Laureate Academy is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, United Kingdom. The academy was launched in September 2018 on the site of Cavendish School. Laureate Academy is part of Future Academies, a

multi-academy trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or academy chain is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local aut ...

History

Cavendish Grammar School was officially opened in 1962 and was one of the first of the new breed of post-war technical

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

s. From 1970 the school became a

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

, The Cavendish School. In 2018, Cavendish School closed and reopened as Laureate Academy; the takeover was part of an expansion of Lord Nash's Future Academies multi-academy trust which controversially extended to other schools in Hertfordshire in 2019 despite concerns about the trust's governance and despite parents' opposition. Concerns were raised about the introduction of compulsory

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

at Laureate Academy, with parents fearing the trust planned a grammar school-type emphasis on academic rather than vocational options. in July 2020, Laureate Academy was ranked the 7th worst school in Hertfordshire. In 2022, an outdated teaching block was demolished to be replaced by a new building and a new multi-use games area. In June 2023, the school was inspected by Ofsted and graded Good.Ofsted (2023)
Laureate Academy: Rating and reports
Retrieved: 15 December 2023.

References

External links

Academy website
Secondary schools in Hertfordshire Schools in Hemel Hempstead Academies in Hertfordshire 2018 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 2018 {{Hertfordshire-school-stub