At present, it is difficult to accurately predict natural frequencies of sandwich plates with soft core by using the C 0 plate bending elements. Thus, the C 1 plate bending elements have to be employed to predict accurately dynamic response of such structures. This paper proposes an accurate higher-order C 0 theory which is very different from other published higher-order theory satisfying the interlaminar stress continuity, as the first derivative of transverse displacement has been taken out from the in-plane displacement fields of the present theory. Therefore, the C 0 interpolation functions is only required during its finite element implementation. Based on the Hamilton's principle and Navier's technique, analytical solutions to the natural frequency analysis of simply-supported laminated plates have been presented. To further extend the ranges of application of the proposed theory, an eight-node C 0 continuous isoparametric element is used to model the proposed theory. Numerical results show the present C 0 finite element can accurately predict the natural frequencies of sandwich plate with soft core, whereas other global higherorder theories are unsuitable for free vibration analysis of such soft-core structures.