Private Schools in Camden

We list more than 30 independent schools in Camden, and most of them sit within a mile or two of Hampstead Heath. The borough is prep-heavy: many schools stop at 11 or 13 and send pupils on to senior schools across London, so it pays to think about both stages at once.

Single-sex education is still the norm at prep level. Hampstead has boys' preps such as The Hall School, St Anthony's and Hereward House, and girls' preps such as Sarum Hall, St Mary's Hampstead and St Christopher's. Co-educational options include Devonshire House, Trevor-Roberts and Hampstead Hill.

The sector is also changing. North Bridge House Regent's Park Prep became Alleyn's Regent's Park in September 2025, and the North Bridge House Hampstead schools became Alleyn's Hampstead, a 2 to 18 school, in September 2026, both through a partnership between Alleyn's and Cognita. Further south, Bloomsbury and King's Cross add Jeannine Manuel, a French-English bilingual school, and City Junior School in Gray's Inn.

Hampstead's boys' preps mostly run to 13. St Anthony's, a primarily Roman Catholic prep with a co-educational nursery, takes boys to 13 and publishes 11+ and 13+ offers from 2021 to 2026 that include Westminster, St Paul's, UCS, Highgate, City of London School and boarding schools such as Eton, Harrow and Winchester. The Hall School teaches boys from 4 to 13, admits at 4+ and 11+, and reports leavers at both Year 6 and Year 8.

Girls' preps generally finish at 11. Sarum Hall in Belsize Park takes girls from 3 and names destinations including Channing, South Hampstead, North London Collegiate, St Paul's Girls' and Francis Holland. St Mary's Hampstead, a Catholic school for girls from 2½ to 11 with boys in the nursery only, reports 100 offers and 29 scholarships for its 29 leavers in 2025/26, to schools including Highgate, Channing, Queen's College, North London Collegiate and Wycombe Abbey.

Devonshire House is co-educational from 2 to 13 and lists leavers going to South Hampstead, UCS, Highgate, St Paul's, Channing, Westminster and North London Collegiate among others. Trevor-Roberts is a small co-educational school for 5 to 13 year olds whose pupils move on at 11+ or 13+. In Camden Town, The Cavendish School takes girls from 3 to 11 and publishes a long destinations list spanning independent schools and state schools such as Camden School for Girls and Henrietta Barnett.

Two newer options are worth a look. Alleyn's Regent's Park near Regent's Park is a co-educational 3 to 11 prep that opened under the Alleyn's name in September 2025. City Junior School in Gray's Inn is a co-educational school for 7 to 11 year olds with close links to City of London School and City of London School for Girls; its website does not promise automatic transfer, so ask about progression.

Many Camden families also look just over the borough line. In St John's Wood, Arnold House is a boys' prep for 3 to 13 year olds whose leavers go on to schools such as Eton, Harrow, St Paul's and Winchester. To the north, Highgate School's junior and pre-prep sections admit at 4+ and 7+, and Channing in Highgate takes girls into its junior school at 4+.

To the north-west, The King Alfred School in Golders Green is a co-educational, all-through school with a progressive ethos, where Reception is the main entry point. It admits at 4, 11 and 16, and does not set entrance exams for early years entry.

South Hampstead High School is a GDST girls' school with entry at 4+, 7+, 11+ and 16+. At 11+ it takes around 55 new girls, uses the London 11+ Consortium test, and interviews candidates who do well.

UCS in Frognal admits at 4+, 7+, 8+ and 11+. Its Year 7 entry is for boys, with around 60 places decided by its own English and maths papers. Its sixth form is co-educational: the school offers around 60 16+ places to girls each year and a small number to boys.

St Margaret's is a small girls' school from 4 to 16 that joins the London 11+ Consortium for Year 7 entry. With no sixth form, girls move on at 16, and the school lists destinations including South Hampstead, UCS, Highgate, Channing, Camden School for Girls and Henrietta Barnett.

Alleyn's Hampstead, formerly North Bridge House Senior Hampstead, is now part of a co-educational 2 to 18 school across three Hampstead campuses. Nearby options outside the borough include Highgate, which is co-educational and academically selective with entry at 11+ and 16+; Channing, a girls' school with 11+ and 16+ entry; and Westminster's Francis Holland Regent's Park and Queen's College, which both appear often on Camden preps' destination lists.

