Plaistow's schools hold up better than almost anything else about the place. Every school with a grade in the borough is good or outstanding. Nearly half are outstanding. Twelve primaries and two secondaries serve the area. For a place where so much else is stretched, the schools are not where the pressure shows.
The 12 mainstream state primaries around Plaistow average about 107 in the end-of-primary maths assessment. Plaistow Primary School carries the place's name. Curwen Primary School takes its name from John Curwen, who opened a school here in 1844 and also set up a printing business in the area, so schooling has a long history here. At Tollgate Primary School, Michael Patient won a silver Pearson teaching award for outstanding new teacher of the year in 2014. One school in Plaistow has its own name on the building, another is named after a Victorian educationist, and a third has staff winning national awards.
There are two mainstream state secondaries in the area, Cumberland Community School and Lister Community School. Their pupils average about 48 on Attainment 8, the government's main measure of results across eight subjects at sixteen. With two secondaries, the decision about where a child goes at eleven involves two options, and the shortlist doesn't take long to write.
Newham's record with Ofsted is the strongest number on this page. All 50 of the borough's schools that hold a published grade are rated good or outstanding, 22 of them outstanding. None is rated requires improvement or inadequate. Another 38 settings across the borough have no published grade yet and are not counted in either figure. In a borough where every graded school passed, a weak result from the next inspection would be news.
Living near a particular school does not secure a place there. Places go by Newham council's published admissions rules, which the council applies the same way whether or not a house was sold on the strength of the school next to it. The useful check here is how the last round of offers went at the one school you have set your heart on, because the borough-wide record says nothing about how far a place stretched on your road last year. One nearby school that still turns up in older searches has closed. Plaistow's primaries and two secondaries give parents real choices, and the borough's results leave very little to be anxious about.
Schools are Plaistow's strongest card. Families who come here for the Tube fare often find that the schools are the best reason to stay.