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Original poster

All about Latymer Upper 11+ preparation

33 replies

GentleMintCat · 13/01/2025 00:27

Dear all,
My DD is in year 5 and we are dreaming of Latymer Upper (yes, dreaming as using word aiming frightens me a bit). We love the school's ethos, teaching, community, innovative curriculum, inclusive bursary program that reflects on its community. My daughter loved the school and since she can't stop talking about it. Basically , she only wants that school and works so hard to get in.

I know that competition is fierce and chances are not high. For example, some very bright children who received offers from Godolphibn and St Paul's, City, didn't get through LU exam stage. One of my friends daughter, super bright and also well tutored, said LU exam was most difficult out of all the local schools. This makes me really nervous. Currently we are tutoring, but not sure if this is the right type, having feeling that it's more of a grammar school type of ruition, rather than LU which I know is highly focused on creative thinking and creative problem solving. During open day, they even said that they aren't interested in skillset, but how this skillset is applied to creative problem solveing.
So, please I want to hear everything that can be useful or potentially useful. Especially from parents who's children succeeded. Would love to get some tips, recommendations, tutor suggestions that have relevant LU exam experience. Also, if you could share some online resources, papers and platforms that are useful. Thank you! 🙏

OP posts:
Original poster
GentleMintCat · 15/01/2025 14:20

SamPoodle123 · 13/01/2025 07:45

@GentleMintCat that is amazing your dd is keen on Latymer. I would also consider other schools just in case and so she is not set up for disappointment. Yes, you are right in that sometimes the 11+ can be unpredictable and you might get into one and not the other.

My ds is in the middle of the 11+ and he said the Latymer test was the most difficult one, so we did not have much hope. But he passed to interview. We are hoping he gets an offer, as we really like the school.

My advice to you would be to sign up to Atom learning for at least the free trial and do the english/math mocks a few times to see what she scores. The scores will go up after a couple tries. But this will give you an idea of how much she needs to cover or prep. For Latymer Upper scores should be 120+ This should only be used as a sort of guidance, as the Latymer exam is on paper, so I would focus mainly on the paper exams. You can find plenty free ones online. But you can also buy some geared towards Latymer. And of course do the Latymer sample papers. We saved this for a month before the exam. Latymer is math, english and creative writing so work on those. Is your dd from state school or prep? The reason I ask is state school (my ds is at state) do not usually do enough creative writing. So you def need to go over it with her and/or put her in a CW workshop like yellow bird.

If you feel your tutor is not right, switch. Find one that has experience with Latymer...as they should have the past sample papers and know what sort of questions to ask.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. Congratulations to your DS and all the luck for the interview. Can you recommend any club/tutor for creative writing or for any that you think helped him. ExamPlus has some LU papers, wonder if they resemble the actual papers and if anyone used them.

OP posts:
Hatty999 · 13/01/2025 20:23

I would second the Manchester grammar papers and Atom learning. Also, writing focus- practice writing using great language. The exam papers plus were also good. I don't think my DS said that this school was any harder than ones like KGS and St George's. It was more in line with these and not as hard as Hampton.

W4mumoftwo · 13/01/2025 10:17

I agree with others maths are key, not just knowledge but speed. A tutor that teaches shortcut calculations to complex questions is vital as you will be saving minutes and it all adds up. Also in my experience, kids that have focussed on grammar school preparation have done well at LU too, as there is a multiple choice section on English. GL papers are useful, DS had a GL paper per week as homework in Year 5 and he got used to doing them, he was so confident with this format. You also need to ensure your tutor is structured and has a track record of success, we changed tutors half way through year 5 and it made all the difference. Best of luck, year 5 goes very quickly!

Wlondon14 · 13/01/2025 08:33

I would focus on the advanced maths. It seems the children who made it through to interview in my son’s year are very good at maths but not necessarily all-rounders. Manchester Grammar and exam paper plus have good practice paper. There are a lot of old sample latymer upper papers as well.

relaxrelaxrelax · 13/01/2025 08:18

I have a DC at LU and have been through the whole 11 plus a couple of times.
It's great that your DD is really keen on the school but I'd really try and play down the whole thing a bit and stress how many great schools there are where she can be happy etc. It's all a bit of a lottery at 11 plus anyway so try not to have firm favourites. She can always move for sixth form.
In terms of preparation, practice maths papers from lots of schools and focus on technique- moving on when get stuck in a question etc. We had a tutor but came from a state primary so they primarily used to practice exam technique with them.
One of my children always struggled with English comprehension so we focused quite a bit on that. The other had quite an outlandish imagination so we focused on not getting too ridiculous in the creative writing but still showing their personality....
Good luck- but stress to her that if she doesn't get in its probably not the right school for her etc etc

relaxrelaxrelax · 13/01/2025 08:03

Posted too soon!

relaxrelaxrelax · 13/01/2025 08:02

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

SamPoodle123 · 13/01/2025 07:45

@GentleMintCat that is amazing your dd is keen on Latymer. I would also consider other schools just in case and so she is not set up for disappointment. Yes, you are right in that sometimes the 11+ can be unpredictable and you might get into one and not the other.

My ds is in the middle of the 11+ and he said the Latymer test was the most difficult one, so we did not have much hope. But he passed to interview. We are hoping he gets an offer, as we really like the school.

My advice to you would be to sign up to Atom learning for at least the free trial and do the english/math mocks a few times to see what she scores. The scores will go up after a couple tries. But this will give you an idea of how much she needs to cover or prep. For Latymer Upper scores should be 120+ This should only be used as a sort of guidance, as the Latymer exam is on paper, so I would focus mainly on the paper exams. You can find plenty free ones online. But you can also buy some geared towards Latymer. And of course do the Latymer sample papers. We saved this for a month before the exam. Latymer is math, english and creative writing so work on those. Is your dd from state school or prep? The reason I ask is state school (my ds is at state) do not usually do enough creative writing. So you def need to go over it with her and/or put her in a CW workshop like yellow bird.

If you feel your tutor is not right, switch. Find one that has experience with Latymer...as they should have the past sample papers and know what sort of questions to ask.

Good luck!