The schools are the easiest part of Ladbroke Grove to recommend. Nine state primaries serve the area, and their maths results hold up well. Almost every graded school in the borough is rated good or better. Eight are outstanding. The hard part is getting a place, because every other parent has read the same inspection reports.
The area has nine mainstream state primaries, and pupils there averaged a scaled score of about 107 in end-of-primary maths. Oxford Gardens Primary School and Barlby Primary School are among them, with Ark Brunel Primary Academy and St Charles Catholic Primary School also on the list. For a district this densely built, nine schools gives parents a fair amount of choice, and they argue about it at every birthday party.
The secondary list is shorter. The area has two mainstream state secondaries, Kensington Aldridge Academy and All Saints Catholic College, and their pupils averaged an Attainment 8 score of about 53, the government's measure of results across eight subjects at sixteen, weighted by pupil numbers. St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College takes students on after sixteen. With two secondaries to pick from, a Year 6 family has two options and a great many opinions.
Ofsted has graded 22 of Kensington and Chelsea's schools, and 20 of them, all but two, are good or outstanding. Eight are outstanding, one requires improvement and one is inadequate. Another 12 settings in the borough have no published grade yet, which is a gap in the reports and says nothing about the schools. Across the whole borough, two schools fell short, and the school-gate conversation has very little to work with, though it carries on regardless.
Kensington and Chelsea allocates places under its published admissions rules, and the faith schools have criteria of their own. Living near Oxford Gardens or Barlby does not reserve anyone a place. The useful check is to ask the council how places were allocated at your chosen school last year, then compare that with the exact address you are looking at. Parents who buy on the strength of the borough's inspection record and skip the admissions rules often end up at a different school from the one they were reading about.
Ladbroke Grove's schools are one of its real strengths, and the hard part is getting a place, not finding a good school.