Highgate vs Latymer 7+

[7parent]

Hi all,

Apologies for another school comparison thread! We are a little bit confused, and would greatly appreciate your help.

DD has 7+ offers from Highgate, SHHS and Latymer.

We have ruled out SHHS, primarily because we prefer a larger school. At the margin, we prefer Co-ed as well. That narrows us down to Highgate vs. Latymer.

Frankly speaking both schools look very impressive to us - with Highgate perhaps sneaking ahead a tiny bit in terms of academic grades etc (do correct me if I am wrong on this).

We personally know parents at Highgate, who speak very highly of the school. But, we do not know anyone whose kids go to Latymer for first hand experiences. Location wise, we are planning to re-locate, therefore it is a non-issue.

With this in mind, we were hoping to have information on either school regarding:

a) Ethnic diversity: We are a mixed race family, and would prefer a multi-cultural school. We have heard Highgate used to have a diversity issue. Is that true and if so has the recent intake been more mixed? Also is Latymer more multi-cultural?

b) Wealth diversity: Highgate used to have a reputation for being dominated with super wealthy celeb families. Is that really the case, even recently? And again, is this the case for Latymer?

c) Culture: Both schools were named in the Everyone’s Invited scandal (Highgate perhaps a bit more so than Latymer). We did ask both schools, and as one would expect, they mentioned that measures have been put in place to make sure it is a safe environment for girls. Would be keen to know if this is still the case?

Much appreciate any help!

@7parent , I would re-post in secondary education, there are plenty of Latymer parents in that section of MN.

there is thread currently running on secondary talk that addresses some of your questions.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4994966-highgate-school-culture

DC had an offer from highgate at 7+ a few years ago.. Loved the Junior school building - an architectural jewel - and liked the junior school. On more recent inspection, didn't really like the senior school so not sorry overall that we went elsewhere.
As for Latymer (senior), looked at it recently - liked the atmosphere there but the lack of green space and grittier area are downsides. Latymer is probably slightly more diverse - they've a big bursary programme and also a very international clientele. Assume you know they are ditching GCSEs.
Academic differences as a whole are fairly marginal. Go with what would suit your child.

Hello,

My DS started Highgate this year (after passing the 7+ entrance exam) and I can say that it is very multicultural. With regards to the wealth, I'd say most of the families are working parents and down to earth. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many kids' previous school were state schools and not private preparatory schools.
I hope this help

Thx for starting this thread. DC has 7+ offers from Highgate, City and is on the reserve list for Latymer.
@zippynotbungle - what were your concerns about the senior school following a recent visit? Highgate is not offering a visit to the senior school and would appreciate your thoughts.
@Frenchmum10 - great to hear about the diversity at Highgate Junior, it's also one of our concerns. May I please know where most students are travelling to school from (assuming that they do)? We're evaluating relocation options and it feels like options are potentially wider at Latymer. We're close to City.
Thx!

Hi everyone, firstly thank you for your responses - has been super useful.

FWIW, I had the opportunity to speak to a few more parents with DCs at Highgate that I thought might be worthwhile sharing, and would love feedback.

Overall, the junior school is excellent. Moreover, the Ethnic & Wealth diversity issues are non-issues as suggested by @Frenchmum10 above, and the Cultural problems, after some initial resistance from the school, saw several measures being put in place.

The issues pointed out were more for the Senior School where:
A) Facilities - are not as good as the junior school. At the same time, there is further investment being put in place - I wonder if this helps resolve this?
B) The Head - the feedback has been quite poor (apparently most parents hope that he retires/ leaves quickly)
C) Pastoral Care - my perspective was that Highgate was better than the others at this, but the feedback on this for the Senior School has been quite mixed.

Would love any thoughts on this, thank you in advance!

There are some bus organised by the school. You can see on the link where it goes (I think they adapt slightly the routes every year depending on the proximity of their pupils):
https://www.highgateschool.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Michaelmas-Term-2023-Bus-Timetables.pdf

I forgot to mention that the buses are available only for the Junior and Senior school students, not for the pre-prep ones.

congratulations! @7parent @Frenchmum10 @zippynotbungle @FY44 Did you tutor your children? We are looking for a tutor as i am thinking of the 7+ for my son. Thank you in advance!

