St Helen’s Only UK School Shortlisted for Innovation Award

St Helen’s School is the only school in the UK to be shortlisted for T4’s inaugural World’s Best School Prize for Innovation, following the development and application of our trailblazing ‘Nudge for Learning’ programme.

St Helen’s has been recognised by T4 for our commitment to bold innovation in the field of learning. We are so proud to be recognised by such a prestigious organisation, who are building the world’s largest community of teachers and schools to give every child everywhere a good education.

Our Nudge for Learning Programme

Grounded in the theory of behavioural economics, our unique Nudge for Learning programme takes the best aspects of the Oxbridge supervision model and offers this to students at a school level.

By fostering learner habits and character attributes which move away from simply learning for exams, this bold and innovative approach is generating tangible results and real change in our school community.

Through small-group mentoring and reflective learning practices, students are ‘nudged’ to take intellectual risks and engage in critical thinking. The impressive result is intellectually curious young people who are excited by learning and exploring beyond the curriculum.

Find out more about our Nudge for Learning Programme here.

Looking to the future

Our next ambition is to share our ground-breaking approach with local partner schools, and ultimately other educational institutions across the world, as part of our expanding Outreach Programme.

Alice Lucas, Head of St Helen’s School, said:

“If St Helen’s were to win the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation, we would use the prize money to help other schools curate their own Nudge programme to roll out with their pupils and reap the same rewards that our students have experienced. As teachers and school leaders we are in the privileged position of shaping the next generation. Our ultimate aim is to create a generation of intellectually engaged and independent young people with a lifelong love of learning.”

Glenn Bezalel, Director of Teaching and Learning at St Helen’s School, said:

“Whilst nudge theory has had such a huge impact in many aspects of our lives, it has been curiously under-explored within schools. Our experience has taught us that small changes can make huge differences at little cost. So we believe that our ‘Nudge for Learning’ programme can help level up education across the country.”

A public advisory vote will take place in September, followed by a judging academy vote, after which the winners will be announced during World Education Week, 17th – 21st October 2022.

This is the largest global school online celebration, where each of the schools in the Top 10 shortlists of the Prizes will be leading a one-hour live event to showcase and share their expertise with the world.