Latymer Grammar - how clever do you have to be?

Hi do you have any 11+ tutor recommendations you're willing to share details for, thank you.

Hi do you have any 11+ tutor recommendations you're willing to share details for, thank you.

@Stowickthevast That’s lovely to hear too.

Don’t get me wrong; if dd had tolerated the extra work for 11+ prep I’d have put her in for the exam! But as it turned out she ended up exactly where she needed to be. She’s had a happy time in her comprehensive and has a really wide group of friends. She wants to become a primary school HT - a tough career choice these days! - and go and live off-grid in a rural location, somewhere dark so she can enjoy her pastime (amateur astronomy). I cannot imagine that being her destination if she’d been hot-housed in our local STEM super selective!

@Cioccoholic my youngest dc is similar. Was never likely to get in to Latymer in Y6 as didn't have the concentration, but now is thriving at local good comp and will probably end up with similar grades to their sister.

"Not a disaster by any means; I’m just interested in the apparent mismatch between Latymer’s stellar outcomes vs. what Ofsted seems to think, as their obvious local ‘competitors’ (places like DAO and QE Boys) seem to get much more glowing reports - will be interesting to see if this remains the case under the new framework."

I think Latymer's context - especially location (Edmonton) and intake (social class) give it a different dimension. I think OFSTED has a bias and some inspectors seem to find it hard to give top ratings to schools which don't have attainment outcomes to compete with schools in places like Muswell Hill. Schools are often coming from such different places.

@Stowickthevast Thanks for the intel. Possibly needs a bit of a shake up under the new Head after years of the previous one - although I doubt that uniforms were the main issue (we were a pretty scruffy lot when I was there!)

@elkiedee Not a disaster by any means; I’m just interested in the apparent mismatch between Latymer’s stellar outcomes vs. what Ofsted seems to think, as their obvious local ‘competitors’ (places like DAO and QE Boys) seem to get much more glowing reports - will be interesting to see if this remains the case under the new framework.

I find it mildly depressing @Dido2010 that one of the priorities for end of Year 6 is developing a work ethic!

I think it is rather a good thing that Latymer isn’t driving kids so hard that they are all turning out grade 7+.

I notice they have a pretty good progress 8 score at around +0.7 , but other selectives can achieve above 1 (eg QE Boys).

Truly most kids need some coaching to sit 11+ so if you can’t do it yourself you need a tutor. I know kids who just did a few months of practice papers but it would be cruel to go in “cold”.

My bright dd goes to a good comprehensive with a progress 8 school above 1; she really didn’t want to practise for exams for our local super selectives and wouldn’t have passed. She had absolutely NO work ethic at age 11!

But now she is at end of y10, she is preparing for 11 GCSEs and she is expect a clutch of 9s, rest 8s and maybe drop to a 6 in English as she has an awful teacher for gcse. She has never had a tutor and a badge of pride for her is “doing it myself, not leaning on someone coaching me.”

I do feel sad that the “late bloomers” are often stuck when it comes to 11+ but if there’s no decent comprehensive alternative you probably need to tutor your kid to get into a grammar school, and then you can rely on the school to drag them up to scratch.

Kids who are not geniuses at age 11 can still be remarkably successful and happy without tutoring at secondary.

Hasn't OFSTED changed its ratings method after sad events a few years ago. While I'm not a fan of superselective education, surely getting Expected for somewhere like Latymer isn't bad, it would be unlikely to Exceed its reputation year on year...

They've got a new head @TempsPerdu - he joined a year ago so there has been a change in leadership, the previous one has been there for a long time. Not sure what he's actually done. He made a few noises about stricter uniforms but that seems to be it.

it's strange that they say they don't stretch the pupils under curriculum and learning when they get such consistently high grades. I guess it's harder to stretch higher achievers.

The previous time, they were told they had to improve their well-being so have now put lots of things in place to that end. The sixth form still got outstanding in the last one.

Just spotted that Latymer has just had a slightly underwhelming Ofsted (‘Strong’ in most categories but only ‘Expected’ for Curriculum and Learning, nothing rated ‘Exceptional’). It was also downgraded to ‘Good’ last time round, having consistently been ‘Outstanding’ when I attended and until fairly recently.

Wonder what’s going on there - coasting a little, perhaps, or is the school just not in favour at the moment with Ofsted? I think it is quite difficult to achieve an ‘Exceptional’ rating under the new framework, but a leafy comp and a previously failing but now much improved academy local to me have both achieved it in several categories.

I think that's pretty good though @Dido2010

I know when we were looking at other 6th forms, Woodhouse and LAET which are two of the most selective in the area, had lower stats than Latymer.

For an academically selective school, I really would not look at GCSE statistics. Instead I would consider what proportion achieve high A Level grades (A Star or A). I would also look at University Destinations: which subjects and at which universities?

