LIVE Independent London intelligence · checked today
THE LONDON SCHOOL SHORTLISTS
Find their place
in London.
Four regions. Four school types. Five considered choices in each guide — with school photographs, admissions questions and evidence you can check.
16 guides · State & independent · Primary & secondary · Reviewed 26 September 2026
North London
Hampstead and Highgate sit alongside outer-north-London options. Compare the actual school-run journey, not just the borough.
Boroughs in this guide
Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington.
East London
We group the City with East for this guide. Woodford schools in Redbridge remain London schools despite an Essex postal address.
Boroughs in this guide
Hackney, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Barking and Dagenham, Havering, plus the City of London.
West London
North London Collegiate is included here because its campus is in Harrow. The region includes central-west-London schools.
Boroughs in this guide
Brent, Harrow, Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster.
South London
Richmond and Kingston are grouped with South for navigation; this includes Barnes, Wimbledon, Sutton and Orpington.
Boroughs in this guide
Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Greenwich, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Sutton, Merton, Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames.
Good evidence. Better questions.
These are LONNOW editorial selections, not official rankings. Numbers organise each guide; they do not imply that one school is best for every child. The regional groups are navigation choices, not admissions boundaries.
We use dated Ofsted reports, public Good Schools Guide profiles and relevant school or ISI information. Sunday Times recognition is attributed only where publicly documented. Subscription-only tables and reviews were not accessed.