Best Schools in and around Newcastle City Centre

The centre of Newcastle is a place of shops, offices and student halls rather than schools, so families living centrally look to the neighbourhoods that ring the core, above all Jesmond and the west end, where several of the region's best-known schools have sat for generations. This guide covers the independent schools and post-16 colleges within easy reach of the centre, and explains how state-school admissions work, so you know where to start whether you are choosing a first school or a sixth form.

The independent schools

Newcastle's independent sector is concentrated a short distance north and west of the centre. The Royal Grammar School on Eskdale Terrace in Jesmond is the best known, a co-educational day school for ages seven to eighteen with a long academic record and its own junior school on the same footprint; it is barely a mile from Haymarket and well served by the Metro. A few streets away on Tankerville Terrace, Newcastle High School for Girls, part of the Girls' Day School Trust, takes girls from nursery age through to the sixth form and is the city's principal girls' school.

Over in the west end, Dame Allan's Schools on Fowberry Crescent in Fenham run a distinctive model, teaching boys and girls in separate schools on a shared campus with a co-educational sixth form, from age three upward. Between them these three cover most of what parents look for in the independent sector, and all are within a couple of miles of the city centre by Metro or bus.

Sixth forms and colleges

For post-sixteen study the choice widens. Newcastle College, on the Rye Hill campus just off Scotswood Road at the western edge of the centre, is one of the largest further-education colleges in the country, offering vocational courses, apprenticeships and higher-education programmes across everything from engineering to the performing arts. On the neighbouring site, Newcastle Sixth Form College on Westmorland Road is a dedicated A-level college for students who want a traditional academic route in a campus setting rather than a school sixth form. Both are an easy walk or short Metro ride from the middle of town, which makes them a natural fit for students living centrally.

How state-school admissions work

State schools in Newcastle follow the standard two-tier pattern of primary followed by secondary, and places are allocated by Newcastle City Council rather than by the schools themselves. Applications for a reception or secondary place are made through the council's admissions process, with published deadlines in the autumn and winter for the following September, and offers are based on the council's oversubscription criteria, which usually give weight to distance from the school and to siblings already there. Because the immediate city centre has few schools of its own, families living centrally are often within the catchment of good primaries and secondaries in the surrounding wards, so it is worth checking the council's admissions pages and each school's most recent Ofsted report before you list your preferences.

Choosing a school

There is no single best school, only the best fit for a particular child, so the useful next steps are practical ones: book onto open days, read the latest Ofsted and, for the independents, the ISI inspection reports, and think hard about the daily journey, which in a Metro city can open up schools well beyond your own postcode. For the admissions timetable, catchment maps and the full list of state schools, start with Newcastle City Council; for the independent schools, contact each directly to arrange a visit and to ask about bursaries and assessment. Our council services listing points you to the right part of the council for admissions.