demographic indicator: high ICSEA = more degree-holding professionals in the catchment. Useful as a property market signal, not an education quality signal.
• No NAPLAN, no attendance, no performance data — ACARA requires a formal data access application for all school results data. This skill only covers the free-download profile and location datasets.
• Student-to-teacher ratio is the one genuine resourcing metric — lower ratio generally means smaller classes. Compare within the same school type (primary vs secondary have different norms).
• First run downloads ~4MB — two XLSX files are fetched and parsed into ~/.cache/myschool/schools.json. Subsequent queries are instant.
• Suburb matching is exact — suburb Eltham matches "ELTHAM" (case-insensitive) but not "Eltham North". Use postcode or nearby for broader coverage.
• Some schools lack coordinates — special-purpose or very new schools may have null latitude/longitude and won't appear in nearby results.