The Latymer School - Ethos and Extracurricular Activities

Ethos and Extracurricular Activities

According to official canon, the school aims: "To provide a first class, liberal education where pupils achieve their full potential and show consideration for others." This is in conjunction with nine other aims.

Latymer is strong academically, performing consistently at 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 2006. In recent years the school typically produces around 20-40 successful Oxbridge applicants annually (roughly 10-20% of each year group). Its further strengths include a long-standing tradition in music, including several orchestras and many other voice and instrumental ensembles, as well as a well-supported programme of other varied extracurricular activities.

The school has strong links with other schools across Europe with regular exchanges to Institution de la Sainte-Croix, Tours, France; Heisenberg Gymnasium, Gladbeck, Germany; and School 316 in St Petersburg, Russia. In addition, there are trips to Milan and Verona in Italy for junior sports teams, senior sports trips to Barbados, canoe trips to the Ardèche and ski trips to the French Alps. There are also geography expeditions to southern Iceland and classics trips to Sorrento, Italy every two years. Art trips go to New York City and Media Studies to Hollywood. Every summer the chamber musicians tour in Europe, with the 2009 tour taking the orchestra and choir to Tuscany in the North of Italy, where they shall perform in the major cathedrals around Florence and Pisa.

Latymer has a House system of six houses. Two Houses take their names from local historical figures Charles Lamb and John Keats, while Richard Ashworth and Charles Dolbé were former headteachers. Edward Latymer was the founder of the school and Anne Wyatt was a generous patron of the school. Staff are allocated to Houses and are form tutors to pupils in their own House. Much of the House activity is run by sixth form pupils, elected by their House, under the supervision of Senior House Staff. Each house has an associated colour, which are typically used by pupils to identify themselves at house competitions (notably the house drama and music competitions, which take place on alternate years) and at sports day. The house colours are as follows: Ashworth: sky blue, Dolbé: royal blue, Keats: red, Lamb: purple, Latymer: green, Wyatt: yellow. In the school's pastoral system, from years 7-11, form groups are split according to Houses, each form has a form tutor and each year a Head of Year. Upon reaching sixth form, students retain their House affiliations but join smaller mixed form-groups for registration. Each year, the Houses compete with each other for the Dormer Shield in events such as music, drama, debating, chess, cakes, arts and crafts, and sports. The winning House has their name engraved upon the shield, the runner up receives the Jones Cup. Most recently Latymer won the shield in 2009.

The PE department offers an extensive extracurricular programme in a wide variety of sports, and pupils participate regardless of ability level. 56 clubs run throughout the week and 300 pupils take part in activities in the average daily programme. Various fixtures occur every Saturday and most evenings.

The school is very active in charity work, with each House choosing one charity to support every year with various fund-raising events such as cake sales, non-uniform days and sponsored silences. There is also a strong charities committee run by sixth formers which organises many events for various charities such as Medecins sans Frontiers, Terrence Higgins Trust and Children in Need to name a few. One perennial fund raiser is the Dolbé-Keats Bazaar, run by the two Houses in December with stalls and live music (including performing members of staff). The school branch of Amnesty International has a strong following and runs a "Cage Week" annually, wherein staff are locked in a small cage to highlight the case for human rights and to raise money. The Latymer World Community Society is active in supporting fair trade and the sponsorship of children in less economically developed countries. School policy encourages a large percentage of waste to be recycled.

Student societies in the school are very active and cover a range of interests including music (such as its jazz band and barbershop singing groups), politics, debating, psychology, philosophy, chess, animal rights, medicine, cryptography and film criticism. The politics society in particular has played host to a series of prominent guest speakers, including George Galloway, Joan Ryan, Stephen Twigg, David Burrowes, Andy Love, Vincent Cable, Danny Chalkley, and Gerrard Batten. The school has a tolerant view of religious societies, and there are firmly established student-led Christian, Islamic and Jewish societies.