Best private schools in Oxford and Oxfordshire

< Secondary Schools Oxford and Oxfordshire Guide Boarding Schools >

Best private schools in Oxford

Best private schools near Abingdon

Best private schools in Banbury and Bicester

Best private schools near Henley and Wallingford

Best private schools near Stadhampton

Best private schools in west Oxfordshire

Special Educational Needs

---

There is a huge number of private schools in Oxfordshire, both at prep school and senior level, though fewer in the north and west of the county than you might expect. Oxford itself is not short of options. They tend towards single sex, traditional and not particularly expensive (though of course there are those that buck the trend). A couple are renowned for their academic prowess; others are well-known on the boarding circuit; but beyond that, this is a story of local schools offering something for everyone. Oxford should be on the radar of anyone who lives beyond the ring road. For parents averse to traffic jams, special bus services weave their way through the county and into town packed with pupils from the likes of Oxford High, Headington and Magdalen College School.

South Oxfordshire has more private schools than you can shake a lacrosse stick at. The golden triangle created by Henley, Goring and Wallingford is chock-a-block with them, families often using tiny brick-and-flint village primaries for a couple of years before going to a prep. (‘It was charming’, they chime, ‘but, you know, he outgrew it’). In and around Abingdon is another extraordinary cluster which you can read more on below.

Private schools in Oxford

Prep schools in Oxford

There’s a plethora of preps in Oxford. King of the jungle, and the only major co-ed, is The Dragon – huge and free-spirited – with pre-prep in Summertown and prep by Parktown. Parents love the scruffiness, though there’s nothing scruffy about the fees, which now largely exclude the dons’ children for whom the school was founded. Dragons tumble into any number of schools afterwards, day and boarding, including St Edward’s, Headington, Eton, Radley, Marlborough College.

If it’s Eton, they’ll meet some Summer Fields chaps. Tucked away behind the Summertown shops you’ll find 70 gorgeous acres for boys to run and run. You won’t find muddy knees or torn blazers, though: our reviewer described pupils as ‘articulate and confident, although suspiciously neat’. At 13+, three-quarters off to Eton, Harrow, Radley, Winchester. A couple to Magdalen College School or Abingdon as day boys.

Closer to the dreaming spires, both physically and spiritually, are Christ Church Cathedral School and New College School. If your son can sing (or even if he can’t, yet), listen up. Both take around 20 each year, offering huge bursaries to choral scholars. They leave at 13+ for day schools (state and private), or Eton, Harrow, Radley; choristers win scholarships. CCCS is totally olde worlde, tucked into higgledy-piggledy Tudor buildings that Cardinal Wolsey once called home. Neither is right for a boy with excess energy to burn, though he will be taught, amongst other things, ‘how to sit down and get homework done’, say parents.

Many of Oxford’s preps will lose a couple of their brightest in year 3 to Magdalen College School, whose junior school has its first intake at 7+ (and then again at 8+ and 9+). Almost all subsequently get into the senior school, so no wonder places are so coveted.

For girls, Oxford High Preparatory School takes girls from reception or year 3, but, as our reviewer points out, ‘A place at the prep doesn’t necessarily equal automatic transition to senior school.’ Set across two sites, ‘cosy yet inspiring learning environments’, it appeals to ambitious professionals, academics and medics and pupils can use school buses from year 4.

Headington Rye Prep, by contrast, offers automatic entry to the senior school for the girls. Our reviewer described it as a ‘dynamic and happy little school’. Not as pressured as a local prep, so lots of time for music, sport and drama. Again, most parents are Oxford-based, with buses from year 4 for those that live further afield. Co-ed from September 2024, following the merger of Headington with nearby Rye St Antony. Boys will, no doubt, be well-supported in their applications to other local day schools at 11+, because the senior school will remain single-sex.

Rye St Antony has hitherto offered a junior school to boys and girls from three; boys will continue to leave at 11+ but historically most girls have gone on to their senior school, also now merging with Headington.

