The best private schools in Britain: Reigate Grammar, attended by Keir Starmer, tops last Sunday Times’ list before VAT hikes on fees in January
The Sunday Times has released its annual, prestigious list of the best schools in the UK, including state, grammar and private educational establishments.
Ahead of the Labour Government slashing VAT exemption on private school fees in January – making an independent education 20 per cent more expensive, parents will have a forensic eye on which schools are currently flying high.
This year’s Independent Secondary School of the Year 2025 is Reigate Grammar School, which counts Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, David Walliams and comedian Romesh Ranganathan among its famous alumni.
The co-ed school has been awarded The Sunday Times Parent Power Independent Secondary School of the Year 2025 after rising 12 places.
According to the newspaper, pupils at the private school, once a state grammar, have access to AI tutors, are encouraged to take ‘sleep lessons’ and see their grounds transformed into a fairground as the summer break approaches every year.
The school’s head, Shaun Fenton, said of the first place achievement: ‘I am delighted that this award is based not on only our record-breaking academic outcomes and how students progress to world class universities but it celebrates all aspects of our school, from pastoral care, extracurricular opportunities, and community partnerships.’
Meanwhile, £65,000-a-year Brighton College, in Sussex, was given the gong for best independent boarding school of the year.
The publication’s guide awards the best schools after taking into consideration A-level and GCSE results in the summer of 2024, the movement within league tables and the dedication of staff.
Here, FEMAIL looks at the overall winning school, as well as the educational institution awarded best Independent Secondary School of the Year for GCSEs 2025.
We also explore the winner of the Independent Secondary School of the Year for A-levels 2025…
Reigate Grammar School, Surrey
Winner of Independent Secondary School of the Year 2025
Tuition fees: £9,480-£9,720
Percentage of pupils gaining 9-8 (A*) in 2024: 73%
Winner of the Sunday Times’ Independent Secondary School of the Year 2025 award, the school (pictured) offers means-tested bursaries yearly, boasts over 200 clubs based on subjects from anime to sports and offers students the chance to qualify as a first-aider or lifeguard
Founded in 1675, Reigate Grammar School’s famous alumni includes Sir Keir Starmer, David Walliams, comedian Romesh Ranganathan and Norman Smith, better known as Fat Boy Slim.
Winner of the Sunday Times’ Independent Secondary School of the Year 2025 award, the school offers means-tested bursaries yearly, boasts over 200 clubs based on subjects from anime to sports and offers students the chance to qualify as a first-aider or lifeguard.
Pupils at the Surrey-based school – where the headmaster is Shaun Fenton, the son of Seventies glam rocker Alvin Stardust – can also learn to referee, earn their pilot’s licence or train to teach English as a foreign language.
Sir Keir Starmer is a former pupil of Reigate Grammar School, although the school was a state grammar when the Prime Minister began attending, later switching to become an independent school
Meanwhile, all sixth-formers reportedly have an AI private tutor on their computers to help them with their learning 24/7.
More than 95 per cent of leavers received offers from world-class universities this year after the school achieved record A-level results, reported The Times.
Students are encouraged to get involved with charitable work through such activities as food bank drop-offs, teaching children in a domestic abuse refuge and tree-planting.
Just a stone’s throw from Reigate town centre, the school prides itself on its pastoral care and has a dedicated wellbeing centre for students. It also boasts a music school, indoor swimming pool and fitness suite.
In addition to the main school sites, the school benefits from a sports ground at Hartswood which provides some 32 acres of playing fields, outdoor cricket nets and a floodlit all-weather pitch.
St Paul’s Girls’ School
Winner of Independent Secondary School of the Year for Academic Excellence 2025
Tuition fees: £10,531-£11,322
Percentage of pupils gaining 9-8 (A*) in 2024: 94%
The £11,322-a-term school consistently performs well in exams and is noted for its music and drama programmes. It is the winner of Sunday Times’ the Independent Secondary School of the Year for Academic Excellence 2025 award
St Paul’s Girls’ School, in Hammersmith, which has notable alumni including actress Rachel Weisz and British politician Harriet Harman, was founded in 1904 by the Worshipful Company of Mercers.
There’s clubs for AI, coding and Japanese, and the opportunity for pupils to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, as well as debating, music and sports initiatives.
The £11,322-a-term school consistently performs well in exams and is noted for its music and drama programmes. It is the winner of Sunday Times’ the Independent Secondary School of the Year for Academic Excellence 2025 award.
In recent years, however, the school has hit headlines for its ‘gender-neutral policies’ – after deciding to let their pupils be called by boys’ names and wear boys’ uniforms if they choose to, and sparked fury after inviting American researchers to speak to pupils about changing sex.
Pupils from the age of 16 can ask to be identified either as boys or gender neutral, according to reports in 2017.
‘We are moving to the point where your gender is a choice,’ the school’s high mistress, Clarissa Farr, previously told The Sunday Times.
