The schools in Esher are very good. More than nine in ten graded schools across the county are rated good or better. The local primaries do well in maths. The nearest primary is a short walk away, and the secondary isn't much further. Getting a place is harder than finding a good school.
Around here there are three mainstream state primaries, and their pupils average a Key Stage 2 maths score of about 108. Esher Church School and Cranmere Primary School are the two in Esher itself. Claygate Primary School and Hinchley Wood Primary School serve the villages next door. The Department for Transport's 2019 modelling puts the nearest primary about 12 minutes' walk away on average. Some of the parents doing the school run in a car are covering less distance than the pupils who walk.
Surrey County Council's area has 159 schools and settings with a published Ofsted grade, and 147 of them are good or better, which is more than nine in ten. Thirty are rated outstanding, seven require improvement and five are inadequate. Another 194 settings across the county have no published grade yet, and they're left out of those counts entirely. A county figure tells you the standard is high. It doesn't tell you which classroom your child gets, and in Esher the gap between the best and the merely good is where the competition happens.
Esher Church of England High School is the state secondary in the town. Hinchley Wood School, an academy, is next door in Hinchley Wood, and Esher Sixth Form College covers the years after sixteen. The same 2019 modelling puts the nearest secondary about 23 minutes' walk away, or about 18 minutes by public transport. Surrey County Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, so living close to a named school does not secure a place there, and two church schools on the list means faith criteria may apply as well. Ask the council for the last few years' allocation results for the schools you actually want. The phrase "close to Esher Church School" does a lot of work in a property description and none at all at the admissions office.
Private schools are part of the choice too. Claremont Fan Court School and Milbourne Lodge School are both local. Several other private schools in the area have closed in recent years, so check that any you hear about from older neighbours are still open. In a town where so many families could pay fees, a state place at a good school is something people compete for hard.
Schools are one of Esher's clear strengths, and the hard part is getting a place, since there are plenty of good options to choose from.