Established in 1901, Lauriston has a non-selective enrolment policy and is co-educational for three-year-old and four-year-old Kindergarten, and girls-only from Prep through to Year 12.

Howqua is a rural campus for Lauriston's year 9 students, located near the town of Mansfield in the Victorian high country.

Students also participate in a community service rotation during term 2, which involves activities such as building tracks, planting trees, gardening, visiting residential homes, acting as assistant teachers in rural schools, and running their own radio station.

These houses are Hollyer, Gillespie, Thompson, O'Brien, Fitz-Gibbon, Wirringga, Arthur-Robinson, Cramond, Mirrabooka and Kirkpatrick.

The concept of Howqua is to help girls develop emotionally and physically independent of their family in a world without constant technology.

The girls at Howqua are issued each with devices used for learning purposes and are only accessible during the school day under teacher supervision.

The Howqua program also aims to forge strong relationships between girls and social skills are greatly developed.

Upon graduation, Lauriston students typically achieve high Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) and International Baccalaureate (IB) scores.

[citation needed] Lauriston's music program caters for students from Prep to year 12 and offers a number of choral and instrumental ensembles, including bands and orchestras.

Annually, there are approximately twenty-five performance occasions, including the 'Annual School Concert', which is held at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Recent performances include Seussical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Little Mermaid Jr, and Mary Poppins Jr. Lauriston offers over 20 sports, which may be played at both competitive and recreational level.