Harrodian

If you have a child who is happiest when they have room to be themselves, the Harrodian School is the sort of place that tends to win parents over on the first visit. It sits on a 25-acre riverside estate in Barnes, south-west London, on a site that was once the sports club for Harrods staff. Sir Alford and Lady Houstoun-Boswall bought the grounds and founded the school in 1993, and it has grown into a co-educational school taking children from age four right through to the sixth form. The Good Schools Guide sums it up neatly: it "may look like something out of 19th century literature" but is "up-to-the-minute modern in terms of ethos, facilities and the values that the 21st century demands."

That mix of period charm and open, modern outlook runs through the place. Children are encouraged to take part, to ask questions and to express themselves, in what the Guide calls a busy and exceptionally beautiful setting. The grounds give it a real sense of space, with most sport played on site, including an outdoor pool used for about half the year. The pupil body is unusually international, with roots in roughly 38 countries, and parents tend to single out the friendly, settled feel as the school's defining quality.

Harrodian suits a child who will enjoy a wide, creative curriculum and the freedom to follow their own interests, in a school that prizes happiness as much as results. It has been led since 1999 by headmaster James Hooke. For many families that long-running stability is the reassurance they are after, the sense of a school that knows exactly who it is and lets each child grow into their own version of it.