Kentish Town's schools are the thing parents point to when someone asks them why they moved here. Every graded school in the borough is rated good or better. About half are outstanding. The local primaries get strong maths results. The difficult part is getting a place.
Around Kentish Town there are five mainstream state primaries, and their pupils average a scaled score of about 108 in the end-of-primary maths tests. Kentish Town Church of England Primary School carries the place's name, Eleanor Palmer Primary School carries a person's, and Torriano Primary School completes the walkable shortlist. Choosing between them is an easier problem than most parents in London get.
Secondary results hold up too. The five mainstream state secondaries in the area have a pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score of about 54, the government's average across a pupil's best eight GCSE-level subjects. Parliament Hill School, William Ellis School and Acland Burghley School are the names local families plan around. Here the secondary decision is about which school fits a child, and parents aren't left hunting for one that will do.
Camden is the authority Ofsted grades these schools under, and of the 25 Camden settings with a published grade, all 25 are rated good or better, with 13 outstanding. None is rated requires improvement or inadequate. Another 26 settings hold no published grade yet and aren't counted either way. In Camden, a school rated merely good is bottom of the class.
Living close to a school doesn't buy a place there. Camden Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, and distance is only one of the criteria, alongside things a house purchase can't change. For any school you are relying on, look up how far from the gates the last place offered went in recent years, which the council publishes, and compare it with the walk from the front door you're considering. A school with a reputation this good fills up fast, and families who live a few streets too far away still get turned down.
The schools are one of Kentish Town's real strengths. The difficulty here is the admissions process, because the quality of the schools is not in doubt.