Latymer vs DAO

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N14mother
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:14 pm

Latymer vs DAO

Post by N14mother »

Just wondered if anyone had any words of wisdom about DAO vs Latymer….DD has been ranked within 65 at DAO and we are trying to plan ahead in case she is lucky enough to have a place at Latymer also
Previously we were team DAO but have noted that the GCSE results are better at Latymer
We would like the whole school experience for our DD with sports/ facilities/ theatre productions etc without compromising academics.
Having toured DAO we were impressed with facilities but it was extremely rowdy so worried about discipline. Heard also that they do not set so there will be very mixed ability within large classes. How does the school ensure the brightest kids are academically challenged without letting them coast….
Worry
engmum21
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:45 pm

Re: Latymer vs DAO

Post by engmum21 »

Second on the views N14 mum, there seems to be less marketing around Latymer as a school , its benefits etc. I hear that Latymer is a Science specialist school where as DAO is a Language specialist school ( i hear that QE is a Maths specialist school)
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: Latymer vs DAO

Post by loobylou »

There have been a hundred threads on this over the years!
I can only feed back from a DAO parent perspective - and know people who are happy with Latymer so I'm not sure you can go wrong really... Not all schools will suit all children's personalities.
From my perspective I have had 2 children at the school (one has now left for uni) and have been entirely and unreservedly happy with their experiences there.
They both have made close friendships and have had excellent teaching. One has been very heavily involved in music and the other in sports. They are encouraged and nurtured and neither have ever described feeling pressured.
Of course results will be better for an entire school if it's wholly selective.
Both my children are at the upper end (academically) of their year groups and have done extremely well. There is no setting other than pe in year 7 and maths/languages from year 8. Neither of my children have ever described finding this an issue - differentiation is excellent and their teaching had been very good. Neither of them coasted. I do know parents of children who have achieved 5s and 6s at GCSE who feel strongly that their children would have done less well in a less academic environment but obviously I can't comment on that as no one really knows. I think the feeling is that everyone is pushed up by the teaching at the school but I don't think that's provable.
I would say that the atmosphere at the school is energetic and active. I wouldn't call it rowdy but it's very "busy". Covid probably affected things last year but when my children were younger they were always talking about, for example, their history teacher taking them around the school to demonstrate Hannibal's attacks or they were let loose to film their version of Macbeth for a couple of lessons in English. Obviously I've not been in lessons but from what I understand from my children they are very much encouraged to vocalise and be involved - I don't feel like they often sit and work in silence. But I have nothing else to compare it to.
My teacher partner always comments at school events that the students are more chatty before things start than would be allowed in the schools he taught in - but then that he's impressed that they are silenced by one brief request - whereas at his schools they would enforce silence from the second they entered because they would not be able to achieve silence after that point. I don't know if that makes sense. I feel that there are very few rules for rules sake.
Schools no longer have specialisms as I understand. I feel as though DAO is good from an all round perspective. I think their most popular a levels are maths, history and the sciences but there's a good spread.
But I wouldn't say it's necessarily better than Latymer because i don't have experience there. We didn't feel it would suit our children but, as I say, I have friends there who have been very happy.
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