St Paul’s girls: The Hammersmith private school has notable alumni including actress Rachel Weisz (pictured left) and British politician Harriet Harman – the school was founded in 1904 by the Worshipful Company of Mercers
She added: ‘I see this as a social phenomenon, especially in London, which is much talked about among school leaders. The school is very relaxed about sexual orientation but this is a different issue. This is about gender reassignment. That is a new thing for us.’
Although pupils aged from 11 to 15 are not eligible for the process they are free to discuss the issue with school counsellors to help them explore their gender identity.
In 2021, the school revealed it would no longer use the term head girl as it said it is too ‘binary’. Instead, the position is referred to as ‘head of school’.
The change prompted backlash at the time from some staff of the school, reported The Times – however, the senior pupil was known as head of school for decades after St Paul’s Girls was founded in 1904.
The school said their decision-making was a result of senior pupils considering themselves young women rather than ‘girls’ but acknowledged the ‘binary connotations’ were also a factor.
It said senior pupils also felt the historic title was ‘more modern, age appropriate and inclusive’. The school denied that it should change its name under the same logic.
The school also sparked fury among some parents again in 2021 after inviting American researchers to speak to pupils about changing sex.
It two researchers from Princeton University’s human diversity lab, discussing research purportedly showing positive outcomes for girls living as boys and vice versa.
The school’s newsletter informed parents of the talk, telling them that the university’s findings on the topic of children’s mental health while living as the opposite sex ‘is of the utmost importance in light of the recent ban on hormone therapy in Arkansas for under-18s’, The Times reported.
Brighton College, Sussex
Winner of Independent Secondary Boarding School of the Year 2025 and Independent Secondary School of the Year for A-levels 2025
Tuition fees: £14,770-£18,490
Percentage of pupils gaining 9-8 (A*) in 2024: 83%
From the moment parents of prospective students walk through the Gothic-revival arch of Brighton College’s principal building, it’s clear that nothing has been left to chance
From the moment parents of prospective students walk through the Gothic-revival arch of Brighton College’s principal building, it’s clear that nothing has been left to chance.
They are greeted by front-of-house staff sporting suits with the school’s crest embroidered on their jacket pockets and matching blue and yellow waistcoats.
With the sort of courtesy normally associated with the concierge of a five-star hotel, they will then give their honoured visitors a guided tour of a school campus like no other.
First stop must be the £55million sports and science building, which opened in 2020, complete with a rooftop running track which has sea views.
This houses 18 university-standard laboratories, a cinema (officially known as the ‘auditorium’), a ‘strength and conditioning suite’ with parquet floor, a 25-metre heated indoor pool and double-height sports hall with basketball court and dance studio.
And you’ll find no chilly dormitories at Brighton College. Top London designers were hired to ensure that the ‘boarding facilities are a real home away from home’, with students limited to three beds per room and all sixth formers entitled to a single room.
New House, one of the girls’ boarding houses at this mixed school, was awarded a RIBA architectural prize and longlisted for the prestigious Stirling prize.
Naturally, the standard of teaching at this temple of learning is second to none, with 89 per cent of students achieving an A* or A at A-level in 2022.
But such sumptuous surroundings and high-octane tutoring comes at a price: just under £65,000 a year for a full sixth-form boarder to be precise.
If you are Year 13 in upper sixth-form, it will set you back £21,640 for full boarding, whereas day fees are £10,080. Boarding options are not available for year seven or year eight.
Oscar-winning actor George Sanders went to Brighton College. His performance as Addison DeWitt in All About Eve won him an Oscar and he starred in the film alongside Marilyn Monroe. He also voiced Shere Khan, the tiger in Disney’s The Jungle Book.
Westminster School, London
Winner of Independent Secondary School of the Year for GCSEs 2025
Tuition fees: £17,496
Percentage of pupils gaining 9-8 (A*) in 2024: 95%
Pupils at the school – which is known for concentrating on art and music – are urged to take music lessons or join choirs, and perform in concerts, plays or musicals
Westminster is one of the most expensive and elite schools in the country and alumni include composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, actress Helena Bonham Carter (pictured) and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg
Westminster is one of the most expensive and elite schools in the country and alumni include composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, actress Helena Bonham Carter and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
Pupils at the school – which is known for concentrating on art and music – are urged to take music lessons or join choirs, and perform in concerts, plays or musicals.
Established within the walls of Westminster Abbey, the school is all boys up until sixth form after allowing female pupils to first join around 50 years ago.
It is currently preparing to admit girls across all year groups for the first time in its near 500-year history, it was revealed in 2023.
It is hoped the plans to make the school, whose alma mater includes six former British prime ministers, fully co-educational will be implemented by 2030, it was reported.
A spokesman said at the time the school looks forward to ‘reaching the point at which we can make this significant change… enabling any child who would flourish here to be able to come, irrespective of gender’.
They added: ‘Co-education is based on demand – the number of parents, pupils, staff, alumni and interested outsiders asking about girls joining the school has grown year-on-year.
‘It is also based on a desire fully to reflect the community we serve, and to shape that community by educating brilliant young men and women with a commitment to making a difference.’
The change will apply to the under school, which takes boys from the age of seven, as well as the senior school, where pupils join from 13, according to The Daily Telegraph.
