Flagship plan
An education that prepares people for their actual lives.
Children spend 10,000–15,000 hours in school, yet far too many leave without the skills adulthood demands. We think we can change that without harming anyone’s grades.
The problem
Ask most teachers or politicians what school is for and they’ll say it prepares young people for adult life. Too often it doesn’t. It sorts people by how well they pass a particular kind of exam. The students who get top grades tend to have good time management, focus, reasoning and revision habits already. So we’d teach those things to everyone.
The trade‑off, honestly
Could slightly shorter lesson time nudge exam performance? Possibly, at the margin — though grade boundaries move to absorb changes like this. But if the choice were a hair’s‑breadth of grades against a young person leaving school genuinely equipped for life, we’d take the skills. Our argument, not settled fact
Twelve pillars, taught every year
Each pillar spirals: revisited every year, growing in depth.
- Health & fitness
- Mental resilience
- Relationships
- Communication
- Money & finance
- Work & career
- Business & enterprise
- Digital & cyber
- Information literacy
- Life admin
- Safety & risk
- Civics & law
How it’s delivered
Daily
About 20 minutes — a micro‑lesson plus a real scenario or drill.
Monthly
A hands‑on Practical Life Lab: cooking, first aid, money simulations, mock interviews.
Termly
Competency checks — pass or fail on tasks you can actually perform.
How it grows with a child
Ages 5–7
Hygiene and sleep routines, naming feelings, kindness and sharing, listening and asking for help, saving versus spending, road safety and safe adults, why rules exist.
Ages 7–9
Self‑control and finishing tasks, conflict repair, clear speaking and phone manners, pocket‑money budgeting, spotting adverts, laundry and cleaning, first‑aid awareness.
Ages 9–11
Habit building and handling criticism, online kindness and privacy, budgets and opportunity cost and scam basics, fact versus opinion, emergencies, rights and responsibilities.
Ages 11–13
Puberty and health literacy, a stress toolkit and spotting biases, consent warning signs, banking and tax concepts, phishing and 2FA, misleading graphs, consumer rights and the basics of the law.
Ages 13–15
Training and substance risk, failure and the dichotomy of control, credit and debt and APR, ISAs and compounding, negotiation, algorithms and dark patterns, contracts and employment basics.
Ages 15–17
Long‑term health and navigating the NHS, resilience under pressure, renting and mortgages and pensions and student finance, job‑search strategy, decision‑making under uncertainty, running a household, voting and juries and your rights.
How we’d roll it out
Never build a whole age group up front. Prove each step, then expand.
Phase one
Prove it
Freeze the twelve pillars. Build a first unit for ages 11–13, run a free one‑term pilot in three schools with before‑and‑after measurement, then publish the results — good or bad.
Phase two
Scale it
Only once pilots work, package the full year with training, secure a multi‑academy trust rollout, and build national competency checks.
Phase three
Lock it in
Reach hundreds of schools, take the evidence to a select committee, and push for a statutory minimum of practical education.
The delivery detail, safeguarding and curriculum design will be shaped with practising teachers and subject experts. If that’s you, we’d love your help