Latymer Grammar for sixth form

[mrsnovella]

DS is currently in Year 10 at a North London private school. He's very happy there, but quite interested in a change for sixth form - and not paying the astronomical fees would of course be very helpful for us financially!

He's pretty academic and will probably lean towards humanities subjects for A-level.

I've heard great things about Latymer, but one thing I also keep hearing - without meaning to cause offence to anyone who lives locally or has DC there - is how rough the surrounding area is. DH has a colleague whose daughter turned down a place in year 7 because they were so concerned about safety.

Is it really bad? Any journey time for DS would involve a 15 minute walk to a local bus stop which might not be ideal. Are there coaches from surrounding areas? Can any current parents fill me in? Thanks so much.

This sounds crazy, especially the part about turning down a place because of roughness! Is your DH's colleague normally very anxious? I haven't been to Enfield for some time but I have never heard of it being especially rough.

I have just looked up crime info for the postcode that contains the school and it is very similar to where I live in what is considered to be a very safe area.

https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/crime/n99tn

The crime stats for the part of London where my daughter goes to school, by contrast, are roughly four times as high - she's doing her A Levels now and has never had a serious problem. She's quite good at dealing effectively with random nutters now, though.

Thanks so much @MonGrainDeSel - that's reassuring to hear. I don't really know about DH's colleague... but it was enough for DH to take note, when he's usually really laid back about such things.

That's interesting about the crime stats - I was always under the impression that Edmonton was one of the roughest parts of London too tbh, but maybe I'm mistaken.

DS is used to navigating around London himself, but I think having grown up in a very safe and quiet suburb, he's a bit clueless about the realities of some neighbourhoods.

Any Latymer parents able to share experience?

Hello OP. I’m not a Latymer parent but I do live quite locally and DP and I both attended the school back in the day and have friends who teach there.

I think the perception of the area and the reality are two slightly different things, but your DH’s colleague is not entirely mistaken; it’s not the most salubrious area, and while it’s by no means as dangerous as some people like to make out there have been incidents involving Latymer students. When DP and I were there in the ‘90s we were advised to remove our ties on the way home so we weren’t identifiable as Latymer kids; nowadays (according to my teacher friends) pupils there are told to travel home in pairs/groups and timings of the school day are staggered to avoid pupils being out in the community at particularly problematic times (however this is true of many schools in Enfield, not just Latymer). It is true to say that it has become a ‘thing’ among some groups of parents to favour for example Dame Alice Owen’s or QE Boys over Latymer due to perceptions of the local area, and I do know quite a few families who have decided not to apply or take up a place for this reason. But whether these families’ fears are justified is another question.

The bigger concern that I would have about 6th form at Latymer would actually be the school’s current strong focus on the STEM subjects over and above everything else. We have a primary aged DD and, while by all accounts it’s still a lovely school, we won’t be applying there for her because she is an all-rounder and we feel that Latymer has lost the holistic ethos and strong Arts/music focus that it had while we were there - we definitely sensed this at the open day we attended last year. Just by way of an example, last year 185 candidates took Maths A’level there as opposed to only 35 for English Lit and 24 for History. If my child had a strong Humanities bent I think I’d be encouraging them to look elsewhere.

@TempsPerdu - thanks so much for your very insightful reply, and sorry for my slow response! This is really useful and good to think about given that DS is leaning towards humanities subjects. It does sound like, coupled with the concerns about the local area, elsewhere might be better for him. We are going to look at Camden and Woodhouse too, and have also heard great things about St. Mary Mags. I know DAO is also very highly regarded but DS has said the commute is just too long from where we are, and I think QE boys doesn't actually take new pupils at sixth form, only existing ones...

Thanks again!

I’d agree that it’s a good idea to shop around @mrsnovella. We could tell from visiting last year that Latymer was still a lovely school (in parts it felt incredibly similar to when we were there as pupils) but also that there was a bit of an irresistible push towards the STEM subjects. I think this is actually driven more by parents and pupils than the school itself - they made a point of emphasising that Latymer wasn’t a ‘Maths School’ and that students wouldn’t be hothoused or facilitated to enter public exams early in this area. But we were still left with the impression that STEM is where it’s at nowadays, and having chatted with teachers of other subjects like music, drama and MFL (one of whom taught me!) it definitely came over that these areas had been deprioritised a bit.

Don’t get me wrong - music for example is certainly still stronger than at many other schools, but there isn’t that overarching holistic school culture that was previously there - I think in part because of changing demographics and the subject areas that are now most valued by parents.