Very good, and plenty of them charge fees. More than nine in ten graded schools across the county are good or better. Cobham has its own all-through state school. Two of its old country houses now run as independent schools. Families here have a strong free option and an expensive one on the same road.
Surrey County Council's area has 159 schools and settings with a published Ofsted grade, and 147 of them are rated good or outstanding. That is more than nine in ten. Thirty are outstanding, 7 require improvement and 5 are inadequate. Another 194 settings have no published grade yet, which tells you nothing about them in either direction. The county-wide picture is strong, and a family moving to Cobham starts from a better position than most of England.
At primary level the village has St Andrew's Church of England Primary School, with St Matthew's CofE Aided Infant School, Cobham, for the youngest children. Places at both, as at every state school in the county, go by Surrey's published admissions rules, so a house round the corner from the gate does not secure a place, and church schools can weigh other criteria too. The Department for Transport modelled the walk to the nearest primary at about 17 minutes on average in 2019. Read the admissions criteria on the council's website for the year you would apply, since a faith school's rules and its distance tie-breaks can matter more than the walk.
Secondary is where Cobham differs. Cobham Free School is an all-through school, so a child can in principle start and finish there without the Year 6 scramble other towns go through. The modelled walk to the nearest secondary was about 31 minutes in 2019, or about 22 minutes by public transport, and the bus figures have aged worse than the footpaths. Parents who promised themselves they would never think about secondary schools before their child turned ten usually think about Cobham Free School the week they move in.
The independent sector is the other half of the story, and it lives in some of the best houses in the parish. Heywood, a big house on the edge of the village, is now ACS Cobham International School, and Burwood House is now Notre Dame School. Reed's School and Feltonfleet School complete the fee-paying options nearby. Cobham's grand houses have mostly been turned into flats or schools, and the schools got the bigger gardens.
Not every school in the wider area survives. Several nearby independent prep and pre-prep schools have closed in recent years, so check that anything recommended by a friend is still open before it shapes where you buy.
Schools are one of Cobham's real strengths. The state option would be the main attraction in most towns, and here it has to compete with the private schools in the old mansions next door.