Schools in London for Relocating Families

This guide is written for one specific parent: you have been posted to London, the start date is fixed or nearly fixed, and you need to know what is actually achievable. That is a different question from "which are the best schools in London", and it has a much more useful answer. ESG profiles 28 international and independent schools in London across IB, American, British and seven national curricula, and the decisive fact for a relocating family is that the fee-paying sector admits on assessment and availability rather than on your address — so it can be settled before you have signed a tenancy, while a state place cannot. Everything below follows from that: what mid-year entry really looks like, how long each route takes, how a child is assessed from overseas, what it costs, and how to choose where to live once the school is fixed.

The American School in London, an international school in London

Quick answer

How relocating families actually secure a London school place — mid-year entry, realistic timelines, curriculum continuity, remote assessment, fee levels and choosing housing around the school.

At a glance

The one structural fact that shapes every relocation decision

Sequence the relocation in this order

London runs two admissions systems side by side, and they behave in opposite ways for an arriving family. State school places are allocated by the local authority on the basis of a genuine home address, using distance, catchment and sibling criteria, with oversubscribed schools operating waiting lists. Independent and international schools admit on their own assessment and on whether a seat exists in the year group; where you live is a logistical question for you, not an admissions criterion for them.

The practical consequence is a sequencing rule. If you intend to use the fee-paying sector, secure the school first and choose housing around it. If you intend to use the state sector, you must secure housing first, and you should treat any specific school as an aspiration rather than a plan until the local authority confirms an offer. Families who try to do both at once — hold out for a particular state school while also chasing an independent place — usually end up making a rushed housing decision, and housing is the harder thing to undo.

The second consequence is about honesty in your own planning. A confirmed independent offer is a firm asset you can build a move around. An expectation of a good state place, in a city where the strongest schools have catchment areas measured in hundreds of metres, is not. Both routes work, but only one of them can be locked down from abroad.

Mid-year entry: where places genuinely exist

Mid-year entry has a bad reputation it does not fully deserve, because most of the discouraging advice comes from the state sector. In London's international schools it is normal business. These schools exist to serve mobile families; their rolls turn over continuously as postings end, and a place vacated in November is a place they want filled in January. The American School in London, ACS Hillingdon, ACS Cobham, ACS Egham, Southbank International, International School of London, Dwight School London, TASIS England and Marymount all take in-year entrants when the year group has room, and all of them run the assessment remotely.

What varies is the year group. Reception through Year 6 is usually the easiest: cohorts are larger relative to the curriculum demands, and a child joining in January settles quickly. Years 7 to 9 are moderately available. Year 11 and the second year of a two-year senior programme are the genuine problem, not because of capacity but because of course structure — a student halfway through GCSE coursework, A Levels or the IB Diploma cannot simply be inserted into a different school's version of the same qualification.

If your posting lands mid-course for a 15- to 17-year-old, raise it in the very first admissions conversation and ask the school directly what it has done for similar students. Some will offer a repeat year, some will bridge with a different qualification, some will be honest that boarding at the current school or a delayed family move is the better answer. That conversation is far more valuable than a prospectus.

One further route worth knowing: several of the schools listed here — ACS Cobham, TASIS England, Marymount — offer boarding alongside day places. For a family whose move is staggered, or whose housing is not resolved, boarding for a term can be the thing that stops a child losing a year.

Realistic timelines by route

Lead times that actually hold

Selective British independent schools work on the longest cycle. Registration for 11+ and 13+ entry frequently closes a full year or more before the start date, and many use ISEB pre-testing which is administered under conditions that are awkward to arrange overseas. If a school like Latymer Upper, North London Collegiate or King's College School Wimbledon is genuinely your target, you needed to start 12 to 18 months out. If you are already inside that window, ask specifically about occasional places — they do come up, and they are handled outside the main assessment cycle.

International schools work on a rolling basis. Three to six months is comfortable, six to eight weeks is achievable if you will consider more than one school, and the binding constraint is usually your document set rather than their calendar. National-system schools — the Lycée, German School, École Jeannine Manuel, the Nordic and Japanese schools — vary: some have long waiting lists for particular year groups precisely because their community is stable, so treat them as an early enquiry rather than a late fallback.

State schools sit outside all of this. In-year applications go to the local authority once you have an address, and the authority is obliged to offer a place somewhere but not at the school you want. Families who are moving on a normal-year timetable and do want the state route should read our UK-wide guidance on applications and on state versus independent schooling, and contact the specific borough early to understand its process.

Across every route, the fixed point is the UK academic year: September to July, with three terms and half-term breaks. Any entry that is not September is by definition an in-year entry, with all the availability implications above.

How a child applying from abroad is actually assessed

For most London international schools the assessment has three parts: the last two years of school reports, a piece of written work in English and mathematics completed under supervision or online, and a conversation with the child. Nothing about it is designed to fail a normal applicant — its purpose is placement, not selection, in the sense that the school needs to know which year group and which support level fits.

Selective independents are different. Their papers are competitive and calibrated to a British preparatory-school curriculum, particularly in mathematics and English comprehension, and a strong child from a different system can underperform simply because the format is unfamiliar. If you are applying into that sector from abroad, ask for past papers and give your child the chance to see the format before the real thing.

