Grammar Schools West London: A Complete Guide for 2027 Entry

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Search "grammar schools west London" and you will find plenty of directories listing schools that are, on close inspection, nowhere near Ealing, Hounslow or Richmond. Here is the honest starting point: none of these three West London boroughs runs a state grammar school. Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames are fully comprehensive local authorities, and every child living in them who wants a fully selective, exam-tested state secondary place has to look outside the borough boundary. This guide sets out exactly where those places actually exist for 2027 entry — the Slough grammar school consortium and the Buckinghamshire grammars for Ealing and Hounslow families, the Kingston-area grammars for Richmond families — along with real qualifying scores, test dates, place numbers and the selective independent schools that sit inside the boroughs as a genuine alternative.

Are There Any Grammar Schools in Ealing, Hounslow or Richmond?

No. This is worth stating plainly because so much generic 11+ content glosses over it. The London Borough of Ealing operates zero state grammar schools — Leading Tuition's own Ealing 11+ guide confirms "there are no local authority grammar schools within the London Borough of Ealing." The London Borough of Hounslow is the same: every secondary school on the council's own admissions list is non-selective, and the nearest grammar schools sit outside the borough in Berkshire or Buckinghamshire. Richmond upon Thames is also fully comprehensive within its own boundary, though it sits directly next to the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, home to some of the most oversubscribed grammar schools in the country.

This was not always the geography. Middlesex, the historic county that once covered Ealing, Hounslow and much of West London, did operate grammar schools before London government reorganisation in 1965 folded these areas into comprehensive boroughs. What remains today are the grammar schools that sit just beyond the new boundary — in the parts of old Buckinghamshire and Berkshire that kept their selective systems, and in the pocket of Surrey around Kingston that also stayed selective. For a West London family, that means the real 11+ decision is not "which Ealing grammar school" but "which out-of-borough consortium is realistically reachable" — and the answer differs sharply depending on which side of the borough you live.

The Slough Grammar School Consortium: The Closest Option for Ealing and Hounslow Families

The Slough consortium is the nearest genuine grammar school option for most Ealing and Hounslow postcodes. Slough is a separate unitary authority in Berkshire, roughly 8-12 miles west of central Ealing along the A4 or M4, and a similar distance from Hounslow via the A4 past Heathrow. Five schools share a single entrance test, the Slough Secondary Transfer Test (Slough SET), administered by GL Assessment: Herschel Grammar School, Langley Grammar School, Upton Court Grammar School, St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School and Slough Grammar School. Leading Tuition covers this consortium in full depth on our dedicated Slough Grammar Schools guide; the summary below focuses on what matters specifically for a West London family weighing up the journey and the odds.

Two details matter more to a West London family than to a Slough resident. First, distance and catchment weigh heavily in each school's individual oversubscription criteria, and a London postcode is very rarely inside a Slough catchment area — so Ealing and Hounslow children are usually competing for the smaller "all other qualifying candidates, ranked by distance" pool rather than a catchment place. Second, the Slough SET eligibility bar (111 standardised, roughly the top 35% of that year's cohort) is meaningfully lower than the Buckinghamshire equivalent (121), which is one reason the Slough consortium is often the first port of call for West London families before they widen the search into Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools Within Reach of West London

Buckinghamshire operates the largest fully selective school system left in England — 13 grammar schools across the county, all tested through a single body, The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools (TBGS), using a transfer test administered by Buckinghamshire Council. For 2027 entry, the practice test runs on 8 September 2026, the live transfer test on 10 September 2026, and results are released on 9 October 2026. Registration for children not already at a Buckinghamshire state primary school runs from 1 May to 2 June 2026 (3pm); children at Buckinghamshire state primaries are entered automatically. A standardised score of 121 or above is required to be considered "qualified," although reaching 121 secures a place only after each school's own oversubscription criteria — usually catchment residence, siblings and distance — have been applied.

Not every one of the 13 Buckinghamshire grammars is realistic for a West London commute. The schools clustered around Beaconsfield, Amersham, Marlow and High Wycombe are the ones within a plausible drive via the A40 and M40 — roughly 14 to 24 miles from Ealing, depending on the school, and generally too far for Hounslow or Richmond families to consider as a daily journey. Leading Tuition's Buckinghamshire grammar schools guide and our county-wide Buckinghamshire roundup cover the full picture; the table below focuses on the six schools that are genuinely within reach of North Ealing and the western edge of the borough.

John Hampden Grammar School, Dr Challoner's Grammar School and Royal Grammar School High Wycombe are all boys-only at 11+, which means a West London family with a son has three realistic Buckinghamshire options within the Beaconsfield-to-High-Wycombe corridor, alongside Beaconsfield High School and Dr Challoner's High School for girls, and Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow as the one fully co-educational choice, admitting both girls and boys at Year 7 since 2000. For a deeper dive into two of these schools specifically, see our individual guides to John Hampden Grammar School and Dr Challoner's Grammar School.

