Pimlico's schools are strong, and the borough behind them hasn't got a weak one on the graded list. Every graded school passes. More than a third are outstanding. None needs improvement. The awkward part is getting a place, because the grades are fine.
Westminster City Council's area has 25 schools with a published Ofsted grade, and all 25 are rated good or better, a clean sweep. Nine are outstanding and 16 are good, and none is rated requires improvement or inadequate. Another 18 settings across the borough have no published grade yet, either because they're new or because they haven't been inspected under the current framework, and they sit outside that count. These grades cover the whole of Westminster, from Pimlico up to Paddington, so they describe the borough a family is choosing within, and they can't tell you which of those schools is Pimlico's.
The grades don't decide who gets in. Westminster allocates places through its published admissions rules, so living close to a school helps without guaranteeing anything, and for a church school the faith criteria can matter as much as the distance. The Department for Transport modelled the walk to the nearest primary at about four minutes and the nearest secondary at about six, using 2019 figures. Those walks are short enough that some parents assume the school at the end of the road is theirs already. The ones who assumed it tend to find out otherwise on offer day in April.
Pimlico Primary carries the district's name. St Gabriel's Church of England Primary School is the other primary close to home, and a family hoping for it should read Westminster's admissions criteria for that particular school, including the faith rules, well ahead of the application deadline. At secondary level there's Pimlico Academy, plus Ada National College for Digital Skills for older students who want something specialist. On the independent side, Eaton Square School and Eaton Square Prep School are within reach for families who would rather pay fees than wait for an offer letter. One of the area's former technical colleges has closed, so it is no longer an option.
Schools are one of Pimlico's real strengths. The borough's inspectors haven't found a weak graded school, and the walk to class is a matter of minutes.