Schools are the best thing about Ilford, by a long way. The primaries score well above the expected standard. The secondaries post solid exam results. Across the borough, hardly any school has been graded below good. The town's reputation is mostly about its high street, and the school results tell a far better story.
There are 12 mainstream state primaries in the area, and their pupils average about 109 in the key stage 2 maths test. Uphall Primary School is in Loxford, near the North Circular, and Cranbrook Primary School carries the name of the neighbourhood north of the station. Loxford School takes children from primary age through to sixth form, so some families sort out both schools in one application. The Department for Transport's modelled times from 2019 put the nearest primary about seven minutes' walk from the typical home, so most children can walk to school.
The three mainstream state secondaries in the area have a pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score of about 55. Loxford School is the big local name, Ark Isaac Newton Academy also runs from primary through to secondary, and The Ursuline Academy Ilford is a girls' school. The nearest secondary is about 11 minutes' walk on the same 2019 modelling. Families who came for the Elizabeth line tend to stay for the GCSE results.
Redbridge has 35 schools and settings with a published Ofsted grade, and 33 of them are rated good or outstanding, almost all of them. Five are outstanding, two require improvement, and none is inadequate. Another 29 settings across the borough have no published grade yet, which tells you nothing about them either way. Living close to a school does not mean your child gets a place there, because Redbridge Council allocates places under its published admissions rules. The council publishes how far away the last child offered a place lived, year by year, so check those figures for your target school against the house you're looking at. A short walk on the map can still be outside the line on offer day.
Several local schools that still turn up in old guides and search results have closed, including a prep school and a girls' school, so any list that still includes them is out of date.
Schools are one of Ilford's real strengths, strong at primary and still good at secondary. The council's admissions rules decide who gets in, and parents here pay close attention to them.