In the UK, it seems as though if you form an independent school, you get a ton of leeway about what you teach and how. If it could fund itself, it could be a really cost-effective experiment with big implications if it’s better and others adopt it.
You probably need:
1. A few rich early-adopters who’re die hard haters of traditional schooling, all concentrated in a single location, ideally with children around the same age. 2. An inexpensive school building to start with. Perhaps an office near a large park. 3. A model that lets you be the sole teacher, and insurance for a cover teacher if you fall ill. 4. A mentor who’s started an independent school before 5. A large loan / grant from an UHNWI. You likely have little hope at getting a grant from a foundation so it’s probably not worth trying (if the education sector is anything like the rest of the charity sector)
It’s likely that starting a full school right away is completely hopeless. You probably need a series of intermediate steps to move you in that direction slowly. For example, if you homeschooled for rich parents, that’d let you build a network of rich parents while testing / refining your ideas.
For now, I suspect you’d be better off asking for advice from domain experts than EAs. If you’re serious about this, you might want to meet with the author and try to sell them on promoting your school. I suspect marketing would be your biggest issue by far, at least for the first few years.
My vague lead-in plan was along the lines of “run a weekend/holiday program to build network and when/if the kids and parents love it, see if they want more.” I will get some government funding per student, as long as I’m doing some of the things they want, which I would be.
1 would be amazing and I should think more at some point in the future about how to do that—thanks for the idea, I hadn’t thought of it!
2 is what I’m looking for and it’s possible given my location.
3 I have a bunch of teachers who are interested, so I think I’d be doing this with at least one other person, even if it’s small, so hopefully we just don’t get sick at the same time. Though I’d have a network for if this happens.
4 I’m going to look for a mentor who has done a similar thing. Now is not a good time to look because the school year (I’m in Australia) starts in a week, so everyone’s very busy.
5 I have a guy who can help in finding startup money and who thinks it’s possible, so I’m deferring worrying about this for a while.
Thanks again for the comment! You’re right that this possibly isn’t the best place for this post. So I’ll likely not be posting here again about this unless it’s more relevant.
In the UK, it seems as though if you form an independent school, you get a ton of leeway about what you teach and how. If it could fund itself, it could be a really cost-effective experiment with big implications if it’s better and others adopt it.
You probably need:
1. A few rich early-adopters who’re die hard haters of traditional schooling, all concentrated in a single location, ideally with children around the same age.
2. An inexpensive school building to start with. Perhaps an office near a large park.
3. A model that lets you be the sole teacher, and insurance for a cover teacher if you fall ill.
4. A mentor who’s started an independent school before
5. A large loan / grant from an UHNWI. You likely have little hope at getting a grant from a foundation so it’s probably not worth trying (if the education sector is anything like the rest of the charity sector)
It’s likely that starting a full school right away is completely hopeless. You probably need a series of intermediate steps to move you in that direction slowly. For example, if you homeschooled for rich parents, that’d let you build a network of rich parents while testing / refining your ideas.
For now, I suspect you’d be better off asking for advice from domain experts than EAs. If you’re serious about this, you might want to meet with the author and try to sell them on promoting your school. I suspect marketing would be your biggest issue by far, at least for the first few years.
Hi John, thanks for the thoughful comment!
My vague lead-in plan was along the lines of “run a weekend/holiday program to build network and when/if the kids and parents love it, see if they want more.” I will get some government funding per student, as long as I’m doing some of the things they want, which I would be.
1 would be amazing and I should think more at some point in the future about how to do that—thanks for the idea, I hadn’t thought of it!
2 is what I’m looking for and it’s possible given my location.
3 I have a bunch of teachers who are interested, so I think I’d be doing this with at least one other person, even if it’s small, so hopefully we just don’t get sick at the same time. Though I’d have a network for if this happens.
4 I’m going to look for a mentor who has done a similar thing. Now is not a good time to look because the school year (I’m in Australia) starts in a week, so everyone’s very busy.
5 I have a guy who can help in finding startup money and who thinks it’s possible, so I’m deferring worrying about this for a while.
Thanks again for the comment! You’re right that this possibly isn’t the best place for this post. So I’ll likely not be posting here again about this unless it’s more relevant.