The 20 best UK private schools according to The Times, and their ridiculously high fees

Here are the 20 best UK private schools, revealed. Including the rediculous amounts of money it costs to go there, because we’re nosey like that.

The Times ranked all these schools by looking at how many A*-B grades the sixth formers got at A-Level, and how many 9-7 grades students got in their GCSEs or iGCSEs in 2024.

There’s not a lot of difference between The Times’s best secondary school ranking and their best private school ranking. Only five state schools got grades as high as the private schools on this list – the Henrietta Barnett School, Queen Elizabeth’s School Barnet, Reigate Grammar School, Wilson School, and St Olave’s Grammar School. They’re all very selective grammar schools in really middle class areas.

Quite a few of the very famous and very snobby UK boarding schools didn’t make the top 20. Eton College apparently only got the 28th best grades in the country, although they second most students to Oxbridge. Hmmmm. Winchester College, which spawned Rishi Sunak, is barely in the top 50.

So, here are the 20 best UK private schools according to The Times, plus the eye-watering amounts the fees cost.

20. Queen Ethelburga’s College

A very vibey building
(Creidt: Joeanthony00 via Creative Commons)

Queen Ethelburga’s College is a boarding school in York. Day fees for sixth form students are £21,480 per year, and boarding fees are £40,260 per year. I don’t know who Queen Ethelburga was, but her spirit seems to have blessed her sixth form students with braininess.

19. Putney High School GDST

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The GDST part stands for the Girls’ Day School Trust – a group of 25 extra academic schools. The fees are a very specific £27,877.92 a year.

18. Magdalen College School

Jonathan Bailey went here. What an excellent institution it must be. It costs £23,085.00.

17. Haberdasher’s Girl’ School

Habs is a girls’ school in Hertfordshire. It costs £28,424 a year in sixth form. The boys’ school next door gets less good grades.

16. South Hampstead High School GDST

Doesn’t look very cheerful
(Image by ceridwen via Creative Commons)

South Hampstead High School has dreary buildings but great grades. The fees are £24,474 per year.

15. Latymer Upper School

This school in Hammersmith is co-ed. The fees are going up to £30,042 per year. It’s unclear whether the high walls are to keep the students in or the plebeians out.

14. Hampton School

This school is only for boys. Students’ sisters tend to go to Lady Eleanor Holles nearby. Hampton School costs £26,040 per year.

13. Highgate School

This school was in the news lots back in 2021 when there was an investigation into sexual abuse there. Highgate School has since implimented an Anti-Sexism and Sexual Violence Plan. The senior school fees are £26,490.

12. Wycombe Abbey

This bougie girls’ boarding school is surrounded by grounds in the Buckinghamshire countryside that are straight out of a period drama. It costs £50,925 to board there.

11. Lady Eleanor Holles School

This girls’ school is in London, very close to Hampton School. The houses are called DeVere, Fitzwilliam, Holles and Tyrconnel, which tells you all you need to know. The fees are £26,055 a year.

10. King Edward VI High School for Girls

Aka KEHS
(Image by Oosoom via Creative Commons)

A year of fees at King Edward VI High School for Girls adds up to just £17,862, which is only a small fortune, instead of an extremely large fortune!

9. City of London School for Girls

The buildings do not look great. However, the students’ perfomance in exams apparently is great. It’s a day school, and costs £25,206 a year.

8. Guildford High School

Guildford High School is a day school in Guildford. I never would have guessed that one. The fees are £22,308 per year, which suddenly feels like a bargain compared to some of the other schools on this list.

7. North London Collegiate School

Another London girls’ day school. It used to be in Camden, but is now in a Georgian mansion in Edgware so the girls can have awkward discos with Harrow boys. The senior school fees are £25,542 a year. Plus £2,769 to use the coach. And £1,166 to eat lunch.

6. Godolphin and Latymer

This is a fancy girls’ day school in Hammersmith. It costs £28,065 a year. Nigella Lawson went here. There’s a fact you never needed to know.

5. Westminster School

Doesn’t look too shabby
(Image by Cmglee via Creative Commons)

Westminster is the school of choice for the bratty West London teenagers who have brains. Boarding there in sixth form costs an alarming £52,488. Guess something’s got to fund the fifteen chefs and private shooting range. (No, really. Check the website.)

=3. King’s College School, Wimbledon

The ideal school for tennis fans, maybe? King’s College School, Wimbledon costs £30,326 per year for older senior school students. And that’s just to have lessons there. It’s not a boarding school.

=3. Brighton College

Being a full boarder (i.e. one who’s not allowed to run away home at weekends) in Year 13 (sorry “Upper 6th” costs £55,470. Yikes.

2. St Paul’s School

This is the boy version of St Paul’s school. Both are the two best UK private schools in 2024, according to The Times. The fees will go up again in 2025, so boarding there will cost a harrowing £51,129 a year. Not including the deposits.

1. St Paul’s Girls’ School

The girlie edition of this very, very academically rigorous school in London costs £31,593 a year. The school doesn’t offer any academic scholarships.

Featured image by Chiswick Chap via Creative Commons