We first launched Lumos as an after school program.

The idea was simple. Give kids a place to do the kind of work that makes them grow fast. Build projects. Work in teams. Communicate clearly. Learn to give feedback, take feedback, and keep going when something doesn’t work the first time.

It filled up quickly.

What surprised us wasn’t that kids liked it. Most kids like building things. What surprised us was how much they changed once this kind of work became normal. They got clearer in how they expressed themselves. More confident. More willing to take on hard problems. Parents told us conversations at home became sharper. Not because the kids had memorized more facts, but because they had more thoughts of their own.

The program also showed us a limit.

If you only meet in small slices of time, you end up teaching the trailer, not the movie.

The best parts of learning need continuity. Longer projects where kids plan, hit a wall, revise, and ship. Long stretches where they learn what it feels like to stay with one thing. A peer group that becomes real because you meet often enough to build norms. Teachers who can go deep with a child because they see them every day, not just occasionally.

We could see the outline of the school we wanted to build, but we couldn’t squeeze it into an after school format.

So we decided to build Lumos School.

The reason is simple. We want the Lumos model to be the main thing, not the side thing. If you believe kids should learn with depth, with strong fundamentals, and through real work, you need a weekly rhythm that makes that possible.

Lumos School is built around a few concrete choices.

Daily one on one instruction, because individual attention changes the slope of learning. It helps kids move at the right pace and build real confidence in reading, writing, math, and languages.

Long, uninterrupted focus blocks, because attention is a skill, and most environments train the opposite muscle.

Projects with real outcomes, because knowledge sticks best when you use it. Writing and math stop being subjects and start being tools.

Expeditions, because character isn’t built through lectures. You build it by doing hard things with a group and learning to carry responsibility.

And a small, mixed age community we shape intentionally around curiosity, kindness, and drive, because peers are the hidden curriculum. Who your child spends their days with matters more than people like to admit.

We’re building Lumos School in Zurich, and we’re building it bilingual, because that’s how the world works. Kids should experience thinking and communicating across cultures as normal.

We started with a program to test the idea. It worked.

Now we’re turning it into a school so we can do it properly.

Our first academic year starts in Fall 2026.

And finally, a big thank you to the Zurich education department for the collaboration, the support, and for believing in what we’re building.