The school is committed to a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the needs of each individual. Every effort is made to ensure the balance between challenge and support is right so that students feel confident in their abilities and able to respond to an exciting and creative curriculum in a resilient and positive way. Enjoyment is at the heart of learning and the breadth of the extra-curricular programme ensures all students have the opportunity to excel.

Preparing young people to make the next steps in life is central to everything we do. Throughout their time at St Laurence School, each individual is encouraged and helped to become a well organised, creative, reflective person who has the ability to work independently but also in teams.

Both the Careers and Challenge programmes support this holistic development. Literacy and numeracy skills are central to learning and the school is committed to a cross faculty approach to these two important areas.

The school works on a two-week timetable. Weeks are referred to as Week A and Week B and labelled as such on the school calendar. There are five one-hour lessons a day as well as a thirty-minute tutorial. Therefore, across the two weeks, students attend 50 lessons in Key Stage 3 and 4.

In Year 9, students consider what subjects, beyond the core, they would like to study. However, to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum there are some restrictions on choices. These are explained fully in the Key Stage 4 Curriculum booklet. Every effort is made to consider the needs of individual students and wherever possible opportunities to stretch individuals or to provide support through timely interventions are mapped into an individual’s curriculum provision.

Homework encourages students to extend their learning beyond the classroom and we set tasks online on ClassCharts (on the top of the page on this website).

Further details about home learning can be found in the download section below, in the in the policies section and subject specific information in the Curriculum maps in the Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 sections.

Many students choose to make use of the Independent Learning Centre (ILC) to support homework. The ILC is open to students from 8:00am till 8:30am and to Years 7-11 in a supported homework club from 3:00pm till 4:30pm. 6th Form students can also use the facilities in the 6th Form Centre to study.

The school is very well resourced with specialist rooms for Dance, PE, Art and Design, Photography and Music.

More detailed information can be accessed in the other sections in the “School Life” section of the website and relevant policies are in the information section.