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Our View
There’s a wonderfully inclusive, warm and kind ethos at the heart of this all-through day and boarding school located just a mile away from the golden sands of Kent’s Ramsgate beach. And it’s from this nucleus that everything flows – the exceptional academics, outstanding sport (there’s an elite programme for gifted pupils and the school has been in the top 100 schools for cricket for six years running), and fantastic facilities for budding actors and musicians. ‘At St Lawrence, we set high standards and believe in encouraging every pupil to achieve more than they thought possible,’ says head Matthew Brown. This kind of nurturing is priceless, and with a nursery and junior school to boot, it means children can start age three and fly through a superlative education uninterrupted to 18.
Where?
In the heart of residential Ramsgate, the school’s campus walls off a substantial block, with impressive entry gates that take you through to playing fields and then the head’s house, which sits in the centre of the senior-school site. Handsomely tall, red-brick school buildings and a chapel are all interconnected, with a grassed area around which are more buildings and the boarding houses. Behind this are extensive sports pitches. The junior school has its own enclave on the same site, making it an easy transition for the 70 per cent of pupils who stay on.
Head
The very outgoing and energetic Matthew Brown took over the headship of both the college and the junior school in April 2025. He’s a seasoned leader with seven years’ experience heading up Epsom College in Malaysia to his name, and several years as head of state secondary Pengalis School in Wales. He takes a holistic approach to education and was ‘looking for a school that matched my own values, which is very, very important to me’. He’s found one in St Lawrence College, a ‘fantastic school’, he says enthusiastically, where the school values are lived and breathed, giving pupils the right environment to ‘be the best version of themselves and flourish’. He’s directing his focus on ensuring pupils receive an outstanding education while being nurtured and inspired. ‘This then leads to young people who care, learn and aspire,’ he tells us.
Admissions
St Lawrence is broadly non-selective (all pupils at the junior school have an automatic place at the college), so prospective pupils don’t have to sit tests unless the school feels it needs additional information about their ability or level of English. The school actively recruits from abroad and there are overseas students in every year group – a regular intake of Spanish pupils come for a term and German students for a year to play hockey. Best of all, admissions are wonderfully flexible – new pupils are welcomed into any year group (and even mid-way through the year), subject to space. A new induction programme in September sees joiners enjoy a weekend of fun activities culminating in evensong in Canterbury Cathedral.
Academics and destinations
Pupils are streamed for maths, English and science, and everyone does three sciences at GCSE, with labs for each discipline. The main languages are French and Spanish, and fluent German, Arabic and Mandarin speakers can take these for A-level. D&T is popular – some 40 pupils a year take it for GCSE or A-level – and the two huge, warehouse-style workshops are impressively kitted out. Year 8s do a level one London Institute of Banking and Finance qualification, and BTECs in business studies and sport have recently been introduced. Sixth-formers take three A-levels plus an EPQ, which they do in Year 13.
University and careers advice is comprehensive, with extensive guidance offered to sixth-formers with the likes of Oxbridge, medicine, dentistry or veterinary science in their sights. Leavers head off to a range of destinations, including some on sports scholarships to the US.
Co-curricular
Sport is strong, with hockey, rugby, cricket and netball among the team games on offer. There are also facilities for swimming, squash and dance. The head of cricket is an ex-Ashes player, and there’s also an elite performance director on the staff. Gifted pupils are invited to join the Sports Excellence Programme, which trains on Fridays. Fundraising for a new pavilion is ongoing with a target of £1.3m. Once built, it will be available to hire out as a venue, with proceeds going towards bursary and scholarship funding.
The art department is across the top floor of the glass-fronted Canon Perfect building, which also houses science, IT and D&T. As well as fine art, pupils can do ceramics, textiles and photography. The quality of the work is high – we were blown away by the A-level exhibition we saw.
Music is timetabled in Years 7 to 9, and pupils can choose to play whichever instrument they want. There are two choirs, an orchestra, a jazz band and a rock band. The theatre stages the annual whole-school performance, which alternates between musicals and Shakespeare, and pupils are involved in all parts of the production, on and backstage. During our most recent visit, Years 7 and 8s were rehearsing for Alice in Wonderland, with the senior years helping produce it. Budding actors can take drama GCSE and A-level, and LAMDA is also on offer.
All Year 9s do CCF, learning everything from basic marching to combat practice with paintball guns. There’s also an indoor range for rifle shooting for Year 7s upwards. Once or twice a year they have field days, camping on the school site. In Year 10, pupils can choose to continue with CCF but everyone does Duke of Edinburgh. The many clubs include cooking, board games and community service. Everyone gets involved in cross-country – there’s a real buzz when the pupils set off on the 4km run.
Boarding
There are three boarding houses, two for boys and one for girls, headed by a housemaster or mistress. Common rooms have table tennis and pool, and all the dorms are ensuite. There’s a mixed boarding house for Years 3 to 8 with an open-plan ground floor that has table football, a kitchen and a circular seating area. There’s a really good mix of nationalities, creating a wonderfully cosmopolitan and egalitarian environment.
Sixth-formers are allowed into town on Saturday evenings from 7pm to 10pm. On Sundays, there are activities for boarders or they can go for sleepovers with a day pupil. The school stays open on exeat weekends for overseas pupils, with trips to places like Thorpe Park and Harry Potter World.
School community
Every pupil has a tutor who forms a link between school, child and parents; there are eight pupils in a tutor group and they meet three times a week. Pupils go to chapel twice a week, and boarders also have a Sunday-evening service, but, says Mr Brown, ‘We are here for all children, all faiths and none.’ Mental-health first-aiders track pupils’ wellbeing and there are also two on-site counsellors, as well as a medical centre in the junior-school building that is open 24/7.
Every year the school hosts International Day, with pupils wearing traditional dress, singing and dancing performances and cuisine from all the countries represented. Outreach work is emphasised with upper years doing community service, reading at local primary schools, visiting the elderly in care homes and helping out at the Salvation Army. Local primary schools also come in for acting workshop days, and they also use the school swimming pool.
And finally....
This is a school that is outward-looking with a genuinely globalised community. Pupils get the chance to have a go at whatever appeals to them, and thrive on it. Add to that its atmosphere of kindness and warmth, and it’s hard not to be bowled over.