We didn't as our DS was in a prep-school that already prepared the kids and gave a lot of homework (they advised the parents against adding a tutor to the equation.) However we've heard some parents hired tutors anyway (personally I think that my child didn't need the extra pressure).
With regards to the students who came from state schools, I spoke with some parents and they confirmed they hired a tutor to prepare for the 7+ as the school obviously doesn't prepare them for this.
From what I gathered, the schools are taking into accounts if the child comes from a prep-school and is heavily trained vs the one who comes from state school and isn't as prepped but shows potential and is keen to learn.
Hope this helps

Thank you. Appreciate a response. I think we will need a tutor as our school does not prepare for 7+ and i will feel more comfortable having someone guide us as to how to approach questions etc. If anyone has any leads please let me know.

Good luck preparing the assessments!

Both schools (Latymer and HIghgate) are ethnically and socially diverse (as diverse as private schools can be!). The majority of kids come from normal middle-class families. Highgate takes a lot of children from a diverse range of state schools now (middle-class type schools and also state schools in deprived areas, N.B. majority are heavily tutored though), the geographical spread of Highgate families is getting big (thats the reason they run the ballot at 4+), kids are coming from all over: north, NW and central London.
The harassment issues raised by Everone Invited are widespread and other schools are impacted much worse than those three schools (Highgate, Latymer and Allyens) but other schools didnt make the headlines, as the website removed an option to name the schools quite quickly. Don't underestimate how girls from single-sex schools are impacted as well when they socialize with boys outside the schools but then they have limited pastoral support from their current school as those incidents involve boys from other schools. From my experience it's much better when the incidents involve children from the same school, as kids know where to turn to.

IMHO Highate has done decent work to revamp its pastoral care, and they have a very structured anti-bullying and anti-harassment policy in place, they do take particular care of how boys treat the girls, and all incidents involving B and G are taken seriously, it's important to note some mum of boys even find the policy being too rigid and strict in places.

Saying that it's a (very) large co-ed school so things wont be smooth and some bullying accidents are more complicated than the others and being solved at varying degrees of speed and success.

also importantly, Highgate wasn't as selective before and few kids in junior/senior school came from old 3+ intake which they no longer do (they used to assess kids at 2+ so it was a random choice of candidates). You may not experience this as those kids will graduate by the time you get into senior and as the school getting more selective quality of the intake will gradually improve. Current 7+ and 11+ intakes have very high behavioral and academic standards.

Congratulations both schools are great! Id go with proximity, if the distance is not an issue then I'd vote for Highgate. The pastoral care department (in both junior and senior departments) is well-organized and well-staffed with trained professionals. The school is big on well-being. They get kids with different personalities on board (geeky type, shouty, alpha, arty, sporty, quiet, shy, timid etc.)

The school is excellently beating stereotypes and promotes gender equality/ integration in sports and activities. The STEM department and quality of teaching is great in Highgate and girls' take up of STEM subjects at GSCE and A levels is good too (of course this varies from year to year depending on the intake and their interests).

A few things to note: I'd echo the previous poster's comments that few pupils in each year groups from 3+ and 4+ intakes they had in the past can be disruptive but they are doing well to bring everyone up to the standard (academically and behaviorally). Latymer may have less of this issue as they dont have 3+ and 4+ intakes. Again this may not even apply to you as they become more selective in the last few years at all entry points.

Sibling policy. almost none. its not unheard of to get offers from other highly selective schools and not get one from Highgate.

@7parent SHHS seems to have lost its shine for many. Lots of building works about to commence and a new head plus not such good results.

We are lucky enough to have 3 offers - SHHS, City and Habs. We’re pretty sure we will go with City - thoughts welcome!

@Melabela10 @Tiredmumofthreekids thx for flagging the past 3+ admissions at Highgate. Wasn't aware of it, but agree that it should be limited impact for kids entering Year 3 in Sep 24.
for those interested, Highgate’s last 3+ was Sept 2020 and its first 4+ entry was Sept 2021.

@2024jjj We didn't consider Habs, but we really like City too. Diverse and down-to-earth student body and families, great ethos, junior and senior (CLS) heads came across very well, academic while still offering lots of co-curricular activities. Commute would be great for us too. Main downside for us is the single-sex senior school - so we're still weighing on this point.

Flagging these just in case, but you may already be aware of these recent threads on City Junior School (Link 1, Link 2)

Your DD has an offer from St Paul's? SPGS? At 7+?

@user149799568 , I think they mean St Paul's cathedral school.

I had a DD at Highgate senior school (she is now at uni and did not go to the prep so my comments may be less relevant). However, i thought it worth commenting on the points on the senior school. This may be a little out of date, but by the time your DC gets there even comments from current senior school parents will be out of date.

