Post by António Amaral-Neto

Reminiscing about ten years working in education, developing school projects around the world... In 2016, I was standing on an empty plot in Dubai, holding a concept drawing of a school that didn't exist yet. That drawing eventually became The Aquila School. Since then, I've been incredibly fortunate to work on dozens of major school projects across 14 countries and 4 continents. From Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha to Lisbon, Cascais, Nassau, Panama City, Sotogrande, London, Madrid, Montreux, Riga, Milan and Brussels... and more recently Monterrey, Mexico City, Cancún, Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Almada, São Paulo and Miami. Here's what nobody told me about developing schools: the bricks and mortar are the easy part. The real work happens around a table. Architects championing design. Contractors balancing programme and cost. Interior designers who understand that a corridor isn't just a corridor - it's where a shy eleven-year-old might find their place. Engineers, suppliers, heads of school, educators, finance teams. Endless conversations where every decision is weighed against three others. Because every one of those decisions eventually becomes part of a child's life. Whether the afternoon light reaches a Year 4 classroom. Whether a science lab sparks curiosity. Whether a boarding house feels like a building - or like home - when you're fourteen and hundreds of miles from your family. That's what I love about this work. Buildings don't educate children. But they help shape what education can become. A school that works in London won't necessarily work in Monterrey. Every location has different regulations, climates, cultures, family expectations and ideas about what great education should feel like. You don't arrive with a template. You arrive with questions. You listen. Then you build. To every colleague, architect, educator, designer, contractor, consultant and supplier who has been part of this journey - thank you. None of it was built alone. So much still to be done……… #InternationalEducation #SchoolDevelopment #EducationLeadership #Greenfield #CampusDevelopment #K12