Emmanuel Christian School is ‘a tiny school bursting with big ideas’, ‘like a village school with a cosmopolitan curriculum’, felt our reviewer. Co-ed, from reception to year 6.  Inclusivity stretches to excellent support for children with learning needs. Draws diverse families, ‘from blue-collar workers to university lecturers’. Lots on to state schools, particularly Didcot Girls’ School, or private schools including Headington Rye Oxford and Kingham Hill School. 

Secondary schools in Oxford

Oxford is packed to the medieval rafters with private secondaries and ambitious families. In no particular order, here goes…

If you’re looking for A*s and Oxbridge, it’s Oxford High for girls and Magdalen College School for boys (with up to 60 girls joining for sixth form). At MCS our reviewer found that, ‘pace is fast and expectations are high, but academic success is not at the cost of fun and interesting digressions’. Dual-income families travel from miles for ‘intellectual curiosity, creativity and individuality’.

With the strongest girls’ GCSE results in the area, Oxford High recruits clever pupils from local primaries to join their home-grown prep pupils in year 7. Part of the Girls’ Day School Trust, it attracts ‘medics, academics, those working in innovation and science’, says our reviewer.

Headington Rye Oxford is the other girls’ school to which these parents turn. A super school for your all-rounder with boarding, IB and brilliant rowing attracting international interest and a little glamour. Get into the prep to guarantee entrance to the senior school and avoid the 11+ scrum.

If something smaller and more nurturing appeals, you should consider Wychwood School from 11+: ‘It’s tiny’, one parent told our reviewer, ‘but there’s nothing missing.’ Recently announced move to co-ed (from all-girls) will give school a USP in a city where single sex dominates. Caters well for a range of abilities. Handful of boarders enjoy ‘retro, Malory Towers vibe school picnics and sleepovers’.

At d’Overbroeck's our reviewer found a 'laid-back atmosphere and system of trust', where 'rules exist...based on sense and respect'. The head told us, ‘If you’re looking for vast playing fields, ancient chapels and straw boaters, we’re not for you.’ Those types would be well served from 13+ at St Edward’s (known as Teddies). The majority are boarders; most day pupils stay until 9pm. Has long offered IB alongside A levels. Historically seen as ‘a school for good eggs, albeit occasionally those with a twinkle in their eye’, but current head is driving up academic standards.  

St Clare’s is a sixth form college. Below-the-radar for Oxford families, it claims to be England’s first World IB school and attracts 85 per cent overseas boarders. The best IB results in Oxford in recent years, with some students getting the elusive 45 out of 45. Our reviewer found, ‘students with enquiring minds’ being ‘quizzed by their teacher in free-flowing two-way discourse, with all expected to contribute’.

Finally, as if you needed any more homework, the Abingdon day schools are very manageable from Oxford. Abingdon School and St Helen and St Katherine provide further options for boys and girls and – goody! – their bus network runs through north Oxford, Headington and Botley.

Best state primary schools in Oxford

Best state secondary schools in Oxford

Best nurseries in Oxford

Private schools near Abingdon

Prep schools near Abingdon

Let’s start in Abingdon and mosey westwards. Our Lady’s Abingdon is in town, offering a small and nurturing environment from seven to 18. Pupils joining into year 3 generally see this as an all-through option, with families buying into the school’s unusual offering and moving into the senior school afterwards: ‘Not glossy, but full of character. Progressive, but still conventional. Alternative, but not hippy dippy’, concluded our reviewer.

On the outskirts, The Manor Preparatory School, fully co-ed, is the starting point for parents who want to keep their options open at 11+; they come from miles. Our reviewer thought it was ‘impressive’ yet ‘unpretentious’ (not to be taken for granted), a ‘happy family environment’ which belies the numbers going on to academic schools including nearby St Helen and St Katharine (SHSK).

Ten minutes up towards Oxford, you’ll find Chandlings Prep School – also co-ed, unstuffy and with cracking 11+ results including lots to Magdalen College School (boys) or SHSK (girls). Although ‘the school’s relative newness…may be perceived as a downside by more trad parents’, our reviewer felt, ‘it attracts families from a wide variety of backgrounds and nationalities’. Much more diverse, then, than other local options.

