Lucy Stephens

… is Founder and Director of a school and an idea that is set up as a charity and a bold research project. It was inspired by seeing with fresh eyes how young people created strong foundations for adulthood. Play and a democratic approach are central. giving students a powerful sense of agency - the will and the ability to positively influence their own lives and the world around them means they really want to learn, and that motivation unlocks everything else. She wanted to establish a school model that did this AND that reached everyone, so no fees. And she wants to use the model to change the world, by getting it replicated and the ideas built on by others. This special place is the pioneering New School in Croydon, a determined experiment to demonstrate that a systemically different approach works better.

There is much still to do, but also much achieved already.