Latymer Upper School and Latymer Prep

Paulatim ergo certe (Slowly Therefore Surely), runs the motto, and for four centuries the Latymer name has carried a promise of steady, purposeful advancement. Founded in 1624 through the will of Edward Latymer, who left money to educate eight poor boys of the parish, the school today occupies a set of buildings on King Street in Hammersmith, backing onto the Thames. It is a fully co-educational, academically selective day school of about 1,428 pupils and students across its two parts: Latymer Prep for ages 7 to 11, and Latymer Upper for 11 to 18. There is no boarding. Susan Wijeratna, who joined from Eton College in September 2023, leads it. The strapline the school gives itself, academic, rounded and grounded, captures the balance it aims for: results among the very strongest in England, paired with rowing on the river, four theatre productions a year, and a bursary programme that funds one pupil in four.

The setting shapes the school. Hemmed into a working stretch of west London, with the District Line two minutes away at Ravenscourt Park and river frontage behind, Latymer feels urban and outward-looking rather than cloistered. This is not a school set behind acres of playing fields. Its sporting life runs down to the Thames and across to Chiswick, and its cultural life spills into a 300-seat theatre and a performing arts centre in the middle of the site.

The prep school is the younger half of the story. It opened in 1951 and took the Latymer Prep name in 1955, and it now supplies a substantial share of the Upper School's Year 7 intake, so many families see the two schools as a single, continuous ten-year education from age 7 to 18.

Selectivity sets the tone academically, but the school is deliberate about not becoming a hothouse. It is a diverse community where pupils from a wide range of faiths, backgrounds and beliefs show understanding and support for each other, and that mix is central to how the place presents itself. A generous bursary scheme, reaching up to full fees, keeps the intake broader than the postcode alone would suggest, and the school makes a point of educating pupils to recognise social responsibility through extensive charity and volunteering work in the local area.

Since arriving in 2023, Susan Wijeratna has brought senior experience from Eton, where she was Lower Master, and the leadership emphasis is on wellbeing alongside stretch. The atmosphere is busy and confident. With a co-curricular week 60 years in the making, more than a hundred clubs and societies, and a pupil-run record label, Latymer trades on energy rather than tradition-for-its-own-sake, even as it wears its 1624 heritage with quiet pride.

Latymer sits at the top end of English education at both exam stages, and the two headline positions below are proprietary FindMySchool rankings built from official data.

At GCSE, the school ranks 12th of 3,895 in England for results, placing it in the top 0.3% and among the highest-performing schools in England (ranked against all schools in England with published GCSE results, state and independent). On the broader measure that blends results with the FindMySchool inspection score, it ranks 16th of 3,887, and within Hammersmith and Fulham it is the 3rd strongest. The grade profile is exceptional: about 84% of GCSE entries are awarded grades 9 to 8, and roughly 94% reach grades 9 to 7. Very few schools in the country match that concentration of the highest grades.

The sixth form is equally formidable. At A-level, Latymer ranks 25th of 2,562 in England for results, in the top 1.0% (ranked against all schools in England with published A-level results, state and independent). Its overall position is 25th of 2,561, and again it is 3rd in Hammersmith and Fulham. The metrics explain why. Around 41% of A-level entries are graded A*, some 81% reach A* or A, and about 95% fall within A* to B. Set against England averages of roughly 24% at A* or A and 47% at A* to B, Latymer students achieve at more than three times the typical rate for the top grade. In 2025 nearly a quarter of the cohort achieved straight A* grades, and the 95% A* to B figure was a school record.

These are results that put Latymer in direct competition with the best-known selective schools in London, and they are earned across a broad curriculum rather than a narrow one. The academic strength is real, deep, and consistent from one year to the next.

Teaching is rigorous and demanding. Inspectors found that the majority of lessons are well planned and use resources effectively, with much of the teaching introducing demanding concepts that require pupils to think deeply and critically. That is the engine behind the grades: not drilling, but genuine intellectual stretch pitched at able children who can take it.

Support for those who need it is woven into the academic structure rather than bolted on. The Academic Mentoring Department runs a scheme before and after school with around 100 participants each week, coaching study skills, memory and mind-mapping techniques, and exam strategy. Pupils with special educational needs or with English as an additional language make good progress too, which matters in a school this academically intense.

One honest qualifier remains. In a minority of departments, the use of assessment data to shape teaching is less consistent, and analysis of pupil data to inform planning varies by subject. The school was asked to strengthen this consistency. It is a refinement at the margins of an already high-performing operation rather than a structural weakness, but it is the clearest area the school itself is working on.

The sixth form is where the curriculum opens widest. Latymer offers a broad A-level menu of more than 20 subjects, taking in classical languages through Greek and Latin, Mandarin, History of Art, Design Engineering, Music and Photography, and Maths with Further Maths, alongside the mainstream sciences and humanities. Students build their timetable around three A-levels, but the structure pushes them well beyond a bare three.

