Latymer Upper - like winning the lottery or realistic?
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Latymer Upper - like winning the lottery or realistic?
Hi,
I've had a bit of a trawl through this website and haven't been able to find this information so far, so I will just go ahead and ask - apologies if this isn't posted in the right spot. I was advised at parents evening that my son should try for a place at Latymer Upper school when the time comes (he's in year 4 now). He's bright and gets bored with the pace at school, so I've started looking into it. I'm finding it pretty frustrating that the basic information (which would help me decide whether its worth the registration fee and general stress) isn't readily available. My questions are:
* How many children of those who pass the exams and interview will receive a full fees bursary for the duration of their time at the school? I'm looking for some evidence on which to gage percentage-wise, the likelihood of this happening for my son - is this the equivalent of winning the lottery or something more realistic, worth the time and emotional investment of preparing for?
* What percentage would my son need to get in the exams in order to be in line for a place and a full bursary?
* What family income would attract the full fees bursary and what income levels for different levels of bursary?
I know these figures will change fractionally each year but even ballpark estimates would be better than nothing - private schools are completely outside my realm of experience and my son's school is not in a much better position with only a single pupil, several years ago, having gone on to such a secondary school. The school has a lovely glossy prospectus and website but they seem pretty short on this kind of detail. Thanks for any advice.
I've had a bit of a trawl through this website and haven't been able to find this information so far, so I will just go ahead and ask - apologies if this isn't posted in the right spot. I was advised at parents evening that my son should try for a place at Latymer Upper school when the time comes (he's in year 4 now). He's bright and gets bored with the pace at school, so I've started looking into it. I'm finding it pretty frustrating that the basic information (which would help me decide whether its worth the registration fee and general stress) isn't readily available. My questions are:
* How many children of those who pass the exams and interview will receive a full fees bursary for the duration of their time at the school? I'm looking for some evidence on which to gage percentage-wise, the likelihood of this happening for my son - is this the equivalent of winning the lottery or something more realistic, worth the time and emotional investment of preparing for?
* What percentage would my son need to get in the exams in order to be in line for a place and a full bursary?
* What family income would attract the full fees bursary and what income levels for different levels of bursary?
I know these figures will change fractionally each year but even ballpark estimates would be better than nothing - private schools are completely outside my realm of experience and my son's school is not in a much better position with only a single pupil, several years ago, having gone on to such a secondary school. The school has a lovely glossy prospectus and website but they seem pretty short on this kind of detail. Thanks for any advice.
Hi,
I don't know the answer to your question I'm afraid, but I just wanted to say, don't set your heart on just one school as you never know what will happen on the day (from my experience this year!). If you decide to do this look at some other schools too.
Some schools give some guidance on bursaries on their website, but I'm sure a polite call to the admissions office should ellicit some infomation.
I don't know the answer to your question I'm afraid, but I just wanted to say, don't set your heart on just one school as you never know what will happen on the day (from my experience this year!). If you decide to do this look at some other schools too.
Some schools give some guidance on bursaries on their website, but I'm sure a polite call to the admissions office should ellicit some infomation.
If you talk to the registrar I'm sure she will give you some guidance. There are currently over 50 full bursary children at the school so that should give you an idea. I am not sure what the 'cut off' is for income, but I'm sure she can help here as well. I agree with Kev about setting your heart on one school.
mad?
at ds1's school there are a few children in each year on full bursaries, but the cut-off income is very low indeed, certainly not more than minimum wage - the amount of assistance available is reduced on a sliding scale as parental income rises and by the time you've reached a joint income of around £50,000 you don't get anything unless your son has been awarded a scholarship (not means tested)
Most of the kids on big bursaries are there because they're either exceptionally academic or good academically and talented in music, sport etc - one of ds1's best friends has a combination of bursary and scholarship which adds up to full fees, but he's in top sets for everything, is captain of the football A team, is in the A teams for rugby, hockey and cricket as well, plays tennis for the school and is also in the orchestra - added to that he's sickeningly well-behaved but is also good-looking and very popular. Basically, he's the kind of child that any school would love to have as he adds huge amounts of value to the school, making it more attractive to all those full-fee paying parents.
