Published October 2026 · Written by the Mission Realty Team
Families who choose a private school often ask the same follow-up question: which neighborhoods are a short drive from the campus? There is no single dataset that answers that, so this guide does not pretend to have one. It sticks to what you can check yourself: each school’s own campus address, the grades its own website says it serves, and the roads and drive times its own directions page names. Where a school’s site says nothing, for example about buses, this guide says so instead of guessing.
How to use this guide
The schools below are grouped by the area around each campus and run roughly from the west side of the city out toward the counties. That order is geographic, not a ranking, and nothing here speaks to quality or admissions. Three rules make the rest of the guide easier to use.
Rule 1: private schools do not use attendance zones. A private school admits students through its own process, so living across the street from a campus gives you no admission advantage and living far away gives you no disadvantage. This guide is about drive time and daily logistics only.
Rule 2: your public school assignment is a separate question. It is set by your exact address and your school division: Richmond Public Schools, Henrico County Public Schools or Chesterfield County Public Schools. The last section explains how to confirm it.
Rule 3: ZIP codes and mailing addresses are not jurisdiction lines. At least one campus below carries a Richmond mailing address while sitting in a county, and the line decides which school division and which tax bill apply to a home. Check the jurisdiction of any house you tour.
Mooreland Road and North Parham Road: Collegiate School and The Richmond Montessori School
Collegiate School lists its campus at 103 N. Mooreland Road, Richmond, VA 23229, and describes itself as a private junior kindergarten through grade 12 day school. Its own history page places the 1960 campus off River Road and Mooreland Road. The same page describes a second campus in Goochland County, bought as 156 acres in 1999 and renamed the Robins Campus in 2008, with athletic facilities. The page does not mention bus service.
The Richmond Montessori School lists one campus at 499 N. Parham Road, Henrico, VA 23229, and serves toddlers through eighth grade according to its site. It does not state transportation. Because both campuses share the 23229 ZIP code, the nearest community page on this site for the surrounding area is Tuckahoe, within Henrico County. Note the difference in how the two addresses are written: Montessori lists Henrico, Collegiate lists Richmond. Confirm the jurisdiction line for any home you consider.
St. Christopher’s Road: St. Christopher’s School and the nearby city neighborhoods
St. Christopher’s School lists its address as 711 St. Christopher’s Road, Richmond, VA 23226, and says it serves about 1,000 boys in junior kindergarten through grade 12. The page lists Extended Day and Afternoon Enrichment programs, but it does not state day-school status in so many words and does not mention buses, so ask the school about both. The community pages closest to that address on this site are Westhampton, Windsor Farms and Near West End, all part of the City of Richmond hub.
Open the address on a map and measure the route you would drive on a school morning before you decide a home is close enough. Mileage on a map and minutes in traffic are different numbers.
Want a saved search for these campus areas?
We will set up a saved search in the areas named in this guide, Tuckahoe, Westhampton, Windsor Farms, Near West End, Short Pump, Goochland, Bon Air and Midlothian, so new listings reach you as they appear. You choose your own filters.
Gayton Road: Steward School and western Henrico
The Steward School lists its campus at 11600 Gayton Road, Richmond, VA 23238, and its own site says it offers a curriculum from junior kindergarten through twelfth grade. Its directions page calls the campus part of Richmond’s west end, about 10 minutes from Short Pump, 15 to 20 minutes from Midlothian and 30 minutes from the Fan or downtown. It also names Gaskins Road, Quioccasin Road, Patterson Avenue and Pump Road as approaches. The site links a parking and carpool map and does not describe bus service.
The community pages to start with are Short Pump, which the school itself uses as a reference point, and Tuckahoe. If you are comparing these against the Mooreland Road area above, the useful test is the same: drive it at drop-off time.
River Road in Goochland County: Benedictine College Preparatory
Benedictine College Preparatory lists its address as 12829 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238, and describes itself as an independent Catholic college-preparatory day school for young men in grades 9 through 12. The mailing address says Richmond, but Richmond BizSense reports the 50-acre campus is in Goochland County, and that the Goochland County Board of Supervisors approved a conditional use permit on Aug. 5, 2025 raising the campus occupancy limit from 935 to 1,500 people. The school’s own page does not state transportation.
That county detail matters for your public school plan. A home near this campus may sit in Goochland, and Goochland County has its own school division, separate from Henrico, Chesterfield and the city. Our Goochland County page is the place to browse that side of the river.
