Learnlife has been recognised as one of the world’s best schools for building a school on trust, where children take charge of their learning and leave ready for life.
We’ve got some big news to share. Learnlife is a top 10 shortlisted school in the World’s Best School Prizes 2026!
We’ve been selected in the innovation category and are the only school in Spain and in Catalunya recognised for it. We’re one of just 50 schools selected across five categories, chosen from thousands of applications.
Run by T4 Education, the World’s Best School Prizes are considered the world’s most prestigious education awards. Dubbed ‘the Oscars of education’, the prize carries a lot of weight. Learnlife’s shortlisting reflects what we’ve been building in Barcelona over the past nine years.
Why the innovation prize?
The judges recognised Learnlife for tackling one of education’s most fundamental challenges: moving away from systems built around control towards an innovative model grounded in trust, responsibility and learner ownership.
Since 2017, we’ve been building a learning community where deep relational trust is the foundation of learning and responsibility. It’s a design principle that shapes everything from how learners are assessed to how they spend their day.
Our CEO, Leigh Fitzgerald, explains it this way:
“Trust is often spoken about as a critical value in education, but very few schools are willing to build it into the core learning environment. In many schools, trust is treated simply as an aspiration or a slogan, but at Learnlife it’s a primary design principle that shapes how young people learn, grow, and prepare for life.”
In practice, that means learners design their own pathways alongside Learning Guides who genuinely know them. Assessment means a curated portfolio of real work and demonstrated capability shown through the Learning Vitae, 360s and showcases.
Although we don’t have exams, some learners choose to sit them voluntarily because they own their learning journey and understand what they need to get to where they want to go. They choose the exam. The exam doesn’t choose them.
A school leader who visited us described it this way:
“Until I saw Learnlife’s graduating requirements, I did not believe examinations could be replaced with something of greater rigour.”