This new London school is shaking up children’s education

What classes are most memorable from your school days? Being mesmerised by the Bunsen burner in double science? Grappling with fractions in maths? Well, London’s next generation will be learning to run their own Airbnb, as that’s just one of the skills that students will be taught at Inspired Edge Academy London, a new school for children aged seven to 11 with an innovative education model.

Choosing where your child should go to school is a big decision for parents. You want the best for your kids and for them to spend their days in an environment where they’ll be nurtured, can expand their skills, and get prepared for the future.

For those looking for an education setting that goes beyond the norm, Inspired Edge Academy London will open in September 2027. Located at Olympia in Kensington, alongside independent senior school Wetherby Pembridge, Inspired Edge Academy will combine the core curriculum with real life skills, and use AI technology to accelerate learning.

Run by Inspired Education, a global group of 125 schools with 95,000 students, Inspired Edge Academy London will teach the standard UK curriculum but also teach its pupils some additional, more future-facing classes.

Here, mornings will be focused on the core curriculum, including English, maths, science, computing and languages, while afternoons will be spent mastering skills like financial literacy, entrepreneurship, public speaking and real-world problem solving.

The school says that using AI-powered adaptive learning platforms allows children to learn up to three times faster than traditional models. Having used this technology in partner schools within the Inspired group, Inspired Education’s analysis of students showed an average improvement of 8.1 per cent in assessment scores in some subjects after six weeks of learning on the platform. The idea is that this then frees up time for students to learn life skills alongside the core subjects.

The lessons dedicated to life skills will be wide-ranging, with topics as varied as how to build a drone, how to run an Airbnb and designing a colony to survive life on Mars. These sessions will be an exciting change of pace — for example, the Impossible Mission Circuit encourages children to work in teams, putting their problem solving and teamwork to the test by cracking codes and flying a drone safely through a live challenge.

Students will also be set projects that ask them to think big and forge connections, such as organising a local conservation campaign, or creating a multilingual story archive to celebrate the linguistic diversity of the community.

The programme at Inspired Edge Academy London aims to prepare children for the ever-changing world we live in. According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2025 Future of Jobs Report, 39 per cent of workers’ core skills will change by 2030. The report also found that, of the 1,000 leading global employers it surveyed, the most sought-after core skill was analytical thinking. Other key skills were resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership and social influence.

When it comes to fastest growing jobs, the WEF report showed that the top three were big data specialists, Fintech engineers, and AI and machine learning specialists. Also on the list were environmental engineers and renewable energy engineers.

According to the Skills Imperative 2035 programme report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), “changes in the labour market are now happening faster than previously projected, by as much as three times for some occupations”. In order to prepare for this, the report noted that more focus is needed to ensure “young people leave education with the qualifications and skills needed to compete for entry-level roles in high growth areas”, adding that “this requires a system of lifelong learning that nurtures the development of individuals’ skills throughout early childhood, education and work”.

The NFER report suggested focusing on what the organisation refers to as essential employment skills (EES), which it says will “become even more vital across the whole economy over the next decade”. The skills identified in the report were: collaboration, communication, creative thinking, information literacy, organising, planning, prioritising, problem solving and decision making.

With this in mind, education needs to adapt and change, says Nadim Nsouli, the founder of Inspired Education and Inspired Edge Academy. “Education must evolve to reflect the world children are growing up in. The traditional classroom structure was designed for another era, when information was scarce and learning moved at a single pace for everyone,” he says.

The Academy will use AI-enabled adaptive learning platforms, which is tailored to each pupil by monitoring their individual progress and adjusting teaching in real time. Real-life teachers will continue to play an essential role, however, working with this innovative technology and looking at the data to decide what each child needs next — whether that’s more explanation, more of a challenge, or something else entirely.

Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, the programme will be bespoke to each child’s specific needs, with progress being based on how quickly they’re able to master skills rather than their age.

According to Mike Lambert, global education director at Inspired Education, this is one of the things that sets Inspired Edge Academy apart. “Children do not learn at the same pace, but conventional classrooms often expect them to. Inspired Edge Academy changes that by allowing pupils to move forward when they have mastered the material, while ensuring those who need more support receive it,” he says. “The national curriculum remains our foundation, but the programme builds far beyond it, equipping children with the academic knowledge, confidence and life skills they will rely on throughout their lives.”

This is echoed by Nsouli: “Inspired Edge Academy represents a new model for primary education, with a broader set of focus areas, that could see children learn how to build a drone or run an Airbnb,” he says. “Most importantly, progression will be based on mastery rather than age. Every child learns differently, and education should adapt to the learner, not the other way around.”

London will be home to the first Inspired Edge Academy, but that’s just the start. There are more locations set to open around the world in places such as Lisbon, Milan, Madrid, Mexico City, São Paulo and Auckland, making it part of a global group of schools.

Lambert says that London was the “ideal place to bring Edge to life”. He adds: “It’s a city that demands adaptability and confidence to succeed, and education needs to keep pace. At Edge, children progress through learning at their own pace, while spending dedicated time applying that knowledge through real-world projects. The result is not just academic confidence, but a genuine love of school and the practical skills needed for life in London and beyond.”

Learn more about Edge Academy London here