London school search, several childhoods on one Tube map

London is large enough that parents try to tour everything in one week, and specific enough that those tours are not the same childhood.

The portraits we have already walked are the official doors families name first in a mixed search: central and west day houses, a south-London pair, a north-London mixed house, and two internationals with different visa sentences. Use those pages for pounds and dates. This note is how the city actually sits. We will not invent a waitlist. The United Kingdom country page is the wider walking map, including boarding valleys and Edinburgh.

Several official houses, several climates

Westminster School is the Abbey neighbour: day and weekly boarding, 13+ and 16+, a Yard that is still changing who sits in Year 9. Saturday morning school is not a slogan.

St Paul’s Girls’ School is Brook Green, Hammersmith: girls, day only, no student-visa sponsorship, a 50-minute commute rule the school prints.

St Paul’s School is Lonsdale Road, Barnes, south of the river: boys, mostly day, boarding from Year 9 in School House or West House. Same founder’s name as Brook Green. Not the same Monday.

Dulwich College is Dulwich Common: a large boys’ campus, co-ed only in DUCKS to age 7, boarding from Year 9, about 140 boarders in the college’s own copy. Read the live fees page. We did not invent the table.

Alleyn’s School is Townley Road, still Dulwich: mixed, day only, about 150 Year 7 places. Walk it in the same south-London morning as the College if that is your week. They share a founder’s name and not a gate.

Highgate School is the north-London mixed day house: Pre-Prep, Junior and Senior on N6 streets you can walk between, Heath up the road, 4+ to 16+.

The American School in London is One Waverley Place, St John’s Wood: American K–12, semester bills, no CAS. Parents live in London with the child.

Southbank International School is IB on five sites — Kensington, Hampstead, and three Westminster doors. Rolling, non-selective, Student Sponsor Status. Ask which site the year group actually uses.

None of these is a ranking. They are different Tuesdays.

What to decide before the first tour

Write four lines. How to choose is the longer fridge list. In London they look like this:

1. Leaving paper. A-levels, an American diploma, or the IB are not interchangeable kindnesses. If you will still be in England at eighteen, a British independent sixth form is a real climate. If you will leave in three years, ASL or Southbank may be the portable door. Say which.
2. Who sits in the class. Boys, girls, or mixed is not a personality test. It is a Tuesday. Single-sex schools is the longer note.
3. Day or a bed. Most London portraits here are day houses. Westminster and St Paul’s Barnes board some children. Dulwich boards from Year 9. A Berkshire valley is a different week — start on the boarding map.
4. The commute you will actually drive. Barnes is not Brook Green. Townley Road is not North Road. Time the dark morning, door to gate, with the sibling in the other borough.

Visa sentences that are not interchangeable

ASL will not sponsor a student visa. St Paul’s Girls’ School will not either. Southbank names Student Sponsor Status. British boarding houses at 16+ often have their own Child Student rules — Westminster’s overseas page is specific. Do not borrow one sentence for the next gate.

A week you can actually walk

You cannot tour the whole ISC. You can walk two climates a day if you are kind to the child.

• Central / west day: Westminster and Brook Green, or Barnes if the boy’s house is the point.
• South London: Dulwich College and Alleyn’s in one neighbourhood.
• North London: Highgate, then decide whether the Heath commute is the life.
• Internationals: ASL in the morning, Southbank’s actual site in the afternoon — Kensington is not Portland Place.

Open Morning is theatre. A wet Tuesday at pickup will tell you more.

What we are not claiming

We are not ranking London schools. We are not inventing a city-wide 11+ morning or a fee range. We are not turning forty ISC names into a directory. The portraits are the houses parents actually tour when they mean “London independent or international.” Confirm every date and every pound on the school’s own page. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday.

Friendly orientation, not formal admissions advice. Always confirm dates with the school.