You may well be better off applying to boys' schools as well as Latymer Upper is now co-ed - if your ds is that bright as well there are other, more academically challenging schools around
However, if the only way you could send your ds to a private school is with a full bursary you need to be careful to manage your and his expectations - you don't want to end up in a situation where he does very well in the exams but doesn't quite manage to get a full bursary and ends up going to his local state school feeling like it's very much second best
Most of the kids on big bursaries are there because they're either exceptionally academic or good academically and talented in music, sport etc - one of ds1's best friends has a combination of bursary and scholarship which adds up to full fees, but he's in top sets for everything, is captain of the football A team, is in the A teams for rugby, hockey and cricket as well, plays tennis for the school and is also in the orchestra - added to that he's sickeningly well-behaved but is also good-looking and very popular. Basically, he's the kind of child that any school would love to have as he adds huge amounts of value to the school, making it more attractive to all those full-fee paying parents.
You may well be better off applying to boys' schools as well as Latymer Upper is now co-ed - if your ds is that bright as well there are other, more academically challenging schools around
However, if the only way you could send your ds to a private school is with a full bursary you need to be careful to manage your and his expectations - you don't want to end up in a situation where he does very well in the exams but doesn't quite manage to get a full bursary and ends up going to his local state school feeling like it's very much second best
Gaining a full bursary to any private school is winning the lottery!
If you want to try to ensure a bright child has a good and challenging education in W/SW London you are probably best focusing on the Grammars as they have a lot more free places. You could do some of the 10+ tests at Collet Court, Kings Wimbledon, Westminster Under and City as "practice". And then also try Latymer at 11+. (The exam will come after the state 11+ but before the results are known, so should not add to the pressure.)
But be warned. A child would need to be both very bright and very applied and be able to demonstrate that they would make a good contribution to the broader life of the school. If you don't try you wont have any chance, but there will be fierce competition so dont let your child think of it as anything other than a long shot.
If you want to try to ensure a bright child has a good and challenging education in W/SW London you are probably best focusing on the Grammars as they have a lot more free places. You could do some of the 10+ tests at Collet Court, Kings Wimbledon, Westminster Under and City as "practice". And then also try Latymer at 11+. (The exam will come after the state 11+ but before the results are known, so should not add to the pressure.)
But be warned. A child would need to be both very bright and very applied and be able to demonstrate that they would make a good contribution to the broader life of the school. If you don't try you wont have any chance, but there will be fierce competition so dont let your child think of it as anything other than a long shot.
Do have a go at City of London boys. They have a lot of generous bursaries and not just for scholarship level boys.
FYI Westminster under school do not have a 10+ exam just the 11+. They have very good bursaries but you have to be very clever to be selected for the 20 places available.
How about Hampton..?
Latymer Upper has a fair amount of bursaries available but has a reputation for this so lots of people apply.
Do apply you never know.
FYI Westminster under school do not have a 10+ exam just the 11+. They have very good bursaries but you have to be very clever to be selected for the 20 places available.
How about Hampton..?
Latymer Upper has a fair amount of bursaries available but has a reputation for this so lots of people apply.
Do apply you never know.
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chiswickwitch
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:28 am
Re: Latymer Upper - like winning the lottery or realistic?
Hi questions - I've just seen your post from last year and thought it might be worth adding some thoughts as I guess your DS will be sitting the exam for Latymer in Jan 2012 and the information may come in handy when you fill in the Statement of Financial Need form.
We applied for bursaries for our DS and DD and sadly we were turned down even though our income was very low. Here's how the system seems to work: Your DS will sit the exam and if (and only if) he gets into the top 100 based on his performance in the exam, he will be considered for the bursary. This will result in him having a very probing special interview with one of the senior people at the school (not a teacher in our case) where they will endeavour to find out if your DS has been on any fab holidays or you own a holiday home etc. In our case we were told that our income was within the range of a bursary but because we owned our house we were basically expected to release the equity by selling the house and moving to a smaller property in order to fund school fees! Pretty absurd in my view as we live in a small terraced house. It was also hinted that we were not the type of people they were trying to attract (not sure exactly what that meant!)
Since then we have discovered that bursaries tend to go to children who have been to state primaries and come from "disadvantaged" backgrounds (although in at least one case we know a family that has "worked the system").
So... is it worth applying? Yes, always. But you will probably only get one if your savings are very low, you don't have a pension fund, you have a very low income and you're not middle class. Most of those given bursaries are on full bursaries - there are very few partial ones.
We were offered places at the school for DD and DS - but how could we afford it?
Good luck
We applied for bursaries for our DS and DD and sadly we were turned down even though our income was very low. Here's how the system seems to work: Your DS will sit the exam and if (and only if) he gets into the top 100 based on his performance in the exam, he will be considered for the bursary. This will result in him having a very probing special interview with one of the senior people at the school (not a teacher in our case) where they will endeavour to find out if your DS has been on any fab holidays or you own a holiday home etc. In our case we were told that our income was within the range of a bursary but because we owned our house we were basically expected to release the equity by selling the house and moving to a smaller property in order to fund school fees! Pretty absurd in my view as we live in a small terraced house. It was also hinted that we were not the type of people they were trying to attract (not sure exactly what that meant!)
