Trying for Latymer Grammar

[solario]

DD's headteacher at our very good state primary said they thought DD would do really well at Latymer. We know she's academically strong but we hadn't given Latymer much serious consideration for a few reasons, mostly because we have excellent state secondaries nearby and DD wasn't that keen on travelling so far to school.

However, she has warmed up to the idea and we're planning to start preparing for the assessments at home. I'm sure many kids have been prepping for ages, so we're probably a bit behind in this, with just four months until the exams.

We definitely think it's worth working for but we don't want to hot house DD and make it a stressful experience. (Am I delusional?)

Is private tutoring really the only way to have a real shot at getting in?

Does anyone know how many kids make it into Latymer from state schools?

Hi @solario - my DS was accepted into Latymer Y7 for this September, from a state school. At least two other kids from our neighbourhood state schools are going too, so it must be pretty common.

The best way to judge whether your DD needs a tutor is to try her out on the sample tests. The English ones are on the Latymer website, and the maths & VR ones are here. You don't need the NVR.

I'd advise not timing her for the first go-round... let her do them in her own time and see how she finds them. If she scores well and says it was fun, you'll know it's worth pursuing, and you'll be able to identify any weak spots that require practice and/or a tutor. If she finds even doing a trial test at home unpleasant, or too difficult, then you may as well drop it.

Note that they have a catchment area, too. It covers most of NE London, but apparently no one ever gets in from out of catchment. The details are somewhere on their 'admissions' page - part of a download explaining the process.

Thanks, squiblet. That's all very helpful. We're definitely in catchment.

I printed the maths sample test last night and was going to have her give it a try at the weekend. We'll see how that goes and take it from there!

Did you end up getting your child tutored? There are so many services out there, I'm not sure where to even begin vetting them, if we do decide we want to go that route.

We didn't use a tutor in the end. DS is one of those kids who has been unknowingly prepping himself for this kind of school all his life - loves logic problems, chess, taught himself algebra, etc. That's just the kind of kid he is. But they're all different of course.

He did need serious help with the creative writing his score in the mock exam was something like 13% but DP and I were able to supply that. If you find you need resources in that area, DM me later!

Not sure about the different services but you could have a skim through the forums at elevenplusexams.co.uk.

Another thing that really helped, after he'd done some prep, was booking a mock test at the school itself. So the real test, when it happened, was in a familiar environment. (we weren't able to do viewings due to Covid). We booked one with mocktestmasters.co.uk/ but there are probably others.

I know several children who have got in to Latymer from state schools - that certainly isn’t a bar. The families I know have found it helpful to have a private assessment at the beginning of the “journey” to identify areas for particular focus in the preparation process and, if you like, sense-check the school choice by giving an idea of where the child sits in the cohort. I’d be happy to PM you more on that if you’re interested.

My son will start latymer in September. He is very bright and is probably in the top couple of most academically able kids in his year. However his state primary was not very good at challenging him and did v little creative writing or challenging maths. We used a tutor because we both have very challenging jobs. A tutor may not be necessary but a significant amount of work on advanced math topics e.g basic algebra and word problems and creative writing practice will be needed if your child is at a state school. The competition is very fierce and if you are only starting now I would recommend a fairly intensive program of preparation. A heavy focus on comprehension of a range of challenging texts (particularly the classics) is important.

11plus forum website has some v useful resources

State schools don't prepare their kids for Latymer but plenty of state school kids do go there. I think you can find out what schools kids went there from on the FOI request page.

We started a bit later than this last year, trying out some test papers. It soon became clear that Dd1 had not covered quite a bit of the stuff that was on the Maths paper - but this was the middle of the first lockdown where her state school had very little provision. With managing homeschooling and both working, and DD not that motivated, we decided to get her a tutor for a few months. She ended up doing an hour a week with her from June to the exam at the start of October. I'd say the tutor was useful for teaching in more depth the bits she hadn't covered in Maths and giving her good techniques for improving her creative writing. She did well, but didn't get a place in the top 192 and is probably too far down the waiting list to end up there. So make sure you have good state options that you're happy with. Loads of kids have been tutored since Y4 so you are coming to it reasonably late even for a bright kid.

I know the school well.
The vast majority come from ordinary state primary schools. It's not a "posh" school at all.
The vast majority have also received some level of tutoring to help them prepare for the test.

All very helpful. Thanks so much.

We are carrying on with test prep and doing pretty well so far, so we shall see.