About The School
Please read a welcome letter from our Chair of Governors.
You can also review our latest Ofsted report here and the SIAMS report here.
St Lawrence CE Primary is a popular, friendly, rural, church school with 80 pupils, taught in 4 classrooms (R/1, 2, 3/4, 5/6). We have a stable and experienced staff team. Staff morale is high, and staff turn-over is low.
The school is set in an idyllic area of natural woodland near Ightham and Sevenoaks and has a strong sense of community spirit and a caring family atmosphere. We are a church school, in the Rochester Diocese, with embedded Christian values. St Lawrence Church is next door to the school, and both were built on church land in 1868. School and church therefore enjoy strong links.
A Church of England School: As a church school, we believe each person is made in the image of God and each child is God’s child. We strive to reflect the love of God, love of life and love of learning in all that we do.
We endeavour to build our school on our core values of Compassion, Trust, Forgiveness and Creation.
We believe that each child should leave school with: A sense of moral and spiritual awareness, a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them, a love of learning and the desire to achieve high standards A growing ability to relate to and communicate with other people A sense of their citizenship of the school and the wider community.
Learning indoors and outdoors.
Our idyllic, woodland surroundings have a big influence on the character of the school and are used to the full for learning and recreation. We are lucky to have a purpose-built outdoor classroom, as well as a dedicated Forest School adjacent to our woodland play area, run by a qualified Forest School Leader. Wellies are essential – even for the Headteacher.
As well as all the usual sports (children represent the school in sporting events such as: cross country competitions, football matches and tournaments, netball matches and swimming galas) we are always out and about, rain or shine, and can be found mountain biking and walking in the woods, including an annual whole school sponsored charity walk.
Music is everywhere.
Music is at the heart of school life at St Lawrence. Over a third of our children learn a musical instrument, all of KS2 have recorder lessons, and the whole school sings together several times a week. We use music for learning and sing a lot! – from Maths and Science to History and Literacy. One parent commented ‘St Lawrence is the Von Trapp family extended!’ The school puts on two whole school productions, one in the summer, at Sevenoaks School, and a Christmas production which takes place at St Lawrence Church. The school orchestra is open to all KS2 who learn a musical instrument. It plays to a high standard and performs regularly at school events and church services.
We even have our very own bell-ringing group!
In addition, there is a wide range of school clubs, including mountain biking, eco-warriors, gardening, sewing and musical theatre and many others.
‘Let Every Light Shine’
The small size of the school means everyone knows everyone. Each child really is known as an individual and in turn knows every member of staff. The children mix across year groups from Reception to Year 6 and are encouraged to support each other and problem solve together. The whole school community fosters a ‘can do’ attitude and children, as well as staff, share an ethos that they can make a difference to the world.
In the classroom, our small size enables teaching to be tailored to individual needs and to focus on the progress and achievement of each child.
As one of our children puts it ‘I like all my friends, going on trips, interesting work, kind teachers…It is very peaceful, and we do lots of fun things'