The UK’s top 10 private schools have been crowned by the Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2025

Where you went to school isn’t everything. You don’t need to go to a very expensive school with ‘grounds’ to get a good start in life anymore, but it can’t hurt. But even spending tens of thousands of pounds a year might not be enough to assure that your child is actually in the nation’s best school of all. After all, there can only be one.

As you can imagine, private schools can get pretty competitive about trying to come out on top, but ultimately it all comes down to how well they can turn out As and A*s from their students. The Sunday Times has released its final, combined school rankings which look at a school’s A level and GSCE results to give them a place on the league table, and private schools remain at the top.

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Private schools represented 43 out of the top 50 schools, and nine of the top 10. In that coveted number one spot was… St Paul’s Girls School in London! This comes as no surprise as the school recently came second in terms of amount of students sent to Oxbridge, although it didn’t make back in September when the Telegraph revealed the private schools with the best A-Level results, so it must’ve had a great year for GSCEs.

St Paul’s Girls, which costs £10,531 per term, adding up to a whopping £31,593 per annum, has an accompanying boys’ school, which came second in the Sunday Times ranking. It also offers boarding, which is currently £15,636 per term, but going up to £17,043 in the new year. That would be £51,129 PA, which is about £15,000 above the median UK salary. But hey, a good education is priceless.

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In third place was a tie between Brighton College, which will set a sixth form border back £55,470 PA, and King’s College School in Wimbledon. The former is also one of only two schools in the top ten which are not in London, the other being Guildford High School, in eighth.

Britain’s 10 best private schools for 2025, according to the Sunday Times

Here are the top 10 private schools in the country, including their overall positions in the overall table. 

1. St Paul’s School For Girls (1)
2. St Paul’s School (2)
3. Brighton College (3)
4. King’s College School, Wimbledon (3)
5. Westminster School (5)
6. Godolphin and Latymer (6)
7. North London Collegiate School (7)
8. Guildford School (8)
9. City of London School for Girls (9)
10. King Edward IV High School for Girls, Birmingham (12)

You can read the Sunday Times’ full list, including state and comprehensive schools, here. 

Get schooled with Time Out

There’s a lot of rankings to get your head around when deciding where to send your kids to school. Luckily, we at Time Out make them all easy to understand. These are the UK’s best state secondary schools based on 2024 GCSE results, according to Which School Advisor. We’ve also got a list of England’s 10 best private schools based on this year’s A-level and GCSE results, with the best private school in the country being in London.

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