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Top LONDON PREP schools 2024
These are the best CEM Select 11 plus practice tests and ISEB PRE-TESTS practice that parents can purchase online.
The private school league tables make a fascinating read for anyone looking for the top independent schools in the UK.
ISEB and CEM practice pre-tests prep can be found at the links below:
BEST independent schools entry test prep
TOP private schools 11+ entry test
Want to get your child into a top London prep school?
One way of doing it is to get them a place at a top London ‘prep’ school first. As the name suggests, prep schools prepare children for private secondary education.
Usually, these independent schools take children from the ages of eight to 13 when they take the Common Entrance Exam.
However, girls and those at mixed prep schools often move up at 11.
London’s best independent schools
Because prep schools are independent they don’t have to follow the national curriculum. This means children don’t have to take SATs or other Department of Education tests such as the Year 1 Phonics screening check.
Teachers often specialise in certain subjects too. For example, children may have different teachers for science, languages and PE. This isn’t usually the case in the state sector where one Primary teacher will teach several subjects.
One advantage is that they tend to have much better facilities for sport, music etc. They also offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities and have much smaller class sizes.
In this article, we list the Top 10 Prep Schools in central London. These are schools that are listed in the Tatler School Guide 2019 and which have also received the highest ratings on Google.
London’s best independent schools
1. Kensington Prep School
- Website: kensingtonprep.gdst.net/
- Location: 596 Fulham Road, SW6 5PA
Pupils: 295 day girls
Faith: Non-denominational - Ages: 4-11
- About: Founded in 1873, the Fulham-based school won Prep School of the Year 2018 from the Independent School Parent Magazine. One of the most famous people to go to the school was suffragette Emily Davison.
2. Notting Hill Prep School
- Website: nottinghillprep.com/
- Location: 95 Lancaster Road, W11 1QQ
- Pupils: 370 day pupils: 180 boys, 190 girls
Faith: Non-denominational
Ages: 4-13
About: Described as a ‘thinking school’, children study philosophy and are encouraged to take risks with their learning.
3. Hall School
- Website: hallschool.co.uk/
- Location: 23 Crossfield Road, NW3 4NU
- Pupils: 460 day boys
- Faith: Church of England
- Ages: 4-13
- About: Headmaster Chris Goodwin says: “Hall School provides exceptional teaching to some of the brightest boys in London to develop in them the skills for a lifetime of learning that will stimulate rewarding, diverse and distinctive lives.”
4. Wetherby Prep School
- Website: wetherbyprep.co.uk/
Location: Bryanston Square, W1H 2EA
Pupils: 360 day boys
Faith: Non-denominational
Ages: 7-13
- About: Originally located in Wetherby Place, South Kensington this prestigious prep school is now based in Westminster. As there isn’t an entrance test, most parents put their sons on the first come, first serve waiting list soon after birth!
5. Sussex House School
Website: sussexhouseschool.co.uk/
Location: 68 Cadogan Square, SW1 X0EA
Pupils: 183 day boys
Faith: Church of England
Ages: 8-13
About: Former prep school of Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels producer Matthew Vaughn, Sussex House is located in a Grade II listed building in heart of Chelsea. Creative subjects are given emphasis, and boys take music and art. All boys have physical education classes, and Sussex House also teaches fencing.
6. Pembridge Hall School
- Website: pembridgehall.co.uk/
- Location: 18 Pembridge Square, W2 4EH
Pupils: 415 day girls
Faith: Non-demoninational - Ages: 4-11
- About: A non-selective school for girls located in West London’s Notting Hill, Pembridge Hall School is part of the Alpha Plus Group. Pupils study the full range of national curriculum subjects as well as learning Philosophy and taking LAMDA lessons.
7. Orchard House School
- Website: orchardhs.org.uk/
- Location: 16 Newton Grove, W4 1LB
Pupils: 285 day pupils = 125 boys, 160 girls - Faith: Non-denominational
Ages: 3-11 - About: A non-selective, co-educational prep school in leafy Chiswick, West London. The Independent Schools Inspectorate awarded Orchard House the highest accolades of ‘excellent’ in all areas and ‘exceptional’ in achievements and learning.
8. Thomas’s Battersea
Website: thomas-s.co.uk/
Location: 28–40 Battersea High Street, SW11 3JB
Pupils: 566 day pupils: 316 boys, 250 girls
Faith: Church of England
Ages: 4-13
About: Thomas’s was founded in 1971 when actress and mother of three Joanna Thomas started the Ranelagh Kindergarten in a Pimlico church hall. Now there is the kindergarten and four Thomas schools in Battersea, Clapham, Fulham and Kensington.
9. Falkner House
- Website: thomas-s.co.uk/
Location: 20 Penywern Road, London SW5 9SU; 19 Brechin Place, SW7 4QB
Pupils: 238 day pupils: 88 boys, 150 girls
Faith: Church of England
Ages: 4-13
About: Located on two sites in Earl’s Court, West London, Falkner House comprises a longstanding girls’ school a newly launched boys’ school. It’s described by Tatler as a ‘lovely family-run operation’ which is operated by ‘two brilliant heads, sisters Flavia Rogers and Eleanor Dixon’. The girls’ school has eight applicants per place and the boys’ (only two years in) has five.
10. Garden House
- Website: gardenhouseschool.co.uk/
Location: Turks Row, SW3 4TW
Pupils: 480 day pupils: 200 boys, 280 girls
Faith: Non-denominational
Ages: 3-11
About: A co-educational day school with separate classes for boys and girls. Children are educated from the ages of three to eleven, but around two-thirds of boys transfer to other prep schools from the age of eight. The school runs 55 clubs and there’s a big focus on ballet and swimming. Garden House also has a school in New York City.