16+ entry is competitive at the big schools. UCS sets a reasoning test and a short writing task in late October, interviews in November, and usually expects an average of grade 7 across GCSEs. South Hampstead sets three subject papers and a general paper in early November, and makes conditional offers requiring at least six GCSEs at grade 8 or 9.

For the International Baccalaureate, Southbank International School teaches the IB Diploma and Career-related Programme at its central London senior campus, which takes pupils from 11. Jeannine Manuel offers a choice in Year 12 between the IB and the Baccalauréat Français International. Alleyn's Hampstead teaches A levels, and Camden also has independent sixth-form colleges such as LSI, Hampstead Fine Arts College and Guildhouse School.

Camden has an unusual concentration of bilingual schools. Jeannine Manuel teaches in French and English across three Bloomsbury buildings from nursery to Year 13, describes its admissions as open to non-French speakers at every level, and runs a bursary programme. Collège Français Bilingue de Londres and La Petite Ecole Bilingue, both in NW5, add further French-English places. Southbank International School Hampstead runs the IB Early Childhood and Primary Years programmes for 2 to 11 year olds, and pupils can continue to the Southbank senior campus in central London.

Blossom House School, Euston is a specialist day school between Euston and King's Cross for children aged 3 to 16 with speech, language and communication difficulties. It takes up to 90 pupils and builds speech and language therapy into classroom teaching.

Gloucester House in Belsize Park is an NHS-linked special school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs, where nurses, teachers and therapists work together. Gloucester House takes referrals through local authorities, so for either school it is worth involving your local authority's SEND team early. Where a local authority funds a place through an Education, Health and Care Plan, it can reclaim the VAT on the fees.

Register early for 4+ places. UCS takes registrations from birth and closes 4+ applications at the end of September, nearly a year before entry, with playdate assessments in December and January and offers around the start of February. St Margaret's assesses 4+ girls in the autumn term before entry.

At 11+, the timeline runs through Year 6. South Hampstead's registration closes in early November, the London 11+ Consortium test follows in late November or early December, interviews are held in January, and offers are released in mid-February. UCS closes 11+ registration in early November, sets its exam in early January and makes offers in mid-February.

Many selective senior schools also use the ISEB Common Pre-Test, an online, age-standardised test of English, maths, and verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Most schools use it in Year 6 for 11+ entry, and some 13+ schools, including Eton and Harrow, use it earlier as the first stage for Year 9 entry. Children at 13+ preps may therefore be tested well before they move.

Since 1 January 2025, private school fees have carried VAT at 20%. Nursery schools are outside this rule. Published 2026/27 fees, including VAT, run from about £22,000 a year in the infant years at St Margaret's to about £34,300 in the senior school at UCS. South Hampstead's senior school costs about £30,100 a year and its junior school about £24,600, not counting lunch. The Hall charges about £32,100 a year, including lunch, from Reception to Year 8, and St Anthony's charges roughly £27,800 to £28,700.

Bursaries are means-tested and mostly offered at senior entry points. UCS says around 60 senior pupils receive fee assistance and that it expects families to use capital, including home equity, before help is given. Highgate offers bursaries of up to 100% of fees at 7+, 11+ and 16+. The Hall and Jeannine Manuel also publish means-tested bursary schemes. Deposits can be large: South Hampstead asks for £4,000 to secure an 11+ place.

Plan the school run around public transport. South Hampstead says both its sites are served by several Tube lines, buses, the London Overground and Thameslink, but parking nearby is limited. During term time, its two streets are closed to most vehicles from 8am to 9am and from 3pm to 4.15pm, with exceptions for electric and hybrid cars.

Games often happen away from the main site. UCS's playing fields are in Cricklewood, and South Hampstead's four-acre sports ground is about a ten-minute walk from its schools. If you are applying outside the borough, ask about school coaches: Mill Hill and Haberdashers' both run their own services, and Mill Hill warns that seats cannot be guaranteed.