Muswell Hill's schools are good enough that the house prices make a bit more sense. There are eight state primaries in the area. Their maths results are strong. There is one secondary, and its results are solid too. Finding a good school here is easy. Getting a place at one is where the effort goes.
The eight state primaries around Muswell Hill averaged a score of about 109 in the most recent Key Stage 2 maths assessments. Tetherdown Primary School, Coldfall Primary School and Muswell Hill Primary School are the ones whose names turn up in house particulars. The oldest name on the list belongs to Our Lady of Muswell Catholic Primary School. It is named after the chapel that a newly founded order of nuns built on land the Bishop of London gave them in the 12th century. The hill has been running a schedule around that name ever since, and the school run is the latest version of it.
Secondary choice on the hill is short. Fortismere School is the only mainstream state secondary in the area, and its pupils post an Attainment 8 score of about 58. Families who moved up the hill for a primary find out in Year 6 that the secondary list has one local name. Every other option is down the hill.
Haringey's Ofsted picture is close to spotless. Of the 36 schools in the borough that Ofsted has given an overall grade, 35 are rated good or outstanding, and 16 of those are outstanding. One requires improvement and none is inadequate. Some other local settings have never had a published grade. Ofsted has not inspected them yet, and that says nothing either way about their quality.
Places are allocated under Haringey Council's published admissions rules, and owning a house near Tetherdown or Fortismere does not entitle a child to a seat there. For the school you have in mind, look up last year's allocation results on the council's admissions pages, which show how far from the gate the last child offered a place lived. Many families buy a house on the hill for the schools. Some of them learn in the spring that their street was a little too far from the school gate.
The schools are the strongest reason to buy in Muswell Hill. Almost every option is good or better, and a family's work goes into getting a place, not into finding a good school.