A plan to increase enrolments by reducing school fees has borne fruit at Korowal.
The school will have an additional 40 students next year, after it cut its fees, by as much as $3,000 in some cases.
Principal Barbara Fitzgerald said the plan had been a great success. As well as spreading the word about the fee reduction, parents were asked to talk to their friends about the Korowal education experience.
"I think it was a convergence of a few different things," she said.
"With the reduction in fees and people talking to friends about it, it really directed people to the website page and what Korowal is doing now. And then they saw what we were doing and the education programs ... and then they came to the school."
Once they were on the Hazelbrook campus, "the school just sells itself", Ms Fitzgerald said.
She said the new students are across all age groups: Kindergarten will be full next year and there are also enrolments for the most senior two years of school.
One demountable will be added to the school for primary art classes. But even with the extra students, there will still only be one class for each year.
Ms Fitzgerald reassured locals that it would not create more traffic around the school.
"We have already addressed the traffic," she said. There are two school buses each morning and afternoon taking students to the railway station. One then heads east and the other up towards Katoomba.
"It's just so rewarding," the principal said, "because we know we are doing some pretty remarkable stuff here."
The independent school had to take out a mortgage when it moved to Hazelbrook from its original Leura home in 2009. Now it is finally in a position to reduce the amount parents have to pay.
Annual fees for Year 11 and 12 have been cut from $12,429 to $9,500, Years 8, 9 and 10 reduced from $11,513 to $8,000 and Year 7 from $10,554 to $7,500. Fees for the younger students have also been cut, with Years 3-6 now all set at $7,500.