Two London private schools are the best in the UK, according to the Telegraph

When considering which school to send your kid/s to, what qualities do you look out for? Inclusive atmosphere? Quality of facilities? Diversity of curriculum? One somewhat simple way of ranking schools is by sheer results, by how many students received top marks.

And that’s how the Telegraph put together its ranking of the UK’s best private schools. The newspaper’s interactive guide compared the performance of ‘independent’ schools across the country by totting up the number of students which received grades A or A* at A-level, then working out what percentage they make up of the total student populace. 

A London school didn’t come top of this year’s Telegraph list of Britain’s best private schools – that title went to Cardiff Sixth Form College – but two institutions from the capital came in the top 10.

The highest-placing London school in the Telegraph’s list was Westminster School, which came second overall. At Westminster a whopping 87 percent of candidates received grades A or A* – and with fees of £39,735 per year for day pupils, you’d expect such impressive results. The London school has a lengthy list of famous alumni, ranging from philosopher John Locke and architect Sir Christopher Wren to Louis Theroux and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

Also in the Telegraph’s top 10 from London was King’s College School in Wimbledon, which had a top grade rate of 86.1 percent. Fees at the day school are £28,080 per year, and famous alumni include several politicians plus artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Walter Sickert.

Crowned the best private school by the Telegraph this year was Cardiff Sixth Form College, which boasted 90.7 percent As and A*s. The £24,100-a-year college frequently tops lists of the best schools in the UK. 

You can read the Telegraph’s full list of the best private schools in the UK here (behind a paywall).

Time Out and London’s universities

Getting the A-level grades is one thing, but which university should you go to? Early autumn is university ranking season, and at Time Out we’ve covered recent prestigious rankings by the Daily Mail, Guardian, QS and ARWU.

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