Playfair Capital x Harris Academy Bermondsey

Chris Smith
Nov 6 · 3 min read

TL;DR We’re working on an initiative with the Harris Academy in Bermondsey to increase access and raise aspirations — working title ‘Playfair Academy’. Over the next year, 10 students will be part of an experimental curriculum involving the Playfair team and founders from across our portfolio.

A little bit of history

Back in 2008 I setup a mentoring scheme at Weil (my old law firm).

At its peak, we had 20 lawyers and other members of staff from across the firm making the journey to the Harris Academy in Bermondsey (HAB) every 2–3 weeks to offer one-on-one support to students.

Students from the Harris Academy, Bermondsey

I was a mentor for five years and loved it —when my mentees improved their grades, got into a great sixth form college or just came to a mