Latymer Upper or Dulwich College?

[Fenaa]

Latymer Upper or Dulwich College? Which school to choose?

DC is fantastic, so unless you live very near LU, I’d go for Dulwich. Does your DS have sisters? Live for football?

It takes me the same amount of time to travel to LU and DC. No siblings. Sport is at a high level in both schools.

Does anyone have any children in these schools?

Dulwich has more sports available as taught, and the best facilities of any school in London (eg used as training grounds for both cricket and rugby when world cups are in town, do any other schools have the double?). National schools champions in several sports in recent years.

They have golf and riding, which is not commonly offered in London (the Foundation owns the land of the golf course and the stables). Plus of course they simply have lots of space

But the big difference when choosing between these two is whether you want single sex or co-ed

They are a great distance apart,
and completely different. What does your child think about coeducational vs. single sex education? www.londonpreprep.com/rankings/
Not sure if small differences in exam results matter to you, but LU is always ahead of Dulwich in league tables, and perceived as more academic (and harder to get in to). What does your child want?

what does your gut say over co-ed or single sex?

Wrong thread!!

I'll report it

LU is very similar in the league tables to Alleyns, the co-ed one of the Foundation schools. Aim off for the presence of girls being the thing that makes the difference to overall school performance - JAGS is always higher than Alleyns, which is always higher than Dulwich College.

But the top sets at Dulwich Collge come out with strings of A*/A, and there's no reason to think a boy would not reach his full academic potential there.

Aside from the big question of co-ed or single sex, you are looking at small,differences between two very good schools. And are in the very lucky position that there is no wrong answer.

So I'd now be looking at convenience/reliability of journey (not just time required) - also whether there's a school coach service for either from where you are, as that's useful if public transport doesn't link up well.

And, crucially, where your boy 'sees' himself

I have a DS at LU. Very happy there - in Year 7 so all a bit of a strange first year!
Know happy boys at Dulwich as well.
But very different schools in terms of campus, location, DC has acres of land, location of most families, public transport v school buses etc. As well as the co-Ed, single sex.

Thank you very much for your comments and I am asking for more :) The difference between a school for boys and a co-educational one is obvious. One of the questions bothering me is whether it is better to decide on a school with better exams results (LU) , or with a better infrastructure (DC) ?

I don’t think there’s a right answer! Have you been able to visit either? Gut feel?
We turned down another school with a big campus but LU felt a better fit for DS.
Where do you live, which is the easiest journey etc?

Hi 2atschool,
Could I talk to you on priv? I would love to know more details. Thank You.

You need to be sure whether or not the better exam results are the consequence of being coed (hence my comments at length about how the Foundation schools feature in tables)

The differences between A level grades are not large, so I tend to see it as a result of being coed. You may know differently.

The next factors, to me are reliability/convenience of journey and where the potential pupil most 'sees' himself.

Infrastructure matters less once you are happy that the school has everything you want, and that not much is on satellite sites (Dulwich is clearly further to its boathouse, for example)

@Fenaa

Hi 2atschool, Could I talk to you on priv? I would love to know more details. Thank You.

Sure

The results of the recent GCSE (2019) exams in DC are quite strange. In 2019, they recorded a result lower than 20% A / A * than in 2018. For obvious reasons, they do not provide the results from 2020.
BTW The number of DC alumni admitted to Oxbridge remains high and very close to LU.

This is a new email address created just for this conversation. Sorry, I'm new here. How do I send a priv message via mumsnet?

I found:)

One friend mum’s son is very happy about DC- his mum too, especially their future results are also good.
Other friend mum’s son is happy about LU but she is concerned about GCSE and A level because they don’t push study much for Y7&8.
So it depends on what you and your DS focus- in addition to coed/boys and distance.

Good luck.

Hanahanna, Thank You:)

I just had a quick look at DC results- didn't realise it was so big! 215 in a year!

What do you mean by 215?

215 in a year group