Latymer School, Edmonton

[christinarossetti]

So my eldest child is now in KS2, so the worrying about secondary school begins...

I know it's a hard question, but does anyone know 'how bright' a child needs to be to obtain a place at Latymer? Dd is certainly very bright, but not genius. Solid all-rounder, but especially strong in literacy.

Good L3s at the end of KS1 if that's any sort of indication.

Anyone any idea how many children apply for the 186 places, for example?

TIA

This year it was 1900 I think and in the end they offer to around the top 300.

My ds didn't get in but did quite well. We only started doing the CEM a week before - lots of people really concentrate on this and do courses, mocks etc. That would have gained him a few marks, I suppose (we weren't completely sold on the school because of the dreadful journey so didn't go all out). The other way he lost marks was because he found the exam day horrific. He had to be there at 8 which meant leaving at 7 or so, there were 1000s of kids pushed into a big hall with all the instructions given out pre-recorded. It was pretty dehumanising.

My boy is very young and not tough so loads of other children would be fine, but he spent the whole of the second paper weeping.

I do think you have to bright and well-trained. Being good at maths seems to be little advantage, but having a huge vocabulary (knowing the difference between while and wile, for example) is. However, I don't think you need to be a genius. The children I know who've got in are generally bright rather than geniuses. They're also really happy there, it seems like a great school (but with the disadvantage of a very scattered school population).

DS1 goes to Latymer - he's naturally bright and we did LOTS of practice papers. It seems that there is more of a focus on English to get into the school (not just on maths and verbal / non-verbal reasoning). I didn't even want DS2 to sit the entrance exam, because bright though he undoubtedly is, he doesn't have the necessary level of vocab / general knowledge and he's thriving at our local comp.

For what it's worth, the school is really good at churning out kids with great grades, but the pastoral care isn't great. My son has never really been happy there and had a huge issue with bullying in year 8 that was dealt with really badly.

Thanks, both. My friend's son went there years ago when it wasn't as competitive to get into (he's in his 20s now), and loved it, but he's a very grounded, outgoing, confident person who would have been fine anywhere.

I'm sorry to hear about your son, smoothie. Hope that he's a bit happier now.

Thanks christina - he's in year 11 and has GCSEs this year. He's expected to do well but I've applied for him to join the 6th form of DS2's school so even if he gets the requisite 6 grade A's, he has a choice in where he goes.

Good luck in getting the school of your choice for eldest DC!