My DD is very sociable with friends at other North London and central schools (Latymer too far west for my knowledge I'm afraid) and my other DC was at a different school - single sex) so i have made a few comparative comments, some direct experience some purely anecdotal to be taken with a pinch of salt.

1. i would say the school is less culturally diverse than the North London single sex schools (in which I include CLS and CLSG which have a lot of N London pupils) but the cultural diversity has been increasing as its academic reputation has been increasing and I don't think it is far off kilter from the cultural diversity in its main "catchment" areas.
2. There are definitely a lot of very wealthy parents but there is a range with bursaries etc and i think it is pretty much on a par with most of the private schools in the area apart from CLS and CLSG which do seem to have more of a grammar school vibe in terms of pupil background (more economically diverse but with obvious limits!). Again, as the school's academic reputation has been increasing i think the student diversity has been increasing (within the general limits of a private school!)
3. DD was there during the everyone's invited period. Highgate did get more publicity on this than some other schools. I think this was in large part due to the fact that the girls at the school staged a walk-out which got a lot of coverage. The walk out was because of the school's initial response. Fair play to the girls and could in some sense be viewed as a positive, that the school produces strong women. TBF the school's initial email was far from perfect but in my view it was not actually that different from the email sent by UCS (which has girls in sixth firm - DD's then bf showed it to us) but the UCS email was apparently well received by the girls there (and to be fair it was better just not as much better as the difference in reaction would suggest). The school perceived to have had the worst response was an all boys school which very much focused on the poor boys possibly being wrongly accused. DD and her friends said the boys at that school had the worst reputation socially. No slight on any particular boys - all anecdotal.
4. The initial negative reaction did result in a full review and a more detailed response than at other schools and i think means it now take this very seriously.
5. The school is huge. Maybe not for everyone.
6. It has definitely been on a massive upwards trajectory academically. In the scheme of things it is not that long since it was an all boys "nice but dim" school. Going co-ed improved the results and they have just continued to go upwards. I know lots of example of children getting into Westminster/NLCS/CLG etc but not getting offers from Highgate in recent years.
7. When DD joined its policy was to admit all children from the junior school into the senior school and not to weed them out like some schools with preps do. It said that was the right thing by its junior school pupils even though it had a drag on results. I thought that was a real positive. But would be interested to know if that is still the policy given the upwards trend in its results.

Overall DD loved the school and we were also very happy with it.

I still have a very similar question. Does your DD already have offers from NLCS and SHHS at 11+?

H! our DS has got 7+ offers from Highgate & City & UCS with waitlist in Latymer.. Need to choose by next Wed. Given highgate boys' "anecdotal" sitution you've been mentioning here. I think not choosing Highgate for a boy at this stage would be better? Assuming academically all the schools are equally good?
Thanks

I thought @WineThirty meant that her DD and friend thought that generally boys from some other single sex boys school had bad reputation, however they further clarified that the girls didnt know any unpleasant boys personally from that school, it was all hearsay, i.e., "anecdotal". I wonder which school you refer to? I remember UCS boys had a bit of reputation back in those days but UCS is changing now too....

@happyds442 none of those three schools will disadvantage a boy, they all have high behavioural standards that your DC will be required to meet. consider logistics and chose whichever school is closer unless you particularly keen on co-ed all the way (then of course get Highgate).

@WineThirty thanks for an overview, its indeed interesting to see how the school evolved over time. It's still an automatic transfer to senior. i think as they ditched 3+ and got more selective with their 4+ and 7+ intakes majority of kids find the transfer ok.

Thanks, i agree @happyds442 has misunderstood parts of my previous post. Overall the fact more was heard about Highgate was not because the boys are worse but because they have kick ass girls who made a protest which caused Highgate to take more action than was taken at other schools which is actually a good thing for Highgate in the long term.

The all boys schools did not need to react in the same way and focussed more on protecting the boys from accusations than helping them in interacting with girls.

So i would much rather send a child (girl or boy) to Highgate which has postively had to deal with the situation than send a boy to one of the all boys schools which did not - my DD would say the boys at single sex schools have a worse reputation.

Also, i do not see UCS as a single sex school for this purpose - it has girls in 6th form and was seen as having dealt with the situation better than most.

I dont wish to name specific schools because it is not fair on the individual boys at those schools, but if you want to take anything from my post it is that if you are worried abot the everyone's invited stuff, there are schools which i would be much more worried about than Highgate (or UCS).