The New School

Independent education without a fee invoice is rare, and that is the first thing parents notice about The New School. Set in St Mary's Lodge on Central Hill in Upper Norwood, it is an ISI-registered independent school that charges no tuition, funded instead through trusts, foundations, donors and corporate partners. Founded in 2020 by Lucy Stephens, who continues as founder and co-headteacher, the school is built on a democratic model: daily circle meetings, sociocratic decision-making, and a deliberate balance of timetabled lessons with self-directed learning. It is small by design, with around 102 pupils on a roll capped at 120 and a stated ratio of roughly fifteen young people to each teacher. The school is registered to take pupils from age 4 to 18, but in practice it has grown year by year and currently runs from Reception through to Year 10, with no sixth form yet in place.

The defining feature here is choice. Rather than presenting agency as a slogan, the school treats it as the organising principle of the day, and the ISI inspection in October 2024 found that providing pupils with choice about their education is central to the school's work. Mornings open with a circle, a community meeting where pupils and staff plan the day, raise concerns, and resolve problems with the expectation that everyone will be heard. The same structure closes the day. The circle is the defining structure for the school, and it is the engine of a culture that pupils and adults visibly share across the age range.

Decisions are made using the principles of sociocracy, where everyone has an equal vote and right to speak regardless of age or job title. That extends to genuinely practical matters: pupils have used circles to choose PE activities and even the lunch menu. Behaviour is treated as communication, a key principle behind the school's restorative approach, and incidents of bullying are few. The result is a consistent and deeply embedded culture, where pupils develop a sense of agency and are respectful of one another's achievements.

This is a school with a strong nurturing approach, and it is candid that some of its pupils arrive having had previously difficult experiences in mainstream education. Staff are described as committed and reflective, modelling the democratic values they teach. For the right family, that combination of small scale, voice, and restorative practice is the whole point. It will not suit a family looking for a conventional, hierarchical school.

The unusual funding model shapes the character as much as the philosophy does. The New School is a registered charity, set up so that no family pays for a place, and it has built its income through a mix of charitable fundraising in its early years and, increasingly, partnerships with public and private sector funders. That gives it the freedom to design an education outside the pressures of standardised testing, but it also makes the school a young and growing institution rather than a long-established one. Each year it adds the next year group as its founding cohorts move up, which is why it currently tops out at Year 10.

The New School does not yet publish externally validated examination results, and there are no FindMySchool rankings for it across primary, GCSE or sixth-form measures. This reflects two things: the school is young, having opened in 2020, and it currently runs only to Year 10, so no cohort has yet reached the end of Key Stage 4. Parents weighing academic outcomes should treat this as a school still building its track record rather than one with a body of public results to assess.

What the curriculum looks like is clearer. The school largely follows the National Curriculum, adapting it across year groups, and pairs timetabled maths, literacy, topic and specialist lessons with substantial self-directed learning time. Core subjects of English, maths and PE sit alongside lessons pupils select themselves. At secondary level the timetable of specialist subject teaching grows year on year, and the school's stated intention is that by Key Stage 4 young people are ready to study and enter their chosen GCSEs. Maths is taught using a coaching model that supports even formerly reluctant mathematicians.

Pupils make good progress from their starting points, and teachers have good subject knowledge. There is a clear area to watch, however: ensuring the curriculum carries sufficient academic challenge for all pupils, particularly higher-attainers, so that the most able make the progress they are capable of. For academically ambitious families, that is the honest counterweight to the school's pastoral strengths, and it is the kind of thing worth asking about directly at a visit.

Teaching here looks different from a conventional independent school, and the difference is intentional. Lessons combine direct teaching in core subjects with extended periods of self-directed learning, during which pupils develop problem-solving and project-management skills on work matched to their own interests. Pupils set goals with their teacher and parents, and progress is monitored across social, emotional and academic development rather than against tests alone.

Staff know pupils well as individuals, and their needs are addressed in specific ways, which matters particularly for pupils joining from non-standard educational backgrounds. Pupils with special educational needs and disabilities are supported through a pupil passport, and those with English as an additional language are monitored continuously with tailored strategies. Multi-age grouping and small classes mean teachers stay with a group of young people for several years, building the kind of relationships the school regards as fundamental to learning.

Low-level disruption in some lessons is one thing the school has been asked to manage more consistently, alongside the challenge of stretching the most able. These are the practical edges of a model that prizes freedom and voice, and a school of this size is well placed to address them quickly.

The New School does not currently have a sixth form, and no published destination data exists for school leavers. Because the school runs to Year 10 at present, the question of where pupils go after Year 11 has not yet arisen in the way it would at an established secondary, and any figures on university or further-education destinations would be premature.

What the school does provide is structured careers education. Careers provision is effective, with pupils supported through careers fairs and personalised work experience, and pupils develop economic understanding through business workshops and role play. As the school grows its secondary phase and its first cohorts approach GCSE, destinations will become a more meaningful measure. For now, families should expect a school focused on preparing pupils to enter chosen GCSEs by Key Stage 4 rather than one with a record of onward placements to report.

Entry is genuinely competitive, and the school is open about it. For September 2026 it has just ten Reception places available, and admissions for the year close on 31 January, with offers made by 31 March and a deadline of around mid-April to accept. Most other year groups through to the top of the school are full, and families seeking those places are invited to apply and join a waiting list rather than expecting a place.

