DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

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Hera
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Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:50 pm

Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by Hera »

Most pupils are driven forward by - or held back by - their peers, all the boys and girls in their year, not just the academically selected entrants. (This was our hunch when deciding in 2010 and so it has proven to be.)
What a sweeping statement; and how have you come to this conclusion given that it sounds as if you have not had a child in a non-selective or partially selective school? I agree wholly with Amber about the other comment in your post.

My DS is at a partially selective comp (more partially selective than DAO). Apart from Science, Maths and languages he was taught in mixed ability groups to GCSE. He was not held back, in fact personally I think it is healthy and beneficial in many ways.

Both DAO and Latymer are fantastic schools and the OP should go with their child's gut feel, although the sibling policy at DAO is a draw, but personally I think I would judge what is best school for the child in question.
Amber
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Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by Amber »

One also might wonder if one wanted one's child to be part of a cohort which compared themselves favourably with others even when they were well into university studies. A very fine line I imagine between arrogant superiority and being comfortable in your own skin.

Good luck with your choice OP. :D
anotherdad
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Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:33 pm

Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by anotherdad »

Jean.Brodie wrote:-At her University (Cambridge), those from DAO and Mill Hill County often find it harder than those from Latymer, QE Boys or Henrietta Barnett. She has heard the same from her friends at Medical Schools and at Imperial and LSE. Most get there, eventually, but those used to a higher standard across the board and to a greater intensity don't really have to adjust and are less bothered by the 'competition' at University.
I wish I'd known about this research this before my daughter headed off to university from a bog-standard Bucks grammar school and not one of those three hallowed establishments. I feel I've let her down. I hope she keeps up. Eventually.
kenyancowgirl
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Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by kenyancowgirl »

OP you have had some very useful pointers on here and some less than useful ones - either school is very good, will give your daughter the opportunity to access university (of whichever perceived level is important to you - bearing in mind that some parents get very hung up about certain institutions, which, evidence shows are not alaways the best for every course/student).

Choose the school which best fits your daughter - however, playing devil's advocate, I would caveat, as a parent of two boys who ended up in the same school - whilst DS2 is very bright - he is a different character to DS1 (less driven, more naturally sociable etc) - and we wholly underestimated the pressure he was feeling to achieve at 11+ - he did achieve and well but it could have gone another way. I suspect having the non-selective element - and sibling criteria - possibly makes DAO feel more "normal" more real life and this has to be a good thing, to my mind. Children develop at different rates - a top table child in Y7 may be bottom table by Y9 and being bottom table in a high achieving school can be quite disheartening (although still high!) for some children. Fundamentally, both schools will get results - maybe one that takes a partially selective intake could be argued to show better results?
Middlesexmum
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Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:54 am

Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by Middlesexmum »

What does your dc feel about it?

I ask this as someone who has 3 dds all at different schools. In each case, they were drawn to the particular school that was right for them. I wouldn't, as a parent, give my 10 year old child a free choice about which school they attend but it so happened that I agreed with their thinking. My youngest at 9.5 knew that that the school her older sister attended wasn't right for her but another (still very academic) school was and I can see that her instincts were correct.

I wouldn't get too hung up on results - your dc will probably get very similar results at either school. How do things like music, sport, drama compare? Pastoral care?
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by loobylou »

It's sort of hilarious and sort of tragic that someone's ability to cope at a university is attributed to whether they had children of lower educational abilities in the classroom with them or not. * (In this case, we are talking about children of whom 96% achieved 5 or more passes at GCSE and where 50% of those passes were at an 8 or 9. But even if we weren't, even if we were talking about children who went to their local comprehensive and did well and got to a "prestigious" university, I do not accept that they then find it difficult because they have not been used to such "intensity" of teaching. I do accept that they might need to get used not to being top of everything. By 18 I would hope most people would be able to cope with that notion).
Honestly I'm even more glad that my children go to a school where the other parents (and the staff) don't feel that they need hothousing to cope with the next stage of their education. And where it sounds as though they are definitely being better set up for coping with normal life.

