As part of its upgrade and building development, the school has provided ICT facilities for pupils, staff and surrounding schools. Since the switch from a middle to secondary school, Laisterdyke has added a sports hall, a second dining hall, new classrooms, including an English teaching block, a worship room for pupils and teachers, a Post-16 area and three new labs as well as a new main reception.
Achievements
The school has won a Schools Drug Prevention Charter Award for its efforts in anti-drug education icarried out jointly with local units of the Rotary Club and the Soroptimists Club of Great Britain, as well as with the Bradford Bulls rugby club. For three years, the college has also run a literacy project known as Leap Into Books. This has involved more than 400 children from local primary schools over the three years, as well as Laisterdyke students.
Pakistan link
In December 2006, a delegation of educational professionals led by the University of Bradford travelled to Pakistan for a five-day International Education Conference. Representatives from Laisterdyke school were amongst the delegates. The conference was organised following the publication of a report entitled The Mirpur Connection in July 2006. One of its recommendations was to organise an International Educational Conference including practical workshops for teachers, children and young people. The purpose of that visit was to forge links between schools, colleges and Universities in Mirpur and Bradford and to provide a co-ordinated platform for close collaboration between organisations in the Bradford district and those in Mirpur. This continues through the schools Connecting Classrooms links with Pakistani schools, led by Mrs Sarah Diaz, PSCHE Leader, and Mr Philip Smith, Business Leader. They visited Pakistan in 2009 with a reciprocal visit in 2010. Technology such as Skype is currently being used to keep the links running smoothly. Mirpur is important to many British Muslim communities in West Yorkshire because of the strong social and cultural ties between the communities. These ties began in the 1960s when the families of many Bradford citizens migrated to the region, mainly because of the development of the Mangla Dam, which flooded 485 villages in the 60s making 100,000 people homeless.
