Property developer Samuel Leeds spent £150k creating a private school in his garden after becoming frustrated with the lack of financial literacy teaching
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)
A millionaire father has splashed out £150,000 creating a school in his back garden for his children after growing disillusioned with what he describes as the “rigid” and “oppressive” British education system – and has now taken on two teachers.
Property tycoon Samuel Leeds, 34, made the decision to withdraw his three eldest children – aged eight, seven and five – from mainstream education because of his concerns over the absence of financial and entrepreneurial learning in their curriculum.
The father-of-four spent six months constructing the 600 square foot educational facility, where he now employs two full-time teachers and delivers finance lessons himself. The school can cater for 12 youngsters in total; currently those enrolled are his own children alongside his nieces and nephews, the Manchester Evening News reports.
Samuel Leeds with his wife Amanda(Image: Samuel Leeds/SWNS)
Samuel, who runs a successful property development firm, maintains the project has delivered savings of £66,000 against the £216,000 expense of private schooling for all the youngsters.
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 employs two full time teachers, and teaches finance skills at the school himself(Image: Samuel Leeds/SWNS)
Samuel and his wife Amanda, 33, first decided to establish their garden-based school in late 2023 and began the process of securing planning permission for a classroom on their property in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Once approval was granted, they dedicated the following six months to building the small-scale facility, which features a single classroom.
Construction was finished in April 2024, and Samuel’s three eldest children started attending in January 2025. The youngsters are joined by their eight cousins, aged between five and 11, whilst Samuel’s youngest child, aged one, will enrol when old enough.
He intends to keep them in the school until they reach 18 and confirmed they will still sit exams such as GCSEs. Samuel employs two teachers at the school, one specialising in maths-based subjects, and another focusing on English and creative disciplines.
The father also takes on a teaching role, imparting knowledge about financial literacy, debating, business and critical thinking. Samuel expressed his belief that the current schooling system is “flawed”, as “people are finishing university, and they’re struggling to get even a job.”
He said he also disagreed with the strict rules in schools, such as children having to ask permission to use the toilet and being reprimanded for mistakes. Samuel explained that his school differs from traditional ones as his teachers encourage children to be “curious about the subject”, rather than simply memorising information to pass exams.
The school also provides the family with the flexibility to travel whenever they wish.
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)
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 revealed he receives daily messages from mums and dads keen to relocate to Beaconsfield so their children can attend his groundbreaking school. Yet, given the school’s modest capacity, rather than expanding pupil numbers, Samuel plans to develop a finance-focused curriculum for families who educate their children at home.
He explained: “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 noted that, while it wasn’t his original aim, establishing the school has actually reduced costs, as hiring two full-time teachers proves significantly less expensive than paying £18,000 annually per child for private education.
“The costs of private school are astronomical, and they don’t even learn anything about business there”, he said. “We didn’t do this to save money, but it has actually worked out a lot cheaper.”
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