About us
The Laurel Trust is a charity with a track record of supporting schools serving disadvantaged communities to make sustainable differences to children’s learning and life chances. We provide grant-funding and work together with schools and other agencies to put evidence informed research into practice.
Our approach is characterised by ethical leadership, moral integrity and a commitment to raise hopes and horizons for vulnerable children and their families.
In recent years we have supported imaginative and successful research projects nationwide in very diverse settings including areas of deprivation and disadvantage in cities, urban, rural and coastal areas.
See Locations Map on the right.
Congratulations to Schools Reaching the Finishing Line!
The schools in the most recent cohort have now finished their projects and their research reports which reflect significant successes in improving outcomes and practice both for children/young people and for teachers. In several cases the positive impact extends to families and the community.
It is particularly pleasing that the research extends from early years and school readiness to helping young people with learning difficulties gain employment.
Studies of all the research projects will be published in Volume 4 of The Laurel Trust's annual collection "Celebrating Research that Gets Results" which will be available in the late Spring 2025.
I am confident it will be an engaging and enjoyable read.
Our Purpose
Our purpose is partnerships with schools, their communities and other agencies to widen opportunities and reduce disadvantage for all children and young people through securing improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and leadership.
Locations Map
Click here to see the spread of our research projects
Our Values
Underpinning all the work of the Laurel Trust are our inclusive values of:
EQUALITY, RESPECT and TRUST.
We expect the communities of schools that work with us to reflect and practise these values.
Impressive Response
Our thanks to all the schools who have recently applied for grant funding to The Laurel Trust. It is pleasing that we have received such a variety of applications from schools in disadvantaged areas throughout the country from the far North to the bottom of the South-West. The potential research projects cover all phases of education and embody some interesting partnerships.
The next phase is going to be an exciting time!
Lead Schools will receive the outcomes of their proposals before the end of the Spring Term 2025 so that they can begin preparatory work with their partner schools and organisations for a more formal start in September.
Bill Goddard will write to Lead Schools after the Selection Panel has met in late March 2025 and Derrick Brett, our Consultant Director, will be giving support and guidance to the successful schools as they start their research and through their journey.
