Can't afford private school fees? This new website says you can.

Fear you can’t afford private school for your kids?

Worried you’ve left it to late to lock in a place for them?

Fear not: A website launched this morning in NSW allows parents to search for last-minute discounted vacancies at private schools.

The online service, schoolplaces.com.au, lists some of the 465 private schools in the state but not Catholic schools, the Daily Telegraph reports.

School Places launched in Victoria in May 2014 with 11 private schools, and the company’s chief executive Nat Mactier said they had 35,000 hits on the site on launch day, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The service’s website describes School Places as “Australia’s first ever marketplace for unfilled private school places.”

It says:

Parents can now search the School Places website to find a private school place for their child at prices significantly below the published rate. Discounts vary by school but range between 10% and 30% for between 1 and 6 years.

At most schools the discount is for two years, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Chief executive Natalie Mactier told the Sydney Morning Herald that while year 7 was usually the hardest in which to secure a place at a private school, parents were often unneccesarily worried by tales of  long waiting lists.

“Wait lists are a little bit of a myth because they are only as good as how warm you keep them,” Ms Mactier said told the newspaper.

“While many parents prefer to lock in their options well ahead of time, School Places caters to those who prefer to keep their options open or who need to find a new school in a hurry.”

The website, which is free for parents to use, was the brainchild of Jeremy Wein, a Monash University graduate. Wein, who is just 25, sought to apply the ease of last-minute and travel websites like Wotif.com to the complexity of private school placements, the Financial Review reports.

Would you use a website to scour for discounted spots at a private school?