The same cannot be said for Cothill House, hitherto exclusively boarding and boys. From September 2025, girls will be welcomed for the first time and the school will be fully co-ed by 2028. Boys and girls will be able to attend as day or flexi boarding pupils, as well as full boarders. No doubt some will continue to look at Eton College, Winchester College etc, but we'd expect the leavers' destinations to diversify as girls and day pupils work their way through the system. Read more on the Boarding Schools in Oxfordshire page.

Hit a ball for six from here and it might land at Abingdon Prep School. Unusually for a prep school in this most genteel of locales, boys call their teachers by their first names, making it ‘not informal, as such, but a bit more on-a-level’, noted our reviewer. The vast majority of pupils head to Abingdon School at 13, which will itself be taking girls from 2026.

Hop in the Volvo for another ten minutes and you’ll find St Hugh’s School, where our reviewer met ‘self-assured, enthusiastic, articulate, considerate children’ enjoying ‘superb facilities’ (the school library’s in a dovecote). No wonder it draws the Down-From-Londoners. More than half will go on to board with St Edward’s, Oxford, and Marlborough College particularly popular.

Indeed, the further down the A420 you drive, the more bucolic these schools get. At Pinewood, just over the Wiltshire border, pupils play on a treetops adventure playground and a mountain bike track. Set in 84 acres of proper countryside with ‘woods for den-building’ and lots of post-drop-off dog walks for mums: ‘If Richard Curtis made prep schools,’ our reviewer wrote, ‘we think they’d be a bit like Pinewood.’ Again, these are boarders in the making: lots to Cheltenham College and Marlborough College.

Secondary schools near Abingdon

Boys flock to Abingdon School, with intakes into year 7, 9 and 12; girls will join from 2026. We found ‘inquisitive pupils and teachers who enjoy stoking their curiosity’. They’ll be worked hard, our reviewer found, but extra-curricular (aka the Other Half) is just as important to school life. Expect a ‘civilised approach’ to sport and music to ‘cater to all tastes’. Girls will also hope for St Helen and St Katharine, a 10-minute stroll away. HelKats, as it’s popularly known, is ‘unapologetically selective and academic’, wrote our reviewer, with ‘a fizz and energy about learning’. Savvy locals, keen to swerve the 11+, target its 9+ and 10+ intakes, though majority join in year 7. Teenagers jump on school buses from six counties to get to Abingdon or SHSK (if you’re in Oxfordshire, Bucks, Berks, Hampshire, Gloucestershire or Wiltshire, you’re sorted). Both of these schools send plenty on to Oxbridge each year along with the rest of the Russell Group.

Our Lady’s Abingdon is ‘a glorious counterbalance’ to all this hurly-burly, felt our reviewer. An excellent reputation for the creative arts and inclusive approach to sport: ‘everyone has a go – no picking daisies on the sidelines’. There’s the option to join in year 3 but most arrive in year 7 or later. Small cohorts mean that results vary; Birmingham and Nottingham are popular university destinations.

Radley College is five minutes away, but it is boys only full-fat boarding so jump to Boarding Schools to learn more.

Best state primary schools near Abingdon

Best state secondary schools near Abingdon

Best nurseries near Abingdon

Private Schools near Banbury and Bicester

Prep schools near Banbury and Bicester

Minibuses whisk boys and girls from Chipping Norton and South Newington to Winchester House, where they enjoy an (unheated) outdoor pool and a sports hall which ‘many secondary schools would envy’, writes our reviewer.  Leavers generally go to boarding schools: lots head to Stowe School, enjoying a ten percent fee discount (as a member of the Stowe Group); others to Rugby, Uppingham, Radley etc.

Less glossy but just as jolly is nearby Beachborough. Expect excellent wraparound care, family campouts and great teaching. Pupils go on to boarding and day schools including Bloxham, Stowe, Rugby, Marlborough, Sibford.

Carrdus School is much more nurturing: ‘A characterful, relaxed and genuinely child-centred school,’ wrote our reviewer. Girls generally go on to Tudor Hall at 11+ (the two schools merged in 2011); though Carrdus has been co-educational since 2020 most year-groups are still girl-heavy. 

