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If you’re looking for a world-class school to send your kid to, London is the place to be. Last year two of the capital’s schools were shortlisted for World’s Best School, the Sunday Times’ league tables crowned one London grammar school the best in the UK and a whopping 17 London schools featured in the 2025 Fairer Schools Index.
London’s educational prowess extends to private schools, too. The Times’ best fee-paying school is here in London (St Paul’s Girls School), as is the best private school according to Ivy Education (Westminster School).
And now more London private schools have been recognised for their excellence. In the most recent edition of Carfax Education’s Schools Index, two institutions in the capital were named among the UK’s top 25 private schools.
This particular Carfax ranking focuses on senior schools, which tend to take care of students from age 11 or 13 up to 18. The index features several of the country’s most famous schools, including Eton College, Winchester College and Brighton College.
First up from London in the index (which is in alphabetical order) is Dulwich College. The south London school for boys is just over 400 years old and offers both day and boarding. Famous Old Alleynians include author Raymond Chandler, politician Nigel Farage and The Chase’s Paul Sinha, and full boarder fees start from £20,441 from this current Lent term (day pupils start from £9,698, all including VAT).
Harrow School is the other London school in the list. Also an all-boys school, the northwest London school was founded in 1572 under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I. Notable Old Harrovians include prime ministers Winston Churchill, Stanley Baldwin and Robert Peel, as well as poet Lord Byron, actor Benedict Cumberbatch and ‘You’re Beautiful’ guy James Blunt. Harrow’s termly fee is £20,528.
As any keen followers of the Carfax Education index may point out, there are fewer London schools in this year’s list than in 2024. Last year a total of seven London private schools made the cut, including King’s College School, St Paul’s Girls’ School and Westminster School.
Other schools that aren’t in London but are close to the city featured the list this year, including the likes of Eton, Haileybury and Sevenoaks. You can find the full UK-wide index here.
But that isn’t all. Carfax Education also has a specific ‘best schools in London’ list, a mixture of preparatory and senior schools. Here’s that list (again, in alphabetical order).
The best private schools in London in 2025, according to Carfax Education
- Arnold House Prep School
- Falkner House
- Glendower Preparatory School
- King’s College School, Wimbledon
- North London Collegiate School
- St Paul’s Girls School
- St Paul’s School
- Sussex House School
- The Hall
- Westminster School
You can find out more about all these schools on the Carfax Education website here.
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Looking for more London schools content? The Sunday Times named the capital’s top comps, here are the best schools according to 2024 GCSE and A-Level results and these are the city’s top 10 primary schools.
If you’re off to uni, we’ve got the lowdown on all the London universities that feature in rankings by Times Higher Education, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS, Complete University Ranking, Student Crowd, the Guardian and the Daily Mail.
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