A Founder’s Story of Courage, Disruption and Reinventing Education

The creation of something new often begins with a deliberate dismantling of what no longer serves. In the case of one new school now changing the face of education in South Africa, it began during a pandemic with a man on a building site holding a high-pressure hose…

Shaun Fuchs was that man. The pandemic was Covid. And the building would become Centennial Schools in Stanton, Johannesburg. Despite overwhelming odds, Shaun knew his school would soon have a soul.

On a site that had once been an industrial office, the school gradually began to take shape. It was still imperfect, still unfinished, but in that transformation, the building began to murder the school’s philosophy: that spaces, like systems, can and should be redesigned. That purpose can be redesigned. And that, with imagination, even the most unlikely foundations can support something entirely new.

The School That Didn’t Exist is both the story of the birth of Centennial schools and a powerful manifesto for a new way to educate our children.

“An inspiring case for a different kind of school – where children are seen, encouraged and prepared for a changing world.” – Sam Cowen