This paper develops a simplified model for composite laminated plates by the variational asymptotic method (VAM) in order to efficiently analyze the nonlinear, one-way couples problem. It deduced the 3D energy expressions based on the decomposition of rotation tensor (DRT). The 3D laminated plate model is decomposed into a 2D plate analysis and a non-linear 1D analysis along the normal direction. The approximate energy after dimensionality reduction was deduced and converted to a form of reissner model. The 3D field recovery relations are provided to obtain accurate stress distribution through the thickness direction. The cylindrical bending example of 4-layer composite plate shows that the 3D stress fields recovered by this theory have better accuracy than those by the classic laminated theory (CLT), which indicates the validity of this model.