Walworth's schools are the part of the place nobody has to make excuses for. Nearly every graded school in the borough is good or better. Fifteen are outstanding. Only one has been told to improve, and none has failed. Parents here have plenty to worry about, and the classroom is well down the list.
Ofsted has graded 47 schools across the London Borough of Southwark, and 46 of them come out good or outstanding. That leaves one school graded "requires improvement" and none graded inadequate. Fifteen of the 46 are rated outstanding and 31 good. Another 41 settings in Southwark have no published grade yet, usually because they are new or haven't been inspected under the current framework, and none of them count in these figures either way. Because these numbers cover the whole borough, they describe the system Walworth's children go into. They don't describe the school at the end of any particular road.
Being close to a school won't get your child into it. Southwark Council allocates places under its own published admissions rules, so buying near a school you like does not secure a place. Church schools set their own priorities on top of that. Ask the council how far from the gate the last place was offered at the schools you have in mind over the past couple of years, and check that against the flat you are viewing. The rules are applied the same way to everyone, which is fair, and that is also why paying more for a house won't change the answer.
Walworth has a lot of primary schools for its size. Robert Browning Primary School is named after the poet, who is on the district's list of notable residents. Surrey Square Primary School and Michael Faraday School cover the eastern side. The church schools include St Peter's Church of England Primary School, which takes its name from the parish, and English Martyrs' Roman Catholic Primary School. Crampton Primary, Keyworth Primary School, St Paul's Church of England Primary School and Victory Primary School complete the local list. At secondary age, the nearest school named locally is South Bank University Academy, so the move up from primary does not mean a long trip across London. Ten schools is a lot for a district this compact, and even so the admissions rules decide where most children go.
Schools are one of Walworth's real strengths. Across the borough, good or outstanding is very nearly the standard, and the job for parents is getting a place, since a decent school is close to guaranteed once they have one.