Surrey/London state senior schools

[LemonHedgehog]

Hi all, we are looking to relocate around the best rated state schools in the Surrey/London areas. (Surprisingly hard to work out from an online search) If anyone has any personal recommendations in regards to educational results and facilities I would be grateful. My DD is currently at a girls only so that would be an advantage (although I know extremely rare in the state sector)

Coombe Girls
Tolworth Girls
Tiffin Girls
Waldegrave
Rosebery
Carshalton
Nonsuch
Wallington

All girls schools in this area, just off the top of my head, and a mix of comps and grammars. This is an area where state single sex schools are not rare!

What age is your dd currently, ie are you considering year 7 for September 2026? Are you religious? Ie Catholic schools give you more options and are some of the top rated schools. Are you prepping for grammar schools?

As a general rule all the secondary schools in borough of Richmond and Kingston are pretty good. Surrey is more mixed but the list in the post above is a good start. It's worth remembering that currently 20% of pupils in Surrey are in the private sector but due to vat on school fees it will also be more impacted by the move from private to state.

Thank you both. Ideally we would be moving at year 9, as that is when her current school ends, and it is a Catholic school, however that part isn’t very important to us unless it’s advantageous. She will sit common entrance at her current school, There’s no panicked rush as I’m looking for 2027 just trying to prepare as we will be moving from Dorset. We are currently looking at Windsor Girls due to it starting at year 9. Primarily it just needs to fit the bill and be within a reasonable commute of Heathrow.

Holy Cross in Kingston and the Ursuline in Wimbledon are both highly spoken of Catholic schools. There may not be spaces for year 9 2025 though

You might also want to look at Sacred Heart in Hammersmith, which is outstanding. My neighbour's daughter went there from Kingston.

You are looking at an in year transfer so a space is dependent on your postcode etc. You might want to balance out the cost of housing v the cost of a private school for 3 years and then state sixth form to give you more certainty with the move.

State mixed catholic schools include
St Andrews in leatherhead
St Peter's in Guildford
St John the Baptist Woking
Richard Reynolds in Twickenham
Gumley in Isleworth - all girls
Salesian in Chertsey
St Paul's in Sunbury

But all these schools will be full for year 7 in Sept 2025 with a waitlist so to get a place in 2027 someone has to leaove and you have to be top of the WL.