It’s all change at the top. Wilson’s School, in Wallington, south London, has knocked the two grammar schools in the capital that usually vie for the academic bragging rights into second and third places.
The boys’ grammar school, which is in the borough of Sutton and has 1,200 pupils drawn from south and west London based on their 11-plus performance, beat the frequent winners Queen Elizabeth’s School, in Barnet, another boys’ grammar school, and Henrietta Barnett School, a girls’ grammar school, to be named London Secondary School of the Year, as well as the overall title of The Sunday Times Parent Power Secondary School of the Year 2024.
In our combined league table of state and private schools Wilson’s has jumped eight places into the top three, from 11th in 2022, beating most of the country’s world-famous independent schools, including the £49,998-a-year Eton College.
The dominance of London as an education powerhouse for the nation continues, with 27 schools out of the top 50 in the capital in our combined rankings.
The combined table is topped by St Paul’s Girls’ School in west London, which charges £29,946 a year. The school is also named our London Independent School of the Year for Academic Performance 2024.
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Nathan Cole, the head teacher who has led Wilson’s School for nearly a decade, said this year’s A-level cohort was exceptionally able academically. “They were very strong and hard-working, self-confident, reliant and warm-hearted — very much the character we strive for in Wilson’s boys,” he says.
The school has been edging its way up the rankings for several years. Cole cited the school’s determination to provide high-quality lessons in all subjects, including PE, and maintain focus on children’s welfare during the pandemic as a key factor in this year’s exam successes.
“The students were forged in the horrors of Covid,” he says. “These pupils were young during the pandemic but maintaining standards around welfare and academic lessons in the way we did benefited them. The school took delivery of the curriculum [online during lockdowns] very seriously. It may look hilarious when you see 170 boys doing exercises and games on Zoom at the same time, doing all sorts of things with socks and oranges, but it tells you there is something very wrong with the world. Our sports coaches had to think hard about how to do this.”
Elisabeth Stevenson is the headmistress at Lady Margaret School in Parsons Green, west London, which is named London Comprehensive School of the Year 2024. The school has risen 31 places to rank 82 in the national secondary table. “London schools are amazing,” she says. She said the school made the most of being in the capital with regular trips to free museums and art galleries including the Natural History Museum, and the free travel available for school groups from Transport for London.
The ambition for her 763 girls was “to be confident, compassionate and curious”. The school admits pupils on the basis of a banding system, which sees applicants sitting a test, sorted into one of three ability bands, with a certain percentage then admitted from each band. About six pupils apply for each place, and 67 places are reserved for girls who regularly worship in the Church of England.
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Every year the school sings evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral and runs a variety of school trips at different prices so that all girls get a chance to have one residential adventure. Counselling is provided by Place2Be and paid for by parent-teacher association fundraising, and the school has a full-time chaplain.
However, Stevenson added: “We are really worried about the finances. We want to carry on with the richness of our curriculum but it costs more every year. The strains on our budget grow annually. We do not want to drop any A-level subjects even if classes are small. French, Spanish and music are all small but I want to carry on offering those at A-level.”
Wilson’s School, like all schools in the state sector, also faces funding challenges, but last year it raised nearly half a million pounds from alumni and the community to boost its budget. The small class sizes — “I have not seen [another] state school that has a 1 to 16 ratio in tutor groups,” Cole says — are achieved by everyone, including the head teacher, doubling up as a class teacher.
Cole teaches history four to five hours a week, including A-level classes, and expects his senior management team to roll up their sleeves and muck in too. Aptly the school motto is Non sibi sed omnibus — “Not for oneself but for all”.
“We assert the role of the tutor and say everyone is a tutor,” he says. “I am a tutor. In some schools you fall off the teaching list as a privilege of rank. I am a sixth-form tutor and all my senior learning team are tutors. I teach A-level history and I love teaching.”
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Cole is proud of the young men the school turns out, who are brought up with a keen sense of the importance of gender equality. There are no immediate plans to admit girls, although it was discussed a few years ago and vetoed.
Joint honours for London Independent School of the Year 2024 are shared between James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS) in Dulwich, which has risen 32 places to rank 16 in the national independent schools table, and Eltham College, which is up 41 places to rank 38= nationally.
Alex Hutchinson, the head of JAGS, was “over the moon” with the joint honours, as well as the girls whose A-level results catapulted the school up the league table. They have gone on to study subjects as broad as art foundation, cognitive neuroscience and molecular bioengineering; 21 pupils took up places at Oxford and Cambridge. There is also a generous bursary provision, with about 17 per cent of pupils in the senior school on some form of financial assistance.
Hutchinson is a fierce advocate for single-sex learning. She believes it allows for “an individuality of spirit, leadership opportunities and difference to explore who they want to be, and can be”.
Guy Sanderson, the head teacher of Eltham College, which is in the process of going fully coeducational, praised staff and pupils for the school’s success. He said all teachers were now used to having open classrooms so that other teachers could observe lessons and learn from best practice.
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“It is not about a sense of surveillance but a spirit of openness that everyone will share what is being done well,” he says. “We now have that enquiring mindset in pupils too — they will not wait to be told the answers but work collaboratively to solve problems.” About 10 per cent of the 850-pupil senior school are on full bursaries and a quarter get fee assistance.
Best secondary and grammar schools in London
Regional rank / school / national rank
1. Wilson’s School, Wallington (1)
2. Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet (2)
3. The Henrietta Barnett School, Hampstead Garden Suburb (3)
4. St Olave’s Grammar School, Orpington (5)
5. The Tiffin Girls’ School, Kingston (7)
6. Tiffin School, Kingston (17=)
7. The Latymer School, Edmonton (21=)
8. St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School, Finchley (34)
9. Newstead Wood School, Orpington (35=)
10. Sutton Grammar School (43)
Best comprehensive schools in London
1. JFS, Harrow (45)
2. The St Thomas the Apostle College, Nunhead (80)
3. Lady Margaret School, Parsons Green (82)
4. Menorah High School for Girls (91)
5. Grey Court School, Richmond (120)
6. Hasmonean High School for Girls, Hendon (121=)
7. JCoss (Jewish Community Secondary School), New Barnet (125)
8. Mossbourne Community Academy, Hackney Downs (128=)
9. Orleans Park, Twickenham (142)
10. The London Oratory School, Fulham (143)
Best private schools in London
1. St Paul’s Girls’ School, Hammersmith (1)
2. St Paul’s School, Barnes (3)
3. North London Collegiate School, Edgware (4)
4. City of London School for Girls, Barbican (5)
5. King’s College School (KCS), Wimbledon (7=)
6. Westminster School (9)
7. Godolphin and Latymer, Hammersmith (12)
8. Highgate School (14)
9. City of London School (15)
10. James Allen’s Girls’ School, Dulwich (16)
11. Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith (18)
12. Alleyn’s School, Dulwich (21)
13. South Hampstead High School GDST (23)
14. Wimbledon High School GDST (24)
15. University College Senior School, Hampstead (28)
16. Trinity School, Croydon (31=)
17. Hampton School (33)
18. Kingston Grammar School (37)
19. Eltham College (38=)
20. Notting Hill and Ealing High School GDST (40)
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If a school does not appear on the Parent Power league table it is most likely because it did not respond to our requests for its A-level and GCSE results and the results could not be found in the public domain.
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