UK independent schools, on the numbers
Three transparent views built on the 674 schools in the open Houseroom Index: what your fees actually buy, where the strongest schools cluster, and how each school balances academic stretch against pastoral care. No paid placement.
What your fees actually buy
Every school with a published day fee, plotted by its overall Houseroom Index score against that fee. The dashed lines mark the medians, splitting the field into four. A high fee does not guarantee a high score.
- Strong index, lower fee
- Strong index, higher fee
- Lower index, lower fee
- Lower index, higher fee
How the field splits
- Strong index, lower fee65
- Strong index, higher fee66
- Lower index, lower fee63
- Lower index, higher fee61
Strongest index for the fee
- Guildford High School87 · £26k
- Caterham School86 · £29k
- City of London School86 · £28k
- The Manchester Grammar School83 · £20k
- Royal Grammar School, Newcastle83 · £21k
- Putney High School82 · £29k
- Nottingham High School82 · £23k
- Seaton House School82 · £14k
Houseroom Index is an open, nine-pillar score (no paid placement); day fee is the published maximum annual day rate. Quadrants are set at the medians of the 255 schools with a fee on file. Schools without a published fee are excluded, not penalised.
Where the strong schools cluster
Average Houseroom Index by borough or town, shaded from low to high. Only areas with at least three ranked schools are shown, so a single strong school cannot colour a whole area.
Strongest areas
- Cardiff78.5· 3 schools
- Manchester78.3· 3 schools
- Harrow76.2· 13 schools
- Sutton76.2· 8 schools
- Southwark75.7· 18 schools
- Lewisham74.7· 9 schools
- Birmingham74.6· 4 schools
- Bexley74.4· 6 schools
42 areas shown; 69 dropped for having fewer than 3 ranked schools. Bands are quantiles of the area averages, so colour is relative within this set, not an absolute grade.
The balance map
Every ranked school plotted by its academic index against its whole-child (pastoral and wellbeing) index. The top-right corner is strong on both; the question for most families is which lean suits their child, not which axis is higher.
- All-round
- Academic-leaning
- Pastoral-leaning
- Developing
How the field splits
- All-round (strong on both)212
- Academic-leaning125
- Pastoral-leaning164
- Developing on both173
Academic and whole-child indices are two of the nine open Houseroom Index pillars. A school in the bottom-left of this map is not a weak school in absolute terms; it sits below the median of an already-selective field on both measures.
Take it further
These charts read the same open data behind every school profile. Filter to your shortlist, then compare on the dimensions that matter for your child.