Laisterdyke High School
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| Principal | Jennifer McIntosh |
|---|---|
| Location |
Thornbury Road Bradford West Yorkshire BD3 8HE England Coordinates: 53°47′47″N 1°42′53″W / 53.79635°N 1.71459°W |
| Local authority | City of Bradford |
| DfE URN | 107443 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1094 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Website |
www |
Laisterdyke High School (Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College) is a secondary school and sixth form for boys and girls in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The age range of the pupils is 11–18. The school currently holds Business and Enterprise College status, and also uses the name "Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College".
Following the re-organisation of education in the local education authority (LEA) in September 1999 the school changed from a middle school for pupils aged 8 to 13 to its current designation. The school is oversubscribed and continuing to grow. In September 2002, the school admitted its first intake of sixth form students and became an 11 to 18 school.
Students
A high proportion of pupils (almost 93 per cent) are from ethnic minority backgrounds and almost all have English as an additional language. Most pupils come from Pakistani backgrounds (mainly in the area of Mirpur) with smaller numbers from Indian and Bangladeshi backgrounds. Other than English, the main languages spoken are Urdu, Punjabi, Pushto and Hindi. There are also a small, but increasing, number of students drawn from Eastern Europe - particularly Poland.
Faculty
For more than 20 years, Mrs Joan Law was headteacher, then principal, of the school (then college). She retired in August 2010, and currently Mrs Harrison and Mr Chilvers - vice principals - have joint charge. The new principal, Mrs Jennifer McIntosh, takes up her post in January 2011.
Facilities
As part of its upgrade and building development, the school has provided ICT facilities for pupils, staff and surrounding schools. Since the switch from a middle to secondary school, Laisterdyke has added a sports hall, a second dining hall, new classrooms, including an English teaching block, a worship room for pupils and teachers, and three brand new state of the art labs also a new main reception has been added .
Achievements
The school has won a Schools Drug Prevention Charter Award for its efforts in anti-drug education icarried out jointly with local units of the Rotary Club and the Soroptimists Club of Great Britain, as well as with the Bradford Bulls rugby club.[1] For three years, the college has also run a very successful, and well respected, literacy project known as Leap Into Books. This has involved more than 400 children from local primary schools over the three years, as well as Laisterdyke students.[2]
Pakistan link
In December 2006, a delegation of educational professionals led by the University of Bradford travelled to Pakistan for a five-day International Education Conference. Representatives from Laisterdyke school were amongst the delegates. The conference was organised following the publication of a report entitled The Mirpur Connection in July 2006. One of its recommendations was to organise an International Educational Conference including practical workshops for teachers, children and young people.[3] The purpose of that visit was to forge links between schools, colleges and Universities in Mirpur and Bradford and to provide a co-ordinated platform for close collaboration between organisations in the Bradford district and those in Mirpur. This continues through the schools Connecting Classrooms links with Pakistani schools, led by Mrs Sarah Diaz, PSCHE Leader, and Mr Philip Smith, Business Leader. They visited Pakistan in 2009 with a reciprocal visit in 2010. Technology such as Skype is currently being used to keep the links running smoothly.
Mirpur is important to many British Muslim communities in West Yorkshire because of the strong social and cultural ties between the communities. These ties began in the 1960s when the families of many Bradford citizens migrated to the region, mainly because of the development of the Mangla Dam, which flooded 485 villages in the 60s making 100,000 people homeless.
References
External links
- Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College Official site.
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