Sibford School takes children from three all the way to 18, the only all-through in the area. Tinies enjoy beautiful 50-acre site and specialist teaching in music, PE and drama. Nursery and reception taught together, as are years 1 and 2. Known for super learning support, though our reviewer called it ‘genuinely all-ability’: ‘a great option if your brood all need different handling’.

Those with stamina drive to The Dragon; the traffic challenges even the hardiest commuters. The school’s recently introduced a minibus system that’ll scoop them up in Aynho, Deddington, Wendlebury etc as young as Reception, though lots of parents still drive their little ones. Breakfast in the car must be worth it, given the number who do it. Inevitably, lots will flexi-board from year 4.

Secondary schools near Banbury and Bicester

Many join Sibford School at year 7; the head told our reviewer that they’re ‘non-selective’, provided, ‘the child can cope and thrive in this environment.’ Recent investment in academics, but Sibford will always be nurturing. A levels and BTECs in sixth form. Three boarding houses with pupils doing everything from one night a week to full boarding.

A short drive away, you’ll find co-ed Bloxham School, a godsend to ‘everyday working parents’ who want a down-to-earth 11+ day school, says our reviewer. Local children come from village primaries and preps to enjoy ‘fabulous’ sports facilities and ‘an antidote to the hothouse Oxford independents’. Those from further afield – Oxford, Stratford, London – can board.

Tudor Hall, all-girls’ and small, has a bigger profile on the boarding school circuit. Full-boarding (no flexi or weekly), but with a handful of local day girls. Lots of ex-Tudor girls amongst the mums, seeking the same wholesome, rounded experience for their daughters. Expect to participate fully in boarding school life – day girls often stay until 7pm. ‘More tomboys than princesses’, our reviewer reckoned.

In neighbouring Buckinghamshire, Stowe School is a day option from here, particularly for those already at Winchester House - minibuses currently run from Bicester. As at Tudor Hall, you’ll be a day pupil at a boarding school, with long days, Saturday morning lessons and fixtures on a Saturday afternoon.

You might also consider big hitters Abingdon and St Helen and St Katharine, whose bus network runs to Bicester and Woodstock.

Best state primary schools near Banbury and Bicester

Best state secondary schools near Banbury and Bicester

Best nurseries near Banbury and Bicester

Private schools near Henley and Wallingford

Prep schools near Henley and Wallingford

The rolling Chilterns make for a lovely backdrop to the schools around here; Wallingford boasts the biggest Waitrose; Henley played a starring role as the crime capital in Midsummer Murders. Perfect prep school stuff.

The riverside village of Moulsford is home to two independent schools on opposite sides of the same road. Moulsford Preparatory School takes boys and girls from three to seven; as of September 2026, girls will be able to stay, creating a fully co-ed prep.. Our reviewer found ‘a winning combination’ of ‘fun, friendship and messing about with boats’; new pre-prep building is amazing. At 13+ leavers have traditionally gone on to the Abingdon independent schools or big boarding schools such as Eton College and Radley College, though it remains to be seen where girls will favour. Up the lane, Cranford House School is an all-through option, fully co-ed since 2015. ‘Very nurturing’, parents told us, with ‘no feeling of entitlement’ amongst students; families have often chosen it over local state options.

Around one-third of boys and girls from Oratory Prep School will go on to The Oratory, though they are no longer formally connected. More low-key than Moulsford, lots leave at 11+ to take up places at local day options. Our reviewer enjoyed the ‘fabulous rural setting, friendly atmosphere and dedicated teaching body’.

Many jump to St Andrews School, just over the border in Berks. A member of the Bradfield Group (Bradfield College is just on the other side of the M4, though lots go on to Pangbourne College, too); ‘wholesome, outdoorsy, happy, a touch old fashioned’ and with super boarding (see boarding school page). If this all sounds too jolly-hockey sticks, try Rupert House, tucked into ‘an impossibly quaint part of Henley’, which takes boys and girls from three to 11. Small and caring, with ‘minimal’ pressure in lower school though more as pupils get older; majority go on to private day schools nearby.

