• The school is innovative, humane and agency led, and aims to change mainstream education by giving young people more ownership of their learning.

• Will suit families wanting an alternative to mainstream that still takes learning seriously and gives children more agency.

Admissions at The New School feel very different from those at a conventional independent, and should appeal to families looking for a radically different but still academically purposeful alternative to mainstream schooling. The school should suit children who may thrive with more agency, smaller-scale relationships and less conventional structures than many schools provide.

Scholarships are not the issue here because the school is non-fee-paying. The more important question is whether its alternative model, culture and expectations genuinely fit the child and family.

The overall picture is innovative, mission led and distinctly unconventional, with the school describing itself as an alternative version of mainstream education and presenting a non-fee-paying model. Parents should still visit because the decisive question is whether the philosophy, routines and level of self-direction genuinely fit the child.