For 2025, Latymer achieved 34% at A Star and 64% at A Star or A.

For universities: Economics at LSE requires AStarAA; English Lit at York requires AStarAB; Psychology at Durham requires AAA; and Maths at Cambridge requires two AStars, an A and two 1s at STEP 2 and STEP 3. In 2025, out of 192 leavers, 30 went to Cambridge or Oxford, 5 to Durham and 1 to LSE.

I have a child at Latymer who wasn't heavily tutored, we only started in about May of Y5. In terms of practice papers, as well as the past Latymer papers, they also did some past papers from other 11+ schools like City. She was at a pretty basic state school and definitely hadn't covered all the stuff in the Maths paper by the time she did the exam at the start of year 6. I don't think you have to be a genius but you do have to be quite focused.

On the grades, I think 84% 7-9 is pretty high. For context, pupils need to get a minimum of six 7s to stay on to A level and a minimum of 7 in their A level subjects. I believe there are a handful that miss this each year.

Some of the lower grades could be because of the set up. All children have to do a language and humanity at GCSE which obviously suits some more than others (though the results above are still pretty great). On the whole, it's a great school and while it may seem to have a STEM focus, there's great language teaching, amazing music and decent art and drama, regular concerts and school plays every year.

Hi @runningpram ! Some interesting responses so far!

I would prepare with a tutor as we did; I know many families which put a lot into music, drama, sport - so why not a bit into academics? A foundation of basic academic aptitude is important, but it's mainly about preparation. Sustained hard work counts in the end. Hardly anyone at such a school is actually a genius and your child's position sounds fine.

Whatever happens, your child will start Year 7 with confidence in English and Maths and, crucially, a work ethic. For us, 11 Plus was about hard work and ensuring recreational activity and time with family and community.

The point about STEM subjects is that now employers value these more; they also like Masters degrees more,by the way. And many jobs are with corporations with an international culture, which is more used to Managers and Leaders with STEM backgrounds, often supplemented by MBAs.

Anyhow, good luck with whatever you decide. Please PM me if you want a recommendation for a Tutor or just some more on what we did with our daughter.

My son goes to QE and I'd say the biggest misconception is that everyone is some kind of genius. Most people are bright, but hard work and being well-prepared matter just as much. A top 10% child with good preparation would certainly have a realistic chance.

Hi @AnotherMumHerex I’m currently preparing my daughter for the Latymer exams and trying to decide between several mock papers, including Exam Papers Plus. Would you be willing to share which mocks you ended up using?
Thanks so much!

Yes and no.. depends on the willingness of the kid to prepare for exams, especially during summer prior to test, their overall school performance should be significantly above average throughout the school years (so naturally bright), and how they feel on the day. I would say all three points are strongly correlated with the chance of getting the offer.

She’s at a girls’ prep school, and after the exam all they said was that their maths teacher had covered everything came up in the Latymer exam. The mock test papers were much harder than the real exam, no algebra, and not many lengthy or multi steps problem solving questions. But it’s still harder than Atom.

Wondering about the benefits of grammar school vs being at a good comprehensive which has sets.

Unfortunately some children experience issues which disrupt their educations, for example medical problems or divorce or death in the family.

But I think it's more that the entrance criteria are fairly STEM biased and these children may simply not be interested or care much about other subjects. The breakdown of their GCSE scores shows 96% 9-7s in Maths, 87-90% in the Sciences, 77-81% in English, and 65-72% in Art & Drama, although my guess is that relatively few students take the last two subjects.

Just wanted to share our experience in case it’s helpful. My DD didn’t have any tutoring, but I bought a large set of Latymer mock exam papers.

During the 8 weeks summer holiday, for the first few weeks on weekdays she did Maths/VR one day and English comprehension/writing the next. I helped her review mistakes and made sure she understood them, then we kept weekends relaxed and took a full week off for a holiday.

In the final three weeks before the exam, we increased the intensity: Maths/VR in the morning and English in the afternoon. With the help of chatGPT, I analysed her weak areas, created short targeted exercises, and put together a 7-day writing improvement plan.

Her Rank 1 and 2 results were very encouraging, and she also secured a music place. My point is that with some parental support, especially helping children avoid repeating the same mistakes in Maths and VR, it is possible to succeed without tutoring.

You know your child’s pace, strengths and weaknesses best, and a more focused, tailored approach can sometimes be more effective than hiring a tutor who doesn’t yet know your child well.

In some cases, children are extensively tutored to get through the tests but unless that continues for the next 5 years, they are not able to excel going forward. Some parents see getting in at any cost to be the goal, but a bright y4/5/6 child is not necessarily an equally as bright y10/11. My own child was top group in primary but very average in secondary school.

Many recent cohorts are also quite boy-heavy (up to 70:30 in some years) which again might be influencing this.