Secondary schools near Henley and Wallingford

Cranford House is the area’s all-through offering. Sixth form opened in 2020 and the school’s been working hard to retain pupils, who historically had to leave after GCSEs; it’s too early to tell how A level results are going to be with early cohorts very small, but this is a mixed ability school and academic outcomes are likely to reflect that. Diminutive size means everyone’s involved in everything – super if you want to be a big fish in a small pond.

Girls have been happily settled into the sixth form for a while at Shiplake College, in Henley, though school has followed local trend by going fully co-ed in 2023. Our reviewer found that ‘Shiplake’s reputation as having an exceptional standard of pastoral care is justified’; a strong, down-to-earth community both within the school and around it. One where, ‘pupils of all academic abilities can make their mark’; A level results are typical of co-eds in this area and pupils go on to a range of universities including Loughborough, Exeter and Surrey.

Edging closer to Reading, Pangbourne College was established ‘to prepare boys for life as officers in the Merchant Navy or Royal Navy’; bedrooms still called ‘cabins’ and pupils need ceremonial naval uniform. Day pupil numbers on the rise; the school is ‘hitting the spot with local parents’, we felt, offering super pastoral care alongside results which are on an upward trajectory. One or two to Oxbridge most years and around half to Russell Group universities.

A couple of villages away, local interest in The Oratory School has picked up considerably since it went co-ed in 2020. Gently selective at 11+ and 13+, Catholic ethos, but no need to be Catholic. ‘An active choice for families looking for a small, nurturing environment.’ Superb sports, particularly given its size, with strong rugby provision and an unusual specialism in real tennis. Again, around half of pupils go on to Russell Group universities afterwards; the academic temperature has been rising here in the past few years.

Clever beans in this area will look at Abingdon School or St Helen and St Katharine (see above). Or, if you fancy an early start, the many Oxford schools’ buses leave Reading at the crack of dawn and run up through Henley, Nettlebed, Watlington etc, or from Goring starting similarly early and scooping children up in Wallingford en route to Oxford.

Best state primary schools near Henley and Wallingford

Best state secondary schools near Henley and Wallingford

Best nurseries near Henley and Wallingford

Private schools near Stadhampton

Prep schools near Stadhampton

Practically in Bucks, but drawing on a largely rural catchment from the villages up to about half an hour’s drive, Ashfold School is set in a Jacobean Mansion amidst ‘rolling hill and farmland’. Co-ed, from nursery to 13. ‘Children who are middle-of-the-road academically are as likely to shine as the very bright’, our reviewer found. Half will go on to boarding schools; others to Abingdon, Bloxham, d’Overbroeck’s, Headington as day pupils.

Secondary schools near Stadhampton

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the number of private secondary schools across the rest of the county, this stretch does not have any of its own. Lots into Oxford (Headington is the right side of town, though Oxford High and Magdalen College School are deemed worth the journey) or down to Abingdon (see above). Stowe School and Bloxham School both offer day or family-friendly boarding options (see our guide to Buckinghamshire), and families will also look at weekly or full boarding further afield.

Best state primary schools near Stadhampton

Best state secondary schools near Stadhampton

Best nurseries near Stadhampton

Private Schools in west Oxfordshire

Prep schools in west Oxfordshire

All the ingredients here for idyllic prep schools: rolling hills, honey-coloured stone, high Tesla-count. Kitebrook fits the bill, taking boys and girls from age three; ‘amazing teachers’, pupils told us, ‘exciting’ lessons, ‘awesome’ classrooms. Children head off at 13+ to St Edward’s, Oxford, Wellington College, St Mary’s Calne and Eton as well as local options.

Hatherop Castle is doable from Witney (Charlbury or Chippy would be too far – the Burford traffic can be a pain); flying high after a tricky period it’s doubled in size since 2014. Warm and cosy, parents told us, with increasingly buzzy academics and sports. Leavers tend to stay local; lots to Dean Close.

