Samuel Leeds now employs two full-time teachers and runs finance classes himself
A millionaire businessman who was sick of the UK schooling system spent £150,000 building a school in his garden for his four kids(Image: Samuel Leeds© SWNS)
A millionaire dad spent £150,000 building a school in his own garden for his kids after he became fed up with the “rigid” and “oppressive” UK schooling system – and now employs two teachers.
Property developer Samuel Leeds, 34, decided to pull his three older children – aged eight, seven and five – out of school after becoming frustrated with the lack of finance and business skills they were being taught.
The dad-of-four spent six months making the 600sq foot school in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire and now employs two full time teachers as well as teaching finance himself. He teaches 12 pupils – his own four children, and Samuel’s brother and sister’s kids.
Samuel, who runs a hugely successful property development business, says the build has saved the parents £66,000 on the £216,000 cost of sending all the kids to private school.
Samuel employs two full time teachers, and teaches finance skills at the school himself(Image: Samuel Leeds© SWNS)
Samuel said: “I became frustrated with the school system, because it’s rigid and oppressive and they don’t teach you anything about business or finance. I think the whole system is flawed, because you’re either told if you’re smart you go to university, or if you’re not you do manual labour.
“But there’s also a third option, starting your own business and becoming an entrepreneur. I dropped out of school at 16 thinking I was stupid, and I had no aspiration, but then I realised I had what it takes to be successful in business. Rather than complain about the schooling system, I decided to do something about it, and built my own school in the garden.
“We hired two teachers, one for English and one for maths, and I teach financial literacy and critical thinking. My brother and sister’s kids go to the school as well, so there’s 12 kids in total, and I’m planning on creating a curriculum for parents that home school. The kids love it, and ironically, it actually costs us less to employ the teachers, than it would to send them all to private school.”
Samuel Leeds with his wife Amanda(Image: Samuel Leeds© SWNS)
Samuel and his wife Amanda, 33, first decided to build their backyard school in late 2023 and set about getting planning permission for a classroom in their garden. After it was accepted, they spent the next six months constructing the mini school, which consists of just one classroom.
The building was completed in April 2024, and Samuel’s oldest three children began attended the school in January 2025. The children’s eight cousins, aged between five and 11 also attend the school, and Samuel’s youngest child, aged one, will also attend when they are old enough.
He plans to continue educating them in the school right through until they are 18 and said they will still take exams such as GCSEs. Samuel employs two teachers in the school, one of whom teaches maths-based subjects, and another who teaches English and creative subjects.
And the dad also teaches at the school, teaching the kids about financial literacy, debating, business and critical thinking. Samuel said that he believes the current schooling system is “flawed”, as “people are finishing university, and they’re struggling to get even a job.”
He added that he disagrees with the strict rules in schools, such as kids having to ask to go to the toilet and being told off for mistakes. Samuel said that his school differs from traditional schools as his teachers teach children to be “curious about the subject”, rather than forcing them to just memorise things in order to pass exams. The school also allows the family the flexibility to travel whenever they want to.
As well as his own four children, Samuel’s brother and sister’s children also attend the school, making a total of 12 pupils(Image: Samuel Leeds© SWNS)
He said: “If we want to take them out of school, we don’t have to ask. We’ve got a home in Dubai and one in Zimbabwe, so we can take the kids there and continue teaching them. They learn so much more coming to Dubai for a three-day business trip than they would in a classroom at school.”
Samuel said he gets messages from parents every day, who say that they would happily move to Beaconsfield, so that their kids can attend his innovative school. However, due to the small size of the school, instead of opening it up to more kids, Samuel said he is planning on creating a curriculum based on financial education to share with parents who home school their children.
He said: “At the moment, my kids use a curriculum I’ve created which consists of workbooks, videos and exercises that the teachers monitor them on. It’s pretty awesome, and we’ve spent all this time creating it, so we may as well roll it out and give other parents access to it.”
Samuel added that, although this wasn’t his intention, he has actually ended up saving money by building the school, as employing two full time teachers is far cheaper than sending all 12 pupils to a £18,000 a year private school.
“The costs of private school are astronomical, and they don’t even learn anything about business there”, he said. He continued: “We didn’t do this to save money, but it has actually worked out a lot cheaper.”
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