* To reassure anyone who might believe this, I have lots of friends ** who have children at university, including Oxbridge. They have come from DAO, Latymer and a range of comprehensive schools in North London (and a few beyond). Only one has struggled to keep up; she was from a selective school and then a indie sixth form and neither of those impacted on her coping. Choose the school where your child will be happy for the next 5 or 7 years.

** I accept that this is not a good way of presenting data. But it's as good as it gets on this thread since I'm not sure any uniersity has published data on how children from specific selective schools cope with university compared with other selective or non-selective schools. The only data I'm aware of is that which says children from state schools tend to cope better than those from indies (which might be old data).
StevieL
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Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 2:53 pm

Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by StevieL »

Thank you again for contributions. It is all healthy debate! I do have some respect for the opinion that students at Latymer might show (across the board) more academic drive. I must admit I like that. On the other hand A-level results and Oxbridge entrance stats look v similar to my eyes, amazingly given DAO semi selective status. That tells that DAO achieves something special in some way. Incidentally, it would be ridiculous to get hung up on Oxbridge at this stage - I am just citing this as one performance metric. Back in the day, I was an Oxbridge scholar from an ordinary comp, then did further additional degree at UCL. They were equally enjoyable and stimulating albeit in different ways of course. Most of the factors affecting success at Oxbridge were personal not school related in my experience. For example plenty of extremely bright students from top public schools went off the rails. Some are still friends!
Although my gut says Latymer, DC’s gut now says DAO. Still ruminating but 90% likely to go with that. Avoiding need for further 11+ stress for DC2 is mind boggling bonus!
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by Guest55 »

Jean.Brodie wrote: Most pupils are driven forward by - or held back by - their peers, all the boys and girls in their year, not just the academically selected entrants. (This was our hunch when deciding in 2010 and so it has proven to be.)

-This applies to music and drama and life as much as to academics. There is an academic and general self esteem, an overall energy and positivity to the academically brightest, who are generally also used to being interested in lots of things and getting a lot done.

-At her University (Cambridge), those from DAO and Mill Hill County often find it harder than those from Latymer, QE Boys or Henrietta Barnett. She has heard the same from her friends at Medical Schools and at Imperial and LSE. Most get there, eventually, but those used to a higher standard across the board and to a greater intensity don't really have to adjust and are less bothered by the 'competition' at University.

-Our daughter plays a second musical intrument and has been on music performance tours to Germany and the Czech Republic, she plays a sport to a good level at University and she has two senior positions - one in her faculty and one in her college - all because of HBS. Doing all this came as natural progression and she felt at home academically straight away as an undergraduate.

DAO is a good school, especially as a partially selective school. But Latymer has the cohort across the board which will stimulate and support your DC going forward. All kids have their moments, but the behaviour will also be generally more consistently constructive at Latymer.
What a post :shock: with no truth in it other than one person's perspective.

I've taught in comprehensives where the students have gone to Cambridge and out-shone their peers. The school you went to to get those A level grades is irrelevant - in fact I'd assert that the comp students 'deserved' their places more given the bias of the whole system.

How on earth can she say that getting those positions was down to HBS? Why the need to boast about it anyway? I've never lauded my DS's achievements - they aren't mine to share.

The different in intake is minimal - you can see this by looking at the prior attainment on the DfE tables - DAO has more high ability students than some of the Kent Grammars!

I'm sure Latymer students misbehave - this happens in every school - perhaps they are better at hushing it up?! Please don't believe the hype that every student there want to learn - it isn't true.
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: DAO vs Latymer: which to choose?

Post by loobylou »

Guest55 wrote: I've taught in comprehensives where the students have gone to Cambridge and out-shone their peers. The school you went to to get those A level grades is irrelevant - in fact I'd assert that the comp students 'deserved' their places more given the bias of the whole system.
This ^^.
I'm well aware that my children are at a (semi - mustn't forget that!) selective school and therefore this could be construed as hypocritical but I absolutely agree with this.
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