English-language support deserves a direct question rather than a brochure paragraph. Ask how many children in the target year group are receiving English as an Additional Language support, whether it is delivered in class or withdrawn, who teaches it, and at what point the school would decline an applicant on language grounds. The International School of London, which builds mother-tongue teaching into its programme, and the bilingual national schools handle this differently from a selective British independent, and the difference is material for a nine-year-old arriving with limited English.

Special educational needs also need raising up front. Provision across the 28 schools varies from specialist to minimal, and Fairley House School exists specifically for children with specific learning difficulties. Disclose early, share the reports, and let the school tell you honestly whether it can meet the need — a school that says no in March has done you a service compared with one that says nothing until November.

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Curriculum continuity: keeping your child on the same road

London's real advantage for a relocating family is the breadth of continuation routes. IB families have unusual depth: the International School of London runs the full PYP-to-Diploma continuum, and Southbank International, Dwight School London, ACS Egham, ACS Cobham, Marymount, King's College School Wimbledon, Fulham School and others offer the Diploma, which is 13 of the 28 schools in the ESG London dataset. For a child mid-way through the PYP or MYP, that is a straightforward continuation rather than a system change.

American families have The American School in London, ACS Hillingdon and TASIS England, all issuing US-format transcripts with Advanced Placement in the senior years — which matters if the next move is back to the United States and a receiving district will read credits and GPA. British-curriculum families moving from a British school overseas slot into IGCSE and A Level provision across most of the independent sector.

The national schools solve a narrower but very real problem. Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, German School London, École Jeannine Manuel, the Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Italian and Spanish schools all teach a home-country programme in London, so a child returning to Paris, Berlin, Stockholm or Tokyo in three years does so without a curriculum gap. They are also, notably, the lowest fee band in the city — several sit between £4,000 and £14,000 — because of home-government or community subsidy.

The judgement to make is about your next destination, not this one. Choose the qualification that is legible where your child will apply to university, and if that is genuinely unknown, the IB Diploma is the most portable answer available in London.

What it costs, and what the headline fee leaves out

London fees stratify cleanly into three bands. The subsidised national schools — Vicente Cañada Blanch Spanish School, Norwegian School in London, Swedish School London, Japanese School in London — publish ranges from about £4,000 to £10,000 a year. The broad middle of the market, including North London Collegiate, City of London School, Dulwich College, Latymer Upper, Wetherby, Eaton House, Fulham School, Collingham College, École Jeannine Manuel and the ACS campuses, runs from roughly £15,000 to £26,000. The senior end — The American School in London, Southbank International, Marymount, TASIS England, ACS Hillingdon at Diploma level, Dwight School London, Fairley House — reaches £30,000 to £37,000.

Budget beyond tuition. Registration and acceptance deposits are payable before your first term and are often non-refundable. Transport is a genuine line item in London, whether that is a school coach for a Surrey campus or a travelcard. Uniform at the traditional independents can run to four figures in the first year. Devices are expected from upper primary. Examination entry at IGCSE, A Level, AP and IB Diploma is charged separately, and senior-year fees at the same school are materially higher than primary-year fees — so price the year group your child will be in when your posting ends, not the one they are joining.

If your employer provides an education allowance, get three things in writing before you accept the package: whether it is per child or per family, whether it is capped in cash terms, and whether it covers anything beyond tuition. Allowances set several years ago frequently no longer meet London senior-school fees, and discovering that after the move is a poor time to renegotiate.

International School of London — an international school in London
International School of London, London

Choosing where to live once the school is decided

London's international school inventory is concentrated west and south-west, and so is the housing that relocating families typically take. St John's Wood and Hampstead sit around The American School in London and Dwight School London. Chiswick, Barnes, Richmond and Kew work for German School London, the Lycée's Wix and Ealing provision and much of the west London independent sector. Wimbledon, Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea serve King's College School Wimbledon, Fulham School, the Lycée in South Kensington and the central Southbank campuses.

The ACS campuses and TASIS England are deliberately outside the city, in Hillingdon, Cobham and Egham, with substantial grounds and comprehensive coach networks. Families who want space, a car-based life and a campus feel — often those arriving from suburban North America — are frequently happier there than in a central postcode, provided the working parent's commute into town is compatible.

The error to avoid is a cross-city school run. Twice-daily travel through central London with a child is materially worse than the map suggests, and it is the single most common regret we hear from families in their second year. Before you sign a tenancy, get the school's coach route map and timetable, and test the journey at the actual hour it will happen.

One practical note on timing: many relocating families take a short serviced let for the first two to three months precisely so that the school decision, the commute test and the housing commitment happen in that order. It costs more per month and it removes the largest irreversible risk in the whole move.

A working checklist for the first four weeks after the posting is confirmed

Assemble the documents first: two years of reports translated if necessary, passports, birth certificates, immunisation records, any SEN or educational psychologist reports, and a short written summary of each child's current curriculum and year group. Almost every delay we see traces back to this pack being incomplete.

