Sir John Lawes School A GSG School
- Sir John Lawes School
Manland Way
Harpenden
Hertfordshire
AL5 4QP - Head: Mr Phil Newbery
- T 01582 760043
- F 01582 469793
- E [email protected]
- W www.sjl.herts.sch.uk
- A state school for boys and girls aged from 11 to 18.
- Read about the best schools in Hertfordshire
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Hertfordshire
- Pupils: 1354; sixth formers: 341
- Religion: None
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Outstanding 1
- 16-19 study programmes Outstanding 1
- Outcomes for children and learners Outstanding 1
- Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding 1
- Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding 1
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding 1
- 1 Full inspection 28th March 2023
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
Music a standout department in the school ‘and in the town’, say parents. A sixth form boy (set to read maths at Durham, but also going for a music scholarship) was passionately conducting an intermediate brass group, whilst a sax quartet casually jammed unsupervised in a nearby room. We were greeted in the art department by a fearsome dragon bursting through the ceiling, the work of a former pupil now studying set design at St Martin’s. Dynamic department offers photography and textiles (both to A level) as well as...
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What The Good Schools Guide says
Head
Since 2021, Philip Newbery. Educated at Charles Darwin School in Kent and De Montfort University, Bedford (now teacher training faculty at University of Bedfordshire) where he took a four-year teaching degree. Has taught at state-maintained schools at all levels in their Ofsted journey; cut teeth at Nicholas Breakspear School in St Albans when it was in special measures, teaching PE and rising to director of sport within three years, part of the team moving its rating to Good in 16 months. Swiftly became deputy head after a further two years, while holding out for the same position to come up at SJL. Feet under this coveted table, he was given a ‘free’ remit of ‘improvement’ (quite the challenge, given SJL’s long-standing heritage of excellence), ‘interviewed everyone’ and started ‘working on culture and outcomes to...
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Interpreting catchment maps
The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.
Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.
For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained
Further reading
If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.
Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.
Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.
*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.
The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.
Children get into the school from here:
regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year
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