The schools around Wandsworth Town are very good, and the borough's record has hardly a weak result in it. Nineteen in twenty graded schools are good or better. Nearly a quarter are outstanding. None is inadequate. Parents here aren't choosing between good and bad schools. They are choosing between good and outstanding, and that turns out to be the harder argument.
Ofsted has graded 40 schools across Wandsworth, the authority that runs Wandsworth Town's state schools, and 38 of them are good or outstanding, which is almost all of them. Nine are outstanding and 29 good. Two require improvement, and none is inadequate. Another 30 settings across the borough have no published grade yet, so they are left out of those counts and tell a buyer nothing either way.
Wandsworth Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, so buying a flat round the corner from a school you like does not put a child in it. Distance can count, and so can faith, siblings and the other criteria a particular school sets, and the line moves from one year to the next. Ask the council's admissions team for the furthest distance that was offered a place at the school you have in mind last year, and compare it with the walk from the front door. In a borough where nearly every school is good, demand gathers at the outstanding few, and parents compete hardest for a difference the grades barely show.
At primary level, West Hill Primary School takes its name from the main road out towards Putney, and Earlsfield Primary School and Allfarthing Primary School serve the streets to the south along the Wandle. Floreat Wandsworth Primary School is one of the newer names on the list. For secondary, the two closest are Southfields Academy, to the west, and Saint Cecilia's Church of England School, a church school whose admissions criteria are worth reading in full. The rest of the local list is a spread of community, church and independent primaries, with a few private preparatory schools mixed in. The Royal Victoria Patriotic Building by the Common was built as a school and now holds flats, a theatre school and a restaurant, a career path that fits this part of London quite well.
Schools are one of Wandsworth Town's real strengths. The hard part for parents here is getting into their first choice, because nearly all the alternatives are good too.