Lymington is better supplied with schools than a town of sixteen thousand usually is, and one state secondary carries the lot. The town runs its state primary years in two stages, through Lymington Church of England Infant School and then Lymington Junior School, before most of those children funnel up to Priestlands School, the single state secondary serving the town and the villages around it. The nearest primary is about twelve minutes on foot and the secondary about twenty, so distance is rarely the problem here. What the town has is choice and proximity. What it does not have is a mountain of options at eleven.
For families who want faith or fee-paying routes, the field widens. Our Lady and St Joseph Catholic Primary and several Church of England primaries, among them Pennington and St Luke's, cover the religious side, while the surrounding parishes add Hordle, Milford-on-Sea, South Baddesley, Tiptoe and William Gilpin. On the independent side the area holds Walhampton School, Hill House School and Southlands School, a fuller private roster than most towns this far from a city manage.
What none of these come with, in the numbers behind this page, is a current inspection grade. Provision can be counted here. Quality cannot, because the grades that would let you rank one school against another are not present. That is worth saying plainly rather than dressing a guess up as a fact. If a school's standing matters to your decision, the honest move is to read its most recent report yourself and visit before you commit, not to take a website's word for which one is best.
It is also worth remembering that living near a school and getting your child into it are two different things. Hampshire allocates places by its own rules, and a short walk to the gate counts for nothing if the year group is full or the boundary falls the wrong side of your road. Buying a house because a particular school sits close by is a bet, not a booking, and the sale never comes with the place attached. Check the current admissions position for the exact address rather than the postcode before you let a school name move the price you are willing to pay.
On the schools, then, Lymington lands at a middle-of-the-road three out of five, and the reason is honesty rather than disappointment. There is plenty to pick from, state and private, church and secular, in the town and in the villages, and all of it is close. What there is not, in the data, is a graded standout to point at, so the town sits as solidly average until the inspection record says otherwise.