Then contact schools in parallel rather than sequentially. Six enquiries in week one is not excessive; London admissions offices are used to it and none of them expects exclusivity at the enquiry stage. Ask each one the same four questions: is there a place in this exact year group for this exact start date, what is the assessment and can it be done from our current country, what English-language and learning support exists in that year group, and what is the full first-year cost including registration, deposit, transport and uniform.

Run the visa timeline alongside it. A child on a dependent visa needs status in place before starting, and a small number of schools sponsor Child Student visas. Because these rules are case-specific and change, verify your own position against current official UK government guidance and with the school, rather than relying on what a colleague experienced two years ago.

Only then commit to housing — and if you can, commit temporarily first. The order matters more than any individual choice in it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we get a London school place mid-year?

Often yes, and more easily in the international and independent sectors than in sought-after state schools. London's international schools are built around expatriate turnover: families arrive and leave on posting cycles, so places open in January and after Easter in a way they rarely do in a settled suburban state school. The American School in London, ACS Hillingdon, ACS Cobham, ACS Egham, Southbank International, International School of London, Dwight School London and TASIS England all assess and admit outside the September intake when a place exists in the year group. State school admission mid-year runs through the local authority's in-year application process, which is address-dependent and cannot be started before you have a confirmed London address.

How far ahead should a relocating family apply?

For a September start at a selective London independent school, 12 to 18 months is normal and some entry points close earlier still. For an international school, three to six months is usually enough, and two months is workable if you are flexible about which school. For a state place, you cannot meaningfully apply until you have an address, so the practical sequence is: confirm the posting, identify two or three viable school scenarios, then choose housing around them.

Do we need a UK address before applying?

For state schools, effectively yes — local authority allocation is distance and catchment based and requires proof of a genuine London address. For independent and international schools, no: they admit on assessment and available places, not on where you live, so you can hold an offer before you sign a tenancy. That asymmetry is the single most useful thing for a relocating family to understand, because it means the fee-paying route can be settled first and the housing decision made afterwards.

Which London schools are most used to arriving expat families?

The schools whose whole model assumes mobility: The American School in London, ACS International Schools (Hillingdon, Cobham, Egham), Southbank International, International School of London, Dwight School London, Marymount International, TASIS England and the national schools — Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, German School London, École Jeannine Manuel, the Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Italian and Spanish schools. These have admissions teams who handle overseas transcripts, EAL entry and visa-timed start dates as routine work rather than as an exception.

What does it cost to put two children in a London international school?

Take the published day ranges seriously as a starting point: London international and independent day fees in the ESG dataset run from about £4,000 to £8,000 a year at the subsidised national schools (Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Japanese), through £15,000 to £25,000 across most of the market, up to roughly £32,000 to £37,000 at the senior end of The American School in London, Southbank International, Marymount and TASIS England. Two children in the middle of that market is therefore a £35,000 to £50,000 annual commitment before registration fees, transport, uniform, devices and examination entry.

Will our child's current curriculum continue in London?

Usually there is a genuine continuation route. IB families have real depth here — the International School of London, Southbank International, Dwight School London, ACS Egham, Marymount, King's College School Wimbledon, Fulham School and others. American families have The American School in London, ACS Hillingdon and TASIS England with AP and US-format transcripts. French, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Norwegian families all have a national-system school in the city. The hardest transition is a mid-course one: moving into Year 11 GCSEs or the second year of A Levels or the IB Diploma part-completed is difficult everywhere and should be discussed with admissions before you commit.

How do London admissions assessments work for a child applying from abroad?

International schools normally use the previous two years of school reports, a written English and mathematics task, and a video interview with the child. Selective independent schools use their own entrance papers and often ISEB pre-testing at 11+, which is harder to sit remotely and is a real reason to start early. English-language support is assessed separately; ask specifically what EAL provision exists in the year group, how it is timetabled, and how many children in that cohort are receiving it.

Which London areas work best if the school decision comes first?

West and south-west London — St John's Wood, Hampstead, Chiswick, Barnes, Richmond, Wimbledon, Fulham, Kensington — carry most of the international school inventory and most of the relocating-family housing stock. The ACS campuses and TASIS England sit outside the city in Surrey and Middlesex, which suits families who want space and a bus network rather than a central postcode. Commuting a child across central London twice a day is the mistake families most regret, so treat the school's actual bus routes as a housing constraint rather than an afterthought.

Does a school place depend on our visa status?

Independent and international schools admit regardless of nationality, but there are visa mechanics — a child on a dependent visa needs the visa in place to start, and a small number of schools sponsor Child Student visas. State school eligibility can depend on immigration status and residency. Because these rules change and are case-specific, confirm your own position with the school and with official UK government guidance rather than relying on general advice.

What documents should we have ready before we contact schools?

The previous two years of school reports in English (certified translation if needed), passports for the children, birth certificates, immunisation records, any educational psychologist or SEN reports, and a note of the curriculum and year group your child is currently in with the local year-group equivalent. Having this assembled turns a six-week admissions conversation into a two-week one, which matters when the posting date is fixed.

International schools in Built around expatriate mobility

International schools in Campus schools outside the centre

International schools in National-system continuity

International schools in Selective British independents

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