Latymer Upper, Godolphin and CLSG

[Margot2017]

We are trying to decide between these schools (which we feel are all quite different). Our first choice is G&L, whereas our daughter was uninspired by her tours there and seems quite attracted to LU (very dynamic, but massive and we note that it doesn’t perform as well on average in A levels and GCSEs). We are also wavering between G&L and CLSG - unsure which is a better all around choice for a girl with a strong interest in STEM subjects, but who would also like to play sport and be at a school with a good community. Any thoughts from parents with girls at these schools would be greatly appreciated, as we are quickly running out of time to make a decision.

I just typed a long reply and then lost it!
It isn’t a big deal at all- I have a DS but it’s not important. Would happily send my DD there! I also have a couple of nieces there.
I suspect those who think it’s a den of iniquity probably only have daughters at all girl preps. Those of us with sons and daughters realise that they’re not necessarily all that different.

Anyway- happy with the school. Other schools are available…!
if you child is going to want sec, drugs and rock and roll they’ll find it wherever they go!

Over and out…

Final point- most parents seem quite normal…none of the bizarre stories I hear from friends at other schools. Some bonkers people round..

I wasn’t going to post again!
Her DS will become a man though! The more important question is whether he’ll grow up to be a man used to sharing a world with women as equals. You could argue that’s more likely to happen at a CoEd school.

I know a girl at LU- absolutely loves it. Her younger sister chose G&L because she wanted single sex. Nothing wrong with that. Different schools for different children.

But I still don’t think you should be posting on threads where people are asking for advice when you have zero experience of a school other than Daily Mail articles.

The headmistress at my DDs school is often writing to us about yet another inaccurate article that is about to be published.

@pkim123- I’ve reported your last post. Don’t you dare insinuate anything about what my son will grow up to be.

@hollibobs22 just ignore her it’s really not worth responding she’s posted the exact same rather old articles on every single thread about Latymer Upper clearly someone with a very personal vendetta. I do feel sorry for someone that is so angry for so long and feels the need to spend the days on mumsnet trashing a school. There does seem to be one of those stalker types for every single West London school -just see it as a compliment.

Gosh, someone really is very angry and has an axe to grind. On the two (old) subjects mentioned - in my view LU responded brilliantly and proactively to Everyone's Invited and that virtually every school in London and then across the UK was later mentioned on that site, LU just happened to be mentioned earlier when it was newsworthy. Obviously a hugely serious issue but not unique to LU at all sadly.

Ditto drugs - in fact, I remember when LU expelled the kids in that incident the view from parents at many other private schools was it was an over-reaction and who cared if children were doing a bit of spliff? So maybe don't send your kids to LU if you want them to smoke weed without fear of potential expulsion, but personally I admired the rapid and unequivocal way the school handled what is a universal problem. Some of the stories I hear about behaviour from girls and boys at other schools in the area are hair-raising, all schools have issues. And once again, my dd are very happy at the school and doing well.

Our daughter attends G&L and I second the great feedback given above. She had multiple offers, including Putney high GDST and Notting Hill & Ealing GDST and we picked G&L because it was of academic excellence, because of the IB option that they offer (best results in the UK and second best worldwide!) and because of the very easy commute (we live in Chiswick). She loves it there and we have been so impressed with the head, her approach to education, the friendships that oir daughter has made and how much she has grown in confidence. We couldn’t have picked a better school for her.

As a former LU student I would say that I'm abivalent about my experience at LU. In terms of rape culture etc. I would say I persobally have noticed misogynistic behaviours (especially in groups of toxic males) HOWEVER I don't think this of unique to Latymer in any way.

In terms of pastoral support I actually found this somewhat lacking. At one point in my school career another student was violent towards me on multiple occassions and the school did very little to sort it out – multiple people reported the incident to senior staff, who threatened the other student with detention but in essence had no clue on how to resolve the issue. It took hours of repeated meetings involving my parents and senior staff to get them to take action to resolve the issue.

In terms of university applications I was also a little disappointed. Firstly I think especially in comparison to other schools the school predicts students very harsh grades. My maths teacher did state that after analysing the data from the department they found that on average students do half a grade better in the actual A Levels for both maths and further maths than the school predicts them (although I personally was predicted A*'s).

The maths department is generally a bit disappointing, and not great. Some of the teachers who've taught me are really amazing and great at teaching. Other maths teachers not so much, especially the head of maths who another member of the maths department did state to their students that they were very afraid of them and tried to avoid contact. Some teachers haven't spoken to the head of maths for years, owing to falling outs over the head of maths' "confrontational" style.

One problem is that they're not great at getting students into Oxbridge or actually universities for maths. No emphasis placed on admission test preparation etc.

Other departments are great though. The history department is filled with great teachers who are passionate and try to stretch/challenge their students. They also run a lot of uni prep work, etc.

The international uni application team is pretty good.

Another thing that's definitely not lacking are extracurricular activities. e.g. the school has employs the world no 3 debating speaker and European debating champion to teach debating to students. There's a ridiculous array of other activities as well.

I'm probably a bit more focussed on the negatives here (the concrete things i'm left with) rather than the journey which was great and enjoyable and has helped me to grow into an emotionally healthy person. One incident (the violent classmate) aside the school has been a safe environment for me to make friends in and grow up.