Private Schools in Richmond upon Thames

Houseroom lists 24 independent schools in the borough, and they sit in three rough clusters. Along the river at Barnes are St Paul's School, The Harrodian School and the Swedish School London. Kew, Richmond and East Sheen hold most of the small preps. Twickenham and Hampton, in the south-west of the borough, have the second big senior cluster around Hampton School and Lady Eleanor Holles on Hanworth Road.

The senior end leans single-sex: St Paul's and Hampton for boys, LEH and St Catherine's for girls. Families who want co-education at 11 usually look at The Harrodian or Kneller Hall School, or across the borough line to Putney, Roehampton and Wimbledon.

It is also a sector in motion. Radnor House has renamed itself Kneller Hall and moves its senior school to the former Kneller Hall site in Whitton in September 2027. The Mall School is part-way through becoming co-educational. Hampton has also formed the Hampton Schools' Trust with three local preps, creating assured-place routes into Hampton and LEH.

Two schools serve particular communities. The German School London, between Richmond Park and the Thames, teaches towards the German Abitur, and the Swedish School follows the Swedish curriculum from sites in Barnes and Kew.

Kew alone has four co-ed preps that finish at 11. Kew College Prep is a co-ed charitable prep for ages 3 to 11; in its latest round 77% of applicants were offered a place at one or more of LEH, Latymer Upper, Godolphin and Latymer, Hampton, St Paul's, St Paul's Girls' or King's College School. Kew Green Prep reported 119 senior offers and 35 scholarships for its 2026 Year 6, and its pupils have priority places at Kew House and Maida Vale, the two senior schools in its group; Kew House draws the most offers in its published tables. Broomfield House and Unicorn School complete the Kew group.

If you want the 13+ route, King's House School in Richmond is co-ed from 2 to 13 and lets pupils leave at 11 or 13. Its published Year 8 destinations include Thomas's College, Hampton and St Paul's, plus a few boarding places at schools such as Charterhouse and Eton. Tower House in East Sheen is a boys' prep to 13 where boys sit ISEB assessments in Year 6 and Common Entrance in Year 8. The Old Vicarage School on Richmond Hill is a girls' prep to 11; its 2025-26 leavers were offered places at Godolphin and Latymer, Kingston Grammar, Francis Holland Sloane Square, LEH and St Catherine's, among others.

In Twickenham and Hampton, Newland House (3 to 13) sends pupils on at 11 and 13, with Hampton, LEH, St Paul's, Reed's, Epsom and Kingston Grammar among its listed destinations. Hampton Pre-Prep & Prep takes girls from 3 to 7 and boys from 3 to 11; a significant share of its Year 6 boys move up to Hampton, and it runs an assured-places scheme for boys from Year 2 to Year 5. Newland House and Kew College belong to the same trust, which brings assured-place pathways to Hampton for boys and to LEH for girls; Newland House says these began in September 2026.

The Mall took its first girls into Reception in September 2023 and expects to be co-ed in every year by September 2028; it describes itself as non-selective. Twickenham Prep is a co-ed prep in Hampton. Kneller Hall Junior School admits mainly at Reception, sits on Kew Foot Road and moves to Pope's Villa in Twickenham in September 2028. St Paul's also runs its own prep school in Barnes for boys, taking about 72 at 7+ and 36 at 11+ on the understanding that St Paul's is the family's first-choice senior school.

Families in Barnes, Sheen and Kew often look east into Putney and Roehampton. Prospect House is a co-ed prep for ages 3 to 11 overlooking Putney Heath, and Ibstock Place is a co-ed all-through day school on the edge of Richmond Park, so it removes the 11+ move altogether. Putney High School is the nearby GDST option for girls.

South of the park, Wimbledon is within reach of Ham and Kingston. King's College School has a junior school entered at 7+, 8+ and 9+, open to boys now and to girls at 7+ from September 2029, and Wimbledon High School allocates its Reception places by ballot.

St Paul's School in Barnes remains a boys' school with a multi-stage selection process. About 198 boys join the senior school in Year 9, roughly half from St Paul's Prep and half from other preps. Candidates for 13+ are assessed in Year 6: the ISEB pre-test in the autumn, written papers in January, then interviews. Boys from state primaries or preps ending at 11 are steered to the 11+ route instead, and no boy may sit both.

Hampton School is a boys' day school for 11 to 18. It admits about 170 boys at 11+, offers around 35 deferred 10+ Advance Places, and runs 13+ as a pre-test in Year 6 with a second chance in Year 7. Lady Eleanor Holles, next door, is a girls' school from 7 to 18 with about 120 Year 7 places, roughly a third taken by its own junior girls, who move up without sitting the 11+. External candidates take the ISEB pre-test and an LEH problem-solving paper before interview. The two schools already share coaches and some co-curricular life, and have announced a joint governance committee and aligned timetables from 2028.

