The schools around Holloway are very good, and the problem is getting into them, not finding one. Nearly every graded school in the borough is rated good or outstanding. Only one is inadequate. A primary is a few minutes' walk from the typical front door. In Holloway the competition is for the place, and the grade comes with it.
Ofsted has graded 25 schools in Islington, the borough Holloway belongs to, and 24 of them are rated good or better, so all but one. Seven are outstanding, 17 are good, none requires improvement and one is inadequate. Another 32 settings across the borough hold no published grade yet and sit outside those counts. Islington is a borough where a parent can turn down a good school and still have plenty left.
Being close does not settle the matter. Islington Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, so buying the flat across the road from a school buys you the walk and nothing more. The Department for Transport's modelled figures from 2019 put the nearest primary about five minutes' walk from the average Holloway home and the nearest secondary about ten. Islington Council publishes how far away the last child admitted to each school lived in past years, and that distance is worth checking for the schools you have in mind before you settle on an address. Families who pick the address first and the school second do the reading in the spring, when the offers come out.
Tufnell Park Primary School carries the name of the neighbourhood on the page's northern edge. Pakeman Primary School, Grafton Primary School and Hungerford School are also among the local primaries. St Mary Magdalene Academy appears on both the primary and secondary lists, so one admission can cover a child from the infant classes to the exam years, and that makes it the one some parents plan around for years. Lift Beacon High is the other local secondary, and London Metropolitan University is on the doorstep for anyone thinking further ahead. The remaining local schools are a mix of primaries, specialist provision and alternative settings. New River College's lower-secondary site has closed and is no longer an option.
On school quality, Holloway is one of the stronger places in London to bring up a child. The schools are not the hard part here. The hard part is getting a place in the one you want.