Check schools near a London home without confusing proximity and admissions

A nearby school and an available school place are different questions. notbad helps you examine walking proximity to schools in its saved official register, alongside linked inspection information. It does not calculate catchments, admissions priority, waiting lists or places available for your child.

Begin with the official school and its phase

The saved DfE Get Information about Schools register is dated 31 October 2026. It retains the source phase, including Not applicable, establishment type and age range where supplied. A short walk to an establishment does not establish whether it serves the phase, age or type of education you need.

Explore lets you select phases and inspection choices. The independent postcode report includes every phase, both inspection schemes and schools without a linked grade. Its nearest displayed destination can therefore differ from a narrower search you configured in Explore.

Keep old grades and new report cards separate

The retained inspection snapshot is dated 30 September 2026. Legacy overall grades remain separate from the newer evaluation-area report cards. notbad does not convert one scheme to the other or invent a new overall grade. Only inspections linked to the current school URN are used; a predecessor's inspection is not automatically inherited.

The postcode report uses Curriculum and teaching for the new report-card evaluation area. An ungraded or unlinked school is not automatically poor, closed or unsuitable. Read the source report and its date, and check the current official record before making a decision.

Read walking estimates as approaches, not gate guarantees

The calculation prefers mapped campus gates. Where the data only supports a nearby mapped campus gate or official school position, that approximation is labelled. A point on a map is not proof of the entrance currently used by pupils. Unresolved approaches can leave a result unknown.

The search is capped at 30 minutes in the independent report. It does not estimate travel inside the site, model the school run at a particular time, or establish step-free access. A short value is an approximate walk from the represented starting area, not a measured front-door journey.

Compare the actual destinations

The Ealing, Greenwich and Bromley examples below use the same all-school report profile. Open each area page to read the named school, establishment detail and inspection text for each reference point. This is more useful than assuming that one borough label describes every possible school journey.

If the school result is unknown, investigate the actual approach rather than substituting a straight-line distance. A postcode represents several addresses, so refine the map point before assessing a particular home's surroundings. The postcode guide explains that distinction.

Check admissions with the responsible authority

For any shortlisted school, check the current official school record, admissions authority, relevant year's arrangements, eligibility and application process. Ask about the entrance and practical route you would use. Keep those answers separate from notbad's saved proximity and inspection evidence.

Use all 33 area guides for local examples and the methodology for source dates and unknown-result rules.

Sources

• DfE Get Information about Schools
• Ofsted school inspection datasets
• Find and compare schools in England
• School admissions information