Because the school charges no fees, demand is high and the oversubscription rule is unusual: where there are more applicants than places, half of the available places are allocated by proximity to the school and half by random allocation. That random element is deliberate, designed to keep access open rather than tied entirely to who lives nearest. The full over-subscription criteria sit in the school's published admissions policy.

There is no entrance examination of the academic-selection kind described for the main entry point, which fits a school that recruits at Reception and grows its pupils through the phases. Internal progression from the primary phase into the secondary phase is continuous: pupils move up year by year within the same setting rather than re-applying, which is part of the appeal of an all-through structure. Parents comparing options can use the FindMySchool map to check how close their home sits to the school, which matters given that half of places turn on proximity, though with a random allocation in play, distance alone will not settle it.

Wellbeing is not a bolt-on here; it is the architecture. The morning and afternoon circle system underpins pupils' self-awareness and an established culture of respect and courtesy, and the school's restorative approach handles conflict through dialogue rather than sanction. There is a strong, supportive nurturing approach that helps pupils, including some with previously difficult educational experiences, work effectively alongside their peers.

Personal, social and health education is wide-ranging, with a healthy focus delivered through nutrition lessons and active break times, and relationships and sex education is taught with pupils grouped by age. The school works with external providers including mental health therapists and educational psychologists, and it operates a dynamic risk-assessment culture with measures such as one-to-one mentoring where contextual risks are identified. The school has been asked to record its detailed risk assessments more fully and consistently in writing, an administrative point rather than a safeguarding failing.

On safeguarding, the latest ISI inspection found the school's culture strong, with effective training, detailed records, and effective oversight from trustees, and that all relevant Standards are met across the school. That judgement is the clearest external assurance available to parents.

For a small school, the site offers a surprising amount. There is a forest school with adjoining woodland used for outdoor learning, where early years children develop fine motor skills, plus a large playing field and a basketball court. Inside, pupils have a library, a kitchen used for nutrition and cooking, and four specialist workshops covering Art, Science, Media and ICT, and Design and Technology. ICT options lessons in particular are used to drive individual projects matched to pupils' interests.

Physical education is a core subject, well planned and delivered with the help of external sports expertise, and pupils choose their PE activities through the circle. Beyond timetabled lessons, the school's civic life is unusually active for its size. Pupils run a school council, take part in timetabled useful-work lessons, raise charitable funds, and contribute to the wider community. A global citizenship strand prepares pupils for living in a multicultural world, with English texts chosen to explore themes such as immigration and history lessons that connect past events to current affairs. Pupils also study social and cultural questions including identity and the laws that protect a diverse society. Together these turn the school's democratic ethos into daily practice rather than theory.

The outdoor side of school life is genuinely woven in rather than bolted on. Forest school sessions in the adjoining woodland give the youngest children regular time outside, building independence and physical confidence, while the playing field and basketball court support an active break-time culture that the school treats as part of pupils' health and wellbeing. Self-directed learning blocks let older pupils run their own projects across the workshops, developing problem-solving and project-management skills they choose to apply. For a school of barely a hundred pupils, the breadth of specialist space and outdoor provision is one of its quieter strengths.

The school operates a standard school day structured around the morning and afternoon circles, with timetabled lessons and self-directed learning between them. Wraparound or after-school care arrangements are not published, so families who need early-morning or late-afternoon provision should confirm what is available directly with the school.

The site sits on Central Hill in Upper Norwood, close to the Lambeth and Croydon boundary in south London, within reach of Crystal Palace and Gipsy Hill stations and well served by local bus routes. As a small school drawing on a wide area, it has no formal catchment, though half of its Reception places are allocated by proximity. Parents can compare travel distance and shortlist the school alongside others using the FindMySchool tools.

Because the school is so small and so distinctive, a visit matters more here than at most schools. Families considering it should see the circles in action, ask how self-directed learning is supervised and assessed, and clarify the day's start and finish times and any holiday or care arrangements, since these are not published in detail. Given that the school is still adding year groups, it is also worth asking which years will be running when a child would reach secondary age.

No examination track record yet. The school opened in 2020 and currently runs only to Year 10, so it has not yet produced GCSE results or published destination data. Families who want to judge a school on validated outcomes will not find them here yet and are effectively backing the model and the leadership.

Stretch for the most able. The October 2024 inspection asked the school to ensure the curriculum carries enough academic challenge for higher-attaining pupils. Parents of a very academically driven child should ask specifically how the school will extend them within its choice-led structure.

Securing a place is the real obstacle. With no fees, only ten Reception places for September 2026, most other years full, and half of places decided by random allocation, getting in is the hardest part. Distance helps but does not guarantee entry.

It is genuinely an alternative model. Democratic decision-making, daily circles, and large blocks of self-directed learning suit some children and not others. This is a feature, not a flaw, but it deserves an honest visit before applying.

The New School is one of the more distinctive schools in south London: an independent, ISI-inspected school that charges no tuition and builds its entire day around pupil voice, choice and restorative practice. It meets all relevant ISI Standards, with strong safeguarding and good progress from pupils' starting points, while the curriculum still needs to stretch the most able more consistently and low-level disruption needs to be managed more tightly. It is best suited to families who believe in democratic, self-directed education and want a small, nurturing setting where their child is known well, and especially to those whose children have not thrived in a conventional school. The main caveats are real: there are no examination results yet, no sixth form, and very few places, so a family choosing it is choosing a model and a community rather than a proven set of outcomes.