The distinctive framework is the Latymer Diploma, awarded at pass, merit or distinction. It sets the three core A-levels within a wider programme of life skills, service in the community and a spread of electives, so that a sixth-former's record is broader than grades alone. A choice of more than 30 ten-week elective courses lets students range outside their examined subjects, while the Extended Project Qualification and the school's own Latymer Research Report build the independent research habits that admissions tutors reward. The more ambitious add a fourth A-level or an AS. That breadth is a deliberate counterweight to early specialisation, and it feeds the competitive university routes, medicine, engineering and the natural sciences among them, that Latymer students go on to pursue.

Progression through the school is a first destination in its own right. From Latymer Prep, pupils move up into the Upper School, with 44 places at 11+ reserved for those already in the prep; the rest of the year group is recruited by competitive examination. At 16, the sixth form retains its own students who meet the grade requirements and adds a competitive external intake.

University outcomes are the more visible story, and they are strong. Oxford and Cambridge remain a fixture: in one recent year, 89 applications produced 25 offers and 21 places, split between Cambridge and Oxford, and in 2025 the school reported a record 32 places at Oxford and Cambridge. Medicine is a well-trodden route too, with all 11 medicine applicants in 2025 securing places at destinations including Bristol, Exeter, Manchester and UCL. A growing number of leavers look abroad, taking up offers at United States universities including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia, and at European institutions such as Bocconi in Milan and Leiden in the Netherlands. In 2025, 84% of the school's university applicants secured their first-choice place.

Careers guidance sits behind these outcomes. Leaders prepare pupils well for their next steps through a carefully planned careers programme that includes personal guidance, and the sixth-form structure, with its research report and electives, is built to produce the kind of independent thinker competitive courses select for. For families weighing sixth forms, the local hub comparison tool lets you set Latymer's A-level standing side by side with other west London schools before an open event. The destinations here are not confined to a single elite track; they span medicine, engineering, the humanities, the arts, and increasingly the transatlantic route.

Entry is by examination and interview at three points, and competition is severe at each. The main gateway is 11+, where about 1,300 candidates compete for 125 places, 44 of which are filled by pupils moving up from Latymer Prep. Applicants sit assessments in English and mathematics, and successful candidates are invited to interview. That leaves roughly one external place for every fourteen or so hopefuls, so a strong application is essential rather than sufficient.

The prep school itself takes pupils from age 7, forming the feeder pool that supplies those automatic senior places. At 16+, the sixth form draws around 300 applicants for about 65 places; candidates sit the school's own examination, are interviewed if successful, and receive offers conditional on nine GCSEs with grade 7 or above in the subjects they intend to study. Internal Upper School students who meet the same academic bar progress into Year 12 alongside the external joiners.

Because places are allocated on assessed ability rather than proximity, there is no catchment distance to satisfy and no home-address advantage. Families come from across west London and beyond, which widens the pool and sharpens the competition. Registration for entrance examinations opens well ahead of the assessment dates, so parents should check the school directly for the exact timetable for their child's entry year.

Wellbeing provision is substantial and professionally staffed. The school employs three counsellors and two nurses and runs a weekly on-site GP clinic, backed by a prefect and peer-mentor system that gives older students a formal role in supporting younger ones. Behaviour is good, and serious misbehaviour and bullying are uncommon; where problems are reported, effective action is taken.

Safeguarding is effective. Leaders understand the thresholds for involving external agencies, refer promptly to the police, children's services and the local authority designated officer, keep detailed records, and ensure staff receive regularly updated training. The governing body is active in monitoring wellbeing rather than leaving it to the staff room.

Latymer has also been candid about a period of scrutiny of its behavioural culture. Following an external review of behavioural culture and attitudes, leaders implemented its findings and took appropriate action to minimise risks to pupils, a process handled diligently and openly. That willingness to commission outside scrutiny and act on it is, in itself, a marker of a school that takes pastoral responsibility seriously rather than assuming its reputation will do the work.

Co-curricular life at Latymer is not an add-on; it is one of the defining reasons families choose the school, and it rests on four strong pillars.

Sport uses the river and the city. Rowing is a genuine strength, with the Latymer Boat House on the Thames housing over 50 boats, and students have reached GB Rowing squads at J18 and J16 level. The Latymer Sports Centre holds a 25-metre, six-lane swimming pool with a floating floor, a sports hall, a gym and three studios, while match fixtures run out at the Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground in Chiswick. A Talented Athlete Programme runs across all years and a Sports Scholar Programme in the sixth form, and representative honours reach beyond rowing to England Rugby U18, South of England Girls' Hockey U18, Middlesex Cricket and London Pulse netball.

