Laisterdyke Leadership Academy

Laisterdyke Leadership Academy is a co-eduational secondary school and sixth form located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.

Laisterdyke Leadership Academy
Address
Thornbury Road

Bradford
,
West Yorkshire
,
BD3 8HE

England
Coordinates53°47′47″N 1°42′53″W
Information
TypeAcademy
Local authorityCity of Bradford
TrustStar Academies
Department for Education URN142681 Tables
OfstedReports
GenderCo-educational
Age11 to 18
Enrolment1,094
Websitehttp://www.laisterdykeleadershipacademy.com/

History

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. In September 2002, Laisterdyke High School admitted its first intake of sixth form students and became an 11 to 18 school.

The school previously gained Business and Enterprise College status and was renamed Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College. In April 2016 the school was converted to academy status and was renamed Laisterdyke Leadership Academy. The school is now part Star Academies.

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, a Post-16 area and three new labs as well as a new main reception.

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 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]

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
  1. Teachers magazine, January 2003, Issue 24 - "Dealing with drugs" Archived 8 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. http://www.leapintobooks.org.uk Archived 31 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  3. The Mirpur Connection Archived 17 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
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