Cokethorpe’s ‘sub-niche’, says our reviewer, is as ‘the all-through, co-ed, academically broad, rural, day offering’. Taking a tiny reception class and growing from there, it will ‘challenge the high-flyer but scoop up the goofy younger sibling’. Parents told us that they do ‘a brilliant job’ with learning support.

You can access schools which are further afield from here. The minibus to Winchester House goes from Chipping Norton. Some drive to The Dragon but soon realise that the traffic puts a dampener on their otherwise golden Cotswolds lifestyle. You could use the school bus, with routes all over the area. 

Secondary schools in west Oxfordshire

You won’t feel the academic pressure at non-selective Kingham Hill, which takes boys and girls from 11+ and offers vocational qualifications (BTECs and CTECs) alongside A levels plus the US curriculum. Small class sizes and individual attention create great results.

Sitting within ‘vast striped lawns, littered with ancient trees’, Cokethorpe has ‘something to appeal to almost everyone’ other than ‘rebels, children who thrive on competition… or tiger parents’, said our reviewer. Most families quite local, often choosing it over state options. Super sport and learning support.

Many of the Oxford schools run minibuses from this patch, and some offer more academic clout (see below); buses leave at crack of dawn, scooping pupils up as they wind their way to each of the Oxford secondaries (other than St Edward’s, which is predominantly boarders). Abingdon (co-ed from 2026) and St Helen and St Katherine (girls) have buses from Witney, Burford and Woodstock. If you live near Gloucestershire, you could look at Cheltenham College, Dean Close and Cheltenham Ladies’ College. It’s a hike to do it daily, though, unless you live in Burford. 

Best state primary schools in west Oxfordshire

Best state secondary schools in west Oxfordshire

Best nurseries in west Oxfordshire

Private schools for children with special educational needs in Oxford and Oxfordshire

In mainstream education, both Kingham Hill School and Bloxham School have a limited number of places for students experiencing specific learning difficulties, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia, in their dedicated and well-staffed SEND departments. They offer a modified curriculum and specialist dyslexia trained staff to focus on literacy. Shiplake College has a small number of ‘Core Places’ each year reserved for students with mild learning difficulties like dyslexia, who are supported by a well-staffed Learning Development Centre. Carefully tailored levels of extra help.

Bruern Abbey is a prep for boys with dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, who go on to eg Marlborough College, Rugby, Stowe, St Edward’s, Gordonstoun. We found ‘a hive of extra-curricular activity’, and 23 acres of ‘rolling landscape…bounded by a brook’. A recent addition is the Bruern Abbey secondary school, just over the border in Chilton, Buckinghamshire.

The Unicorn School, in Abingdon, provides a ‘modified national curriculum’ for children with dyslexia from the age of six upwards; provision has recently been extended to year 11, though school is proud of the number who leave them at 13+ to go into the mainstream. Our reviewer was impressed by, ‘daily one-to-one sessions across the whole class, delivered by highly qualified staff’ and pupils’ ‘rapid and visible’ progress, though the size of the site and the student body limits extra-curricular opportunities.

Swalcliffe Park takes boys from year 6 upwards who have ‘a diagnosis of high-level autism; some also have ADHD, Tourette’s, dyspraxia or dyslexia’, wrote our reviewer. National curriculum runs alongside independence curriculum; ‘masses’ of sport, including fixtures in football and volleyball. One third board; twenty-two acres of charming grounds are ‘ideal for moments of solitude’; day boys can stay over too.

LVS Woodstock is a sister school to the schools in Ascot (and Hassocks) with specialist day provision for students, 11-20, with autism and social communicaton needs.

In Wheatley, Chilworth House School is a specialist day school for boys and girls with complex educational needs, communication difficulties and challenging behaviours. Chilworth House School is the tiny junior school and Chilworth House Upper School then takes them to year 11. Both are part of the Witherslack Group. 

Beech Lodge School near Henley (but just in Berkshire) is a small supportive school for children 7 to 18, with social, emotional and mental health needs, childhood trauma and school avoidance. 

< Secondary Schools Oxford and Oxfordshire Guide Boarding Schools >