Since then we have discovered that bursaries tend to go to children who have been to state primaries and come from "disadvantaged" backgrounds (although in at least one case we know a family that has "worked the system").
So... is it worth applying? Yes, always. But you will probably only get one if your savings are very low, you don't have a pension fund, you have a very low income and you're not middle class. Most of those given bursaries are on full bursaries - there are very few partial ones.
We were offered places at the school for DD and DS - but how could we afford it?
Good luck
Re: Latymer Upper - like winning the lottery or realistic?
Thank you for your message chiswickwitch, and for bringing me back to this message thread which I haven't looked at in a year and a half! Bit of a revelation to remind myself what I was fussing about school-wise this long ago... Well, we are far from middle class, DS goes to a state primary and I don't have savings (not proud of this), none of which I thought would be helpful in any sphere of life let alone getting into a decent school but there we go! Top marks in the exams is not looking so likely, so am really not getting hopes up for this anymore.
Where did you decide to send your DD and DS in the end chiswickwitch? Im not overjoyed with the options from the schools I've seen so far
Where did you decide to send your DD and DS in the end chiswickwitch? Im not overjoyed with the options from the schools I've seen so far
Re: Latymer Upper - like winning the lottery or realistic?
Allocation of bursaries varies at each school so I would advise contacting the admissions dept to clarify the requirements. At the school my ds attends they have an amount of money which is allocated strictly by exam performance and obviously financial need, all the other stuff such as sports etc is irrelevant. The foundation decides how much of a bursary you qualify for prior to the exam I think and then go down the list allocating the relevant bursary until the money runs out. There are 2 boys Schools in the foundation and it is not unheard of to be offered a bursary at 1 and not the other simply because of where the child was placed after the exam and the level of bursary awarded to children higher up the table ie at both schools you could place at No.50 but if the boys ahead of you qualify for a higher bursary the money runs out earlier than the other school where there might be more bursarys awarded but the amount of each bursary is lower. Clear as mud but as I said all schools have different systems so check with Latymer and also research other schools awarding bursarys, there are loads including Eton, Harrow etc.
Good luck
Good luck
Re: Latymer Upper - like winning the lottery or realistic?
I agree with emmsie.
I think that Latymer was originally founded to help the poor children of Hammersmith, so would not be surprised if priorities and criteria reflected this.
I disagree with showme in that gaining a place at Latymer has become a lot more difficult over recent years, and I am not sure that it can now be described as academically less challenging. I think that unless there were really exceptional circumstances a bursary applicant would need to be towards the top of the ability range in any school. Thus you might have a better chance with a school that takes in a wider ability range than one of the very academic schools.
Having said that, Latymer has always been seen as a fall back for Tiffin applicants so there should be some good candidates, a proportion of whom will be seeking bursaries. Since it went co-ed applications have double. It has also become a bit of an "ecole du jour" with girls from West London Prep schools, some of whom may already be on bursaries. Part of the problem is that the school is good about community access with lots of local kids wandering around on a Saturday morning heading for the music block, sports hall or swimming pool. I know one family who had not considered private but tried Latymer as a long shot, simply because their daughter knew the school and really wanted to go there.
Therefore it may be that, some other schools, which are seen as less accessible but who have plenty of foundation money, might provide better odds.
I think that Latymer was originally founded to help the poor children of Hammersmith, so would not be surprised if priorities and criteria reflected this.
I disagree with showme in that gaining a place at Latymer has become a lot more difficult over recent years, and I am not sure that it can now be described as academically less challenging. I think that unless there were really exceptional circumstances a bursary applicant would need to be towards the top of the ability range in any school. Thus you might have a better chance with a school that takes in a wider ability range than one of the very academic schools.
Having said that, Latymer has always been seen as a fall back for Tiffin applicants so there should be some good candidates, a proportion of whom will be seeking bursaries. Since it went co-ed applications have double. It has also become a bit of an "ecole du jour" with girls from West London Prep schools, some of whom may already be on bursaries. Part of the problem is that the school is good about community access with lots of local kids wandering around on a Saturday morning heading for the music block, sports hall or swimming pool. I know one family who had not considered private but tried Latymer as a long shot, simply because their daughter knew the school and really wanted to go there.
Therefore it may be that, some other schools, which are seen as less accessible but who have plenty of foundation money, might provide better odds.