What About Richmond? Grammar Schools via Kingston and Surrey

Richmond upon Thames sits on the opposite side of West London geography from Ealing and Hounslow, and the practical answer for Richmond families is completely different. Rather than Slough or Buckinghamshire, Richmond borders the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames directly, and Tiffin School and The Tiffin Girls' School are both under four miles from central Richmond — a short drive or a direct train from Richmond station via Twickenham, or from North Sheen and Mortlake into Kingston and Norbiton. Waldegrave School in Twickenham and Christ's School in Richmond itself add further selective and part-selective options within the borough's own boundary. Leading Tuition covers this side of the West London catchment in full in our dedicated Kingston and Richmond grammar schools guide, which is the right starting point for a Richmond family rather than the Slough and Bucks consortiums detailed above.

This east-west split inside "West London" is the single most common source of confusion in this search. A family in East Sheen genuinely has a different, shorter, and less competitive realistic shortlist than a family in Northolt or Southall — even though both postcodes fall under a generic "West London" label. Working out which side of the catchment you actually sit in, before committing months of 11+ preparation to a single consortium, is one of the first things our tutors help West London families establish.

Selective Independent Schools Within Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond

Because none of the three boroughs has a state grammar school, the closest thing to a "local" fully selective school for many West London families is an independent school with its own entrance exam. In Ealing, Notting Hill and Ealing High School (part of the Girls' Day School Trust) is a highly selective girls' school that tests applicants with its own Cognitive Abilities Test at 11+, and St Benedict's School is a co-educational Catholic independent school with a genuinely competitive entrance process. Both sit within the borough itself, cutting out the Slough or Buckinghamshire commute entirely, though — unlike a state grammar place — both charge fees.

In Richmond upon Thames, Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton is one of the most selective girls' schools in London, and Hampton School, also in Hampton, is its equivalent for boys — both hold their own entrance examinations rather than sharing a consortium test with other schools. Hounslow does not have an equivalent long-established selective independent day school within its own boundary, which is one further reason Hounslow families lean more heavily on the Slough consortium than Ealing or Richmond families typically need to. For families weighing the independent route against a grammar school application, the practical trade-off is straightforward: independent schools charge fees but sit inside the borough with shorter journeys and school-specific preparation, while grammar schools are free but mean a longer commute and competing against applicants from a much wider catchment.

How the Slough and Buckinghamshire Transfer Tests Work for 2027 Entry

Both tests are taken in September of Year 6, ahead of September 2027 entry, and both are standardised against that year's national cohort rather than marked against a fixed pass mark. The Buckinghamshire Transfer Test is administered directly by Buckinghamshire Council on behalf of all 13 grammar schools in the county: the practice paper runs on 8 September 2026, the live test on 10 September 2026, and results are issued on 9 October 2026, with the school preference deadline falling on 31 October 2026. Children who attend a state-funded Buckinghamshire primary school are entered automatically; children from outside the county, including every West London family, must register between 1 May and 2 June 2026.

The Slough SET follows a similar rhythm but is set independently of Buckinghamshire, using GL Assessment rather than Buckinghamshire Council's own test, and sitting under a lower qualifying threshold (111 standardised versus 121). Both the Slough and Buckinghamshire tests assess verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics in some combination, and neither test allows a resit within the same admissions cycle if a child underperforms on the day — which is why our tutors recommend West London families begin structured practice at least two terms before the September sitting, rather than treating the summer holiday before Year 6 as sufficient preparation time.

One further practical point specific to West London families: because Slough and Buckinghamshire are separate testing authorities with separate registration windows, a family aiming at both consortiums — a common strategy for Ealing families near the Slough/Bucks boundary — needs to track two separate registration deadlines, two separate test dates in the same September, and two separate results days. Missing either registration window rules a family out of that consortium for the entire admissions cycle, with no late-entry route in most cases.

Travel Times and Practicalities for West London Families

Distance drives almost every decision in this guide, so it is worth setting out realistic journey estimates rather than treating "West London" as a single 20-minute radius. From central Ealing, Slough is approximately 8-10 miles via the A4 or M4, typically a 20-30 minute drive outside peak traffic; Hounslow to Slough is slightly shorter, roughly 7-9 miles via the A4, past Heathrow. The Buckinghamshire schools around Beaconsfield sit further out — approximately 14-16 miles from Ealing via the A40 and M40, generally a 25-35 minute drive — while Amersham, Marlow and High Wycombe stretch to 18-24 miles and are a harder daily commute for an 11-year-old, particularly on days with after-school clubs or sports fixtures. Richmond to Kingston, by contrast, is under 4 miles and typically a 10-15 minute journey, which is the core reason Richmond families are directed to the Kingston consortium rather than Slough or Bucks in this guide.

Rail options exist alongside driving for some of these routes: Chiltern Railways connects London Marylebone to Beaconsfield, High Wycombe and Amersham, which some West London families use if their nearest connecting station is on the Central or Metropolitan line, though this typically adds a change and is slower door-to-door than driving for most Ealing addresses. Great Western Railway connects Ealing Broadway and Southall directly to Slough in under 15 minutes, which is often the more practical option for the Slough consortium schools than driving during term-time traffic. Families should factor in that grammar schools generally do not run dedicated school transport for pupils living outside their home local authority, so whichever school a child is offered a place at, the daily journey becomes the family's own responsibility for the following seven years.

Frequently Asked Questions