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| The school is exceptionally strong academically, performing consistently at or near the top of national ], including coming first in national value added tables and achieving the highest proportion of A* grades at GCSE among state schools in 2003. In recent years the school has typically produced around 25 succesful ] applicants per year. Its further strengths include a long-standing tradition in music and a well-supported programme of extra-curricular activities, including the use of a residential outdoor pursuits centre in ], ]. The centre, Ysgol Latymer, is an old primary school house situated in the small village of ]. | The school is exceptionally strong academically, performing consistently at or near the top of national ], including coming first in national value added tables and achieving the highest proportion of A* grades at GCSE among state schools in 2003. In recent years the school has typically produced around 25 succesful ] applicants per year. Its further strengths include a long-standing tradition in music and a well-supported programme of extra-curricular activities, including the use of a residential outdoor pursuits centre in ], ]. The centre, Ysgol Latymer, is an old primary school house situated in the small village of ]. | ||
| The school has now built a new sports and canteen complex which was opened on 3rd February 2006. | The school has now built a new sports and canteen complex which was opened on 3rd ]. | ||
| The school has strong links with other schools across Europe with regular exchanges to ], ]; ], ]; ] and ]. In addition, there are regular sports trips to the ] for Year 7's and ] for Year 11's, as well as regular ] trips to ], ] trips to ] and ] trips to ]. | The school has strong links with other schools across Europe with regular exchanges to ], ]; ], ]; ] and ]. In addition, there are regular sports trips to the ] for Year 7's and ] for Year 11's, as well as regular ] trips to ], ] trips to ] and ] trips to ]. | ||
Revision as of 13:09, 3 February 2006
The Latymer School is a selective, mixed grammar school in Edmonton, north London. Each year around 180 pupils are admitted to year 7 (aged 11 or 12) on the basis of competitive examination or (in the case of less than a dozen) musical scholarship. In addition to this around 40 students join the sixth form (aged 16-18) each year, mixing with those pupils (typically close to 180) who have made the transition from year 11 to the first year of sixth form. External applicants to sixth form undergo interviews and must perform sufficiently well at GCSE (or equivalent) level. The school underwent its most recent OFSTED inspection in January 2005.
Facilities and Ethos
The school is exceptionally strong academically, performing consistently at or near the top of national league tables, including coming first in national value added tables and achieving the highest proportion of A* grades at GCSE among state schools in 2003. In recent years the school has typically produced around 25 succesful Oxbridge applicants per year. Its further strengths include a long-standing tradition in music and a well-supported programme of extra-curricular activities, including the use of a residential outdoor pursuits centre in Snowdonia, Wales. The centre, Ysgol Latymer, is an old primary school house situated in the small village of Cwm Penmachno.
The school has now built a new sports and canteen complex which was opened on 3rd February 2006.
The school has strong links with other schools across Europe with regular exchanges to Tours, France; Gladbeck, Germany; Poland and Russia. In addition, there are regular sports trips to the Netherlands for Year 7's and Barbados for Year 11's, as well as regular Geography trips to Iceland, Latin trips to Italy and Art trips to New York City.
Latymer has a house system of six houses named Ashworth, Dolbe, Keats, Lamb, Latymer and Wyatt. The houses take their names from local historical figures - Charles Lamb, John Keats etc., and Richard Ashworth was headteacher some decades ago. One class per year group in years 7-11 is affiliated with one house; upon reaching sixth-form, students retain their house links but join mixed form-groups for registration.
The school is very active in charity work, with each house choosing one charity to support every year with various fund-raising events. Such events can vary from year to year but one perrenial funraiser is the Dolbe-Keats Bazaar, run by the two houses during one lunchtime in December with stalls and staged entertainment (mostly live music) to raise money for the houses' charities.
The Legend of Latymer
Legend tells that Latymer was established in 1624 by bequest of Edward Latymer, a London City merchant, who named certain properties and estates to fund the education and livelihoods of 'eight poore boies of Edmonton' (A similar bequest had led to the founding of Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith). Although the bequest was real the school did not take on Latymer's name for some decades or centuries, and has only been situated on its present site since 1910. The school motto, qui patitur vincit (who endures wins), was also adopted in 1910. Internally, Latymer's legends popularly (and proudly) propagate as fact. For at least 5 years it has been traditional for headteachers to lecture students on the school motto at the first assembly of the academic year (and thus the first assembly of each new group of year 7s).
Mr Garbett
The current headmaster is Mike E Garbett, who started as head in September 2005. Upon assuming office Garbett immediately alienated the entire corpus of teaching staff by planning to introduce a controversial Government directive that would very gradually remove a variety of paid duties from teaching staff (eg the organisation of examinations) and give them to civil servants external to the school. Teachers were united in threatening Garbett with strike action and were succesful in their application for union support; had strike errupted, teachers would have recieved compensation from the union for their unpaid leave.