The schools in St John's Wood are excellent, and they are the one part of the district that does not come with a seven-figure price. Every graded school in the borough is good or better. About a third are outstanding. The primaries post strong maths. Getting a place still runs on the council's rules, whatever the flat cost.
Primary results are strong. The three mainstream state primaries in the area averaged a scaled score of about 106 in Key Stage 2 maths, comfortably clear of the expected standard. St John's Wood Primary School carries the district's name and Gateway Academy is the other name on the local map. Three schools carry the whole local average between them, so a single bright year group or a difficult one moves it more than any change in the teaching.
Secondary is a one-school story. The single mainstream state secondary in the area posts a pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score of 51. Harris Academy St John's Wood is the secondary name on the map. With one school in the figure, the area's entire secondary reputation rests on a single building's exam hall every summer.
Westminster as a whole has 25 schools with a published Ofsted grade, and all 25 are good or outstanding. Nine of them are outstanding. None requires improvement and none is rated inadequate. A further 18 settings in the borough hold no published grade yet and are left out of that count. The column parents usually dread is empty.
Places are handed out by Westminster's published admissions rules, so living near St John's Wood Primary School, or across the road from it, does not on its own secure a seat in the classroom. Check the council's admissions criteria for the schools you want, and how far from the gate places reached in recent years, while the purchase is still a negotiation. The street a parent chose for the school and the school a child is offered are decided by two different people, and only one of them is the parent.
The schools are where St John's Wood is at its best. Everything else in the district has a price tag that hurts, and the schools give a family more than they cost.