The Latymer School v City School for Boys

[DB98]

My son's been offered school places and we've narrowed it down to City or The Latymer School. Does anyone have experience of either of these schools or has anyone taken a similar decision and have any comments?

We had the same decision to make last year and chose City. DS is having a brilliant time so we are happy with our choice but suspect that he would be equally happy at Latymer.

The deciding factor for me was the journey - city is a quicker and easier journey - and I think that is an important consideration. What I didn't't think about was the length of the school day, city finish at 4, so it still feels like quite a long day for him. I don't remember what time the Latymer day finishes, is it 3.30?

My DS is quite sporty and the sport seems much better at city than we'd anticipated. He does cricket, football and water polo after/ before school which he loves but makes the days even longer. There seems to be a good mix of lots of different types of boys and he's made friends quickly and easily, and can be quite shy so that is a relief.

A point against city for our family is that now I feel that we have to educate his younger brother privately too. He is less academic and won't have the same choice. We have a good local secondary where I think ds2 would be happy but don't feel it's fair to send him there now.

Good luck with your decision!

Thanks for your feedback NotAPenguin.

Where does your son travel in from? Did any of his friends go to Latymer and what is their experience of the journey and the school?

When you compared schools did you take into account the culture? I would imagine they produce pretty different boys - do the City boys seem like regular kids?

We live in Islington so city is very accessible via a variety of bus routes, Latymer would have been a tube and a train.

None of his friends went to Latymer but have 2 friends with older boys there who are very happy with it.

The city boys do seem like regular kids, quite a few on the quirky/nerdy side which is fine by me. They are generally quite scruffy looking which I also like! We have some older city boys who babysit for us and they are super confident, in a very nice and polite way, though I'm slightly intimidated by them.

Single sex vs mixed is something to consider. My DS is not at all interested in girls and don't think he will be for a while, I think there is a risk that he will be too scared to talk to girls by the time he wants to.