Stoke Newington's schools are the part of the move that needs the least worrying about. Every graded school in the borough is good or better. Fourteen of them are outstanding. None has been told to improve. The worry here is getting a place.
There are 15 mainstream state primaries in the area, and their pupils average about 106 in the end-of-primary maths tests. William Patten Primary School carries the name of the man who bought the manor from St Paul's Cathedral in the seventeenth century, and Grasmere Primary School and Betty Layward Primary School are also local. The Department for Transport's modelled figures from 2019 put the nearest primary about five minutes' walk from the average home. Fifteen primaries a short walk apart gives plenty of choice, and the council decides most of it.
The area has four mainstream state secondaries, and their pupils average an Attainment 8 score of about 49, weighted by pupil numbers. Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form is the one that shares the place's name. The same 2019 modelling puts the nearest secondary about ten minutes' walk away. Four secondaries for a place this crowded means Year 6 is when parents start talking to each other again.
Ofsted has graded 40 schools and settings across Hackney, and all 40 are good or outstanding, 14 of them outstanding, with none rated requires improvement or inadequate. A further 24 have no published grade yet and are not counted either way. The inspectors' published grades leave Hackney with nothing to apologise for.
Places are handed out under Hackney Council's published admissions rules, so buying a flat near one of the schools named here does not on its own get a child through its gate. It is worth reading the council's criteria for the school you want, including how last year's places went, while the sale is still negotiable. Stoke Newington had the world's first school bus, which George Shillibeer ran for a local girls' school, and parents here have been worrying about the school run ever since.
For schools, Stoke Newington is about as good as inner London gets. The difficult part is the admissions letter.