Sarah is the Deputy Head of Pre Prep and a class teacher at Town Close School, an independent school in Norwich. She joined Town Close School as a Teaching Assistant and developed an interest in science beyond the curriculum, securing a grant from the Institute of Physics to develop a hands on role-play science lab in the Reception classrooms. The school supported Sarah to gain an Early Years degree and she qualified as a teacher with a PGCE at the University of Buckingham in 2015.

 

Prior to this Sarah had a varied career in retailing, recruitment and textiles. Travelling the world for a year with her husband and children in 2005 fired a personal interest in the ways in which children learn. Observing her children and encountering different cultures, she came to understand that exploration and experience is fundamental to developing young minds. She is passionate about testing the boundaries of education by facilitating children’s curiosity beyond the classroom and curriculum.

Sarah’s partnership with the Royal Society began in 2016 and stemmed from a question asked by a five year old, ’What happens to all our banana skins?’ The child’s question prompted a class discussion which concluded with a plan to discover whether feeding banana plants with banana skins would improve their growth. The project funded by a Partnership Grant was very successful and the continued legacy led to an ongoing second project, researching butterfly ecosystems.

Sarah Laing

Committees

ParticipatedRole
Partnership Grants Allocating PanelJanuary 2020 - December 2022Member