Campaign

LATYMER - FOUR CENTURIES OF GIVING

Latymer, like most schools that predate the rise of state funded education, owes its origins to the foresight and generosity of a series of individuals who held the view that wealth brought with it obligations to help those who were less fortunate than themselves.

The Latymer Foundation has a long history of giving since the original bequest of Edward Latymer in 1624 to provide “eight poore boies” from Edmonton yearly on November 1st with a doublet, a pair of breeches, a shirt, a pair of woollen stockings and shoes. In return for being educated to the age of thirteen at a "petty school" the boys had to wear the red Latymer cross on their sleeves. The trustees are under a duty to carry out the provisions of his will "unto the end of the world."

In 1662 John Wild of Edmonton made a further bequest including £4 per annum for the maintenance of a schoolmaster and a similar sum to maintain a poor scholar at Cambridge. This was followed in 1679 with a bequest by Thomas Style of Edmonton of £20 per annum for teaching " twenty poor boys ... Grammar and Latin tongue."

For more than a century there were no further bequests until in 1811, Ann Wyatt, a widow of Hackney, left £500 5% Navy Annuities to build a new school and £100 in the same securities for its maintenance. Since the last of these historical bequests, The Foundation has benefited from a large number of donations, and while a few from former parents and pupils have given substantial sums in their own right (most recently two donations of £25,000 and £7,500), the main theme continues to be small amounts over long periods.

Today the Foundation continues to support the school in many ways. In 1966 it helped to purchase a former primary school in Wales within the Snowdonia National Park. This has been turned into a well-equipped and comfortable outdoor pursuits centre, which is very popular within the school community and with the other groups who use it.


THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN

The Campaign was launched in the autumn of 1996 to tackle two major problems facing Latymer - general overcrowding in the School and inadequate facilities for Music, Drama, Media Studies and Sport. The solution was to provide new performing arts and sports facilities, but it had taken years of planning and a feasibility study to identify appropriate sources of funding and to develop an action plan.

Although common in the private sector, it was trailblazing (and even controversial) for a state school to undertake fundraising on this scale. However, the support of the Foundation enabled a fundraising office to be established, and two years later over £1 million had been raised. We now have a performing arts centre, The Mills Building, which was opened in the spring of 2000. This building is a tremendous testament to the vision, tenacity, determination and generosity of all those involved in its creation.

Following the completion of the building of the Performing Arts Centre, Latymer faced the challenge and embraced a new round of fund raising to build the new Sports Hall. After two ‘near misses’, the Department for Education and Skills approved Latymer’s bid for finance of a new sports hall and dining facilities. The estimated cost of the project was £2.9 million. Latymer’s new fund-raising target was £300,000, 10% of £ 3 million!

Now the new Sports Hall/Catering facility has been completed and the School has raised £225,000 in cash and pledges and, with the support of the Latymer community, we are confident we will eventually reach our target.

In 1998 Latymer faced serious cuts in funding due to the abolition of Grant Maintained Status, a loss of approximately £250,000 from our annual budget. The existence of the Campaign Development Office made it possible for us to create The Latymer Standards Fund to help bridge this deficit. The aim was to ensure that despite the cuts we would still have the funds to maintain Latymer’s very high standards. The extra funding through the Standards Fund has enabled us to develop and improve the School and ensure it stays among the very best in the country.

The Latymer School remains a leading co-educational state school. At the heart of the School’s aims is the cultural, social and intellectual development of all its pupils - boys and girls aged 11 to 18. It is renowned as a centre of excellence in many areas, both academic and cultural. With your help it will continue to offer excellence to all - regardless of means or background.