For co-education, The Harrodian School in Barnes runs from 4 to 18 and admits at Reception, Year 4, Year 7, Year 9 and sixth form. Kneller Hall School, formerly Radnor House, currently teaches Years 7 to 13 at Pope's Villa in Twickenham and moves to the Kneller Hall estate in Whitton in September 2027. St Catherine's in Twickenham is a Catholic girls' school for 7 to 18 that welcomes girls of all faiths; girls in its prep have an automatic place in Year 7.

The Royal Ballet School trains younger dancers at White Lodge in Richmond Park, with entry by audition; the school stopped taking Year 7 full-time students from September 2026 and plans to do the same for Year 8 from September 2027. The German School accepts children from kindergarten up to the start of Year 11 but does not normally admit into its sixth form.

Places at 16+ are limited at the boys' schools. St Paul's takes about 20 new pupils into Year 12 each year, with applications opening in June of Year 10 and selection in the autumn of Year 11. Hampton's 16+ registration closes on 1 October 2026, with an assessment day on 14 October and results on 3 December. LEH's deadline for September 2027 sixth-form entry is midday on 6 October.

The Harrodian and Kneller Hall both run A-level sixth forms. For a co-ed sixth form with a choice of the IB Diploma or A levels, the nearest large option is King's College School in Wimbledon, where about 400 pupils make that choice and girls have been admitted at 16+ since 2010.

Richmond is overwhelmingly a day-school borough. St Paul's is the exception among the academic schools: most boys are day pupils, but School House on the Thames takes a small group, mainly senior boys, as full or weekly boarders. The Royal Ballet School's younger students live at White Lodge, although its eligibility rules also allow day places there. Several preps, King's House among them, send a minority of leavers to country boarding schools at 13.

Specialist independent provision in the borough is thin. Seva Education runs a Twickenham setting for pupils with an EHCP, most of whom have an autism diagnosis, often with speech, language or social and emotional needs. For children with speech and language difficulties, Blossom House School near New Malden is the nearest specialist independent day school on our lists.

In mainstream schools, support is usually aimed at milder needs. LEH, for example, screens every new pupil, says most of its support is for mild dyslexia, ADHD and autism, and assesses applicants with an EHCP individually. Ask each school what support costs extra and how access arrangements work, and raise any need before the entrance tests.

At 7+, register early: St Paul's opened 7+ registration in February 2026 and closed it on 25 September, with its exam on 21 November. LEH's 7+ and 11+ applications both close at midday on 3 November 2026. Several preps, Kneller Hall Junior among them, admit mainly at Reception and fill other years only when places come free.

The 11+ season runs from October to February of Year 6. For September 2027 entry, St Paul's 11+ registration closes on 16 October 2026, Hampton's on 1 November and St Catherine's on 11 November. Tests fall in mid-to-late November (Hampton 21 November, LEH 17 to 19 November, St Catherine's 28 November), interviews in December and January, and most offers in February, with acceptances due by early March. The girls' schools here run their own assessments rather than the shared London 11+ Consortium test, whose registration for 2027 entry closes on 6 November 2026.

The 13+ is effectively decided in Year 6 too. St Paul's 13+ registration for 2029 entry closes on 16 October 2026, with the ISEB pre-test between October and mid-November. Hampton's Year 6 pre-test is on 21 November 2026.

All fees below are annual day fees including VAT, which has applied at 20% to independent school fees since 1 January 2025. For prep years at the Kew and Twickenham preps, expect roughly £16,000 to £26,500 a year. Senior day fees run from about £25,000 at St Catherine's to around £31,000 at Hampton (£10,416 a term for 2026-27) and about £38,000 at the top of St Paul's. LEH is about £25,500 to £32,000 and The Harrodian about £20,000 to £31,000. The German School is much lower, at about £11,000 to £13,500.

Bursary support is substantial at the large seniors. St Paul's supports 143 pupils through means-tested Founder's Awards worth 5% to 100% of fees. Hampton has 96 boys on completely free places, some funded by its Fitzwygram Foundation. LEH offers means-tested bursaries at 11+ and sixth form of up to full fees, and says families earning under about £55,000 may qualify for a full award; its junior school does not offer bursaries. Bursary requests are usually flagged at registration and assessed separately from the academic decision.

The river shapes journeys. Hammersmith Bridge is still closed to traffic but open to pedestrians, which matters for families coming from west London; St Paul's points pupils to Barnes and Barnes Bridge stations, the 33, 419 and 533 buses, and a Zeelo coach network for its senior and prep schools.

In the south-west of the borough, Hampton and LEH run a joint company with 26 coach routes and a late coach after clubs; Hampton Prep shares it. Several preps run their own minibuses: Kew College covers Barnes, Sheen, Richmond and Chiswick, and Tower House serves Richmond, Kew, Putney, Barnes and Mortlake. King's College School's buses also reach Richmond, Ham, Kew and Sheen.