Pittaway Drive: Trinity Episcopal School and the Chesterfield side
Trinity Episcopal School lists its campus at 3850 Pittaway Drive, Richmond, VA 23235, and calls itself an independent, coeducational day school for grades 8 through 12. Its directions page routes drivers along Cherokee Road for 2.7 miles to Pittaway Drive, and gives landmark distances: 4.5 miles to River Road Shopping Center, 6.4 miles to Sycamore Square and 17.4 miles to Short Pump Town Center. It does not mention buses.
On this site the nearest community pages are Bon Air and Midlothian, both under the Chesterfield County hub. Trinity’s own directions do not name the county, so verify the jurisdiction line on any home.
What a private school address does not decide: your public school zone
Everything above is about commuting to a campus. None of it changes the public school your address is assigned to, and none of it creates a preference at a private school. Public assignment depends on your exact address inside Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield or whichever division you land in, and divisions revise boundaries from time to time. For the public side of the question, our guides to neighborhoods with the shortest school bus rides and neighborhoods zoned for the newest school buildings are the companion reading.
Verify the public school zone before you buy
Do this for every home you are serious about, in this order. First, confirm the jurisdiction: city, Henrico, Chesterfield, Goochland or another county. Second, use the division’s own tool. Henrico publishes an assignment locator that shows the schools tied to an address, and says its results are a guide, with official answers coming from its boundaries team. Chesterfield links a school attendance map from its schools page, and Richmond Public Schools offers a school directory and map for finding a zone. Third, ask the division to confirm the assignment in writing before your inspection period ends, and ask whether any boundary review is under way.
If you are weighing a move for a growing household, our growing-families guide pairs well with this one, and our buy with us page explains how we work with buyers. If financing is part of the plan, our preferred lenders page lists the lenders we work with.
Frequently asked questions
Can I find out whether a school runs buses before I pick a neighborhood?
Not from the pages I read for this guide. None of the six school pages stated bus service, and Steward publishes a parking and carpool map instead. Ask each admissions office directly what transportation exists for the specific address you are considering, and ask for the answer in writing. If you are comparing public bus rides, our guide to which Richmond-area neighborhoods have the shortest school bus rides covers that separate question.
What if one child attends a private school and another attends a public school?
Then you are solving two problems with two different rules. The private campus decides on its own process, and the public school is assigned by your exact address. Pick the address by confirming the public assignment first, then test the drive to the private campus at drop-off time. Our guide to neighborhoods for growing families walks through how families weigh several moving parts at once.
Is a shorter drive to campus worth choosing over a better commute for the working parent?
That is a household decision, but you can test it with facts. Steward’s directions page gives drive times from its campus to Short Pump, Midlothian and the Fan or downtown. Trinity’s directions page gives mileage from several shopping centers. Drive your real route at your real hours, in both directions, before you make an offer. A route that looks short on a map can include a bridge, a toll road or a school-zone slowdown.
Why are some well-known private schools missing from this list?
This guide only includes schools whose own websites I could open and read for the facts above. A school left out is not a comment on it. If a campus you care about is missing, check its own address page, then ask us to include its surrounding area in your saved search.
Can attendance zones change after I buy?
Yes, public school divisions can revise boundaries, and Henrico notes that its locator results are a guide and that official assignments come from its boundaries team. If a particular school matters to your decision, ask the division for the current assignment in writing and check its website for any boundary review under way. Private campuses do not use zones, so this risk applies to the public side of your plan.
Does a teenager have different options than a younger child?
Often yes, because grade ranges differ. Trinity serves grades 8 through 12 and Benedictine serves grades 9 through 12 according to their own sites, while Steward and Collegiate list junior kindergarten through grade 12. Our guides for families with teenagers and families with toddlers cover the neighborhood side of those stages.
What should I ask a private school’s office before I choose a neighborhood?
Ask five things: what transportation exists for your address, what the Extended Day or after-school hours are, which campus a child uses for athletics, how the morning drop-off line works, and whether the school can tell you anything about the route you plan to drive. The second-campus question is real: Collegiate’s history page describes an athletics campus in Goochland County, separate from its Mooreland Road address.
Ready to search the campus areas in this guide?
Set up a saved search for Tuckahoe, Westhampton, Windsor Farms, Near West End, Short Pump, Goochland, Bon Air and Midlothian, and new listings in those areas come to you automatically.