Music runs through the purpose-built Latymer Performing Arts Centre, which includes a 100-seat Recital Hall with a pipe organ, acoustically designed practice rooms and a music-technology studio. Ensembles range from the Latymer Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and Concert Band to the Jazz Band, Big Band, the Latymer Consort, Schola Cantorum and Chamber Choir. A lunchtime concert series keeps performance constant, and 32 Bit Recording, a pupil-run record label, gives the more technically minded a route of their own.

Drama has produced a striking roll of alumni, among them Sir Michael Boyd, Alan Rickman, Mel Smith, Hugh Grant, Imogen Poots, Ophelia Lovibond and Lily Cole. The 300-seat Edward Latymer Theatre is in near-constant use, staging around four productions a year, recently including Crazy for You and Little Shop of Horrors, alongside a more intimate Drama Studio. A Sixth Form Theatre Company takes work to the Edinburgh Fringe every two years, and speech and drama runs down to LAMDA classes at lunchtime and after school.

The fourth pillar is the sheer breadth of academic and civic societies. STEM enthusiasts can join F1 in Schools, the Sumo Robotic Club, First Lego League, the Aerospace Challenge and a Dissection Club, or enter the UK Linguistics Olympiad. Debaters have Model United Nations, the Wolverstone Public Speaking Society and the Freston British Parliamentary programme, while writers run the student newspaper The Underpass and the Latymerian. Games and languages are catered for too, from the Latymer 64 chess club and Dungeons and Dragons to bilingual clubs in French, German, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin, and civic and cultural societies from the Feminist Society and Eco Society to the Classics Colloquium and the Royal Geographical Society. Overarching it all are the Duke of Edinburgh's Award at all three levels, membership of the international Round Square network, and Activities Week, a tradition more than 60 years old that closes the summer term.

For September 2026, tuition at Latymer Upper is £32,025 per year and at Latymer Prep £29,169 per year, both inclusive of VAT and billed across three terms. A non-refundable registration fee applies to the entrance examinations, £220 at 11+ and £300 at 16+, and an accepted place carries a £2,400 deposit held until a pupil leaves.

The financial-aid picture is unusually strong for a London day school, and it is the reason the intake is not defined by wealth alone. The school runs a means-tested bursary programme offering up to 100% remission of fees, with an average award of about 85%, and roughly one pupil in four receives support of some kind. Additional help can extend to trips and uniform. Separate merit scholarships are awarded for academic excellence, sport, music, art and drama, typically worth a modest percentage of fees, with occasional higher music awards. Bursaries are income-assessed and aimed at widening access; scholarships recognise talent. Families for whom the sticker price looks out of reach should look closely at the bursary route before assuming the door is closed.

Latymer is a day school on King Street in Hammersmith, with no boarding provision. Its location is one of its practical strengths: it sits near Hammersmith station, is a two-minute walk from Ravenscourt Park on the District Line, and is served by numerous buses along King Street. The school does not run a dedicated coach service and actively encourages sustainable travel by foot, bicycle and public transport, so families should factor a public-transport commute rather than a school-bus route into their planning.

Exact daily hours and any before- or after-school arrangements are best confirmed with the school for the relevant phase, as they differ between the prep and the upper school. Prospective parents can use the FindMySchool map search to gauge travel time from a prospective home to the Hammersmith site before committing to an application.

Entry is the hardest part. With roughly 1,300 candidates for around 80 externally available places at 11+, and 300 for about 65 at 16+, competition for a place is fierce and success is far from guaranteed even for able children. Families should prepare for the possibility of a strong candidate missing out and hold realistic alternatives.

Fees are significant and rising. At £32,025 a year for the Upper School, the cost is at the higher end even for London. The bursary programme is genuinely generous and reaches one pupil in four, but families outside its income thresholds carry the full figure, and the entrance and deposit charges add to the initial outlay.

Assessment consistency is a work in progress. Inspectors noted that the use of assessment data to inform teaching varies by department. It is a refinement rather than a flaw in a very high-performing school, but parents of a child who thrives on close academic tracking may want to ask how a particular department monitors progress.

No coach, no boarding, and a busy site. This is an urban day school reached by public transport. For some families the compact, city-centre setting and river-based sport are a draw; others may prefer more on-site playing fields or a school-run bus, neither of which Latymer offers.

Latymer Upper School and Latymer Prep is one of the strongest co-educational schools in the country, and the rankings bear that out: top 0.3% in England at GCSE and top 1.0% at A-level, with Oxbridge, medicine and Ivy League destinations to match. What lifts it above a pure results machine is the breadth around the academics, rowing on the Thames, a 300-seat theatre with an alumni cast of household names, a hundred-plus societies, and a bursary scheme that keeps the community mixed rather than merely affluent. It suits ambitious, resilient children who will flourish under demanding teaching and want a full cultural and sporting life alongside their studies, and it suits families who value social breadth and are prepared to explore the bursary route. The single real caveat is access: the education is exceptional, but securing a place, at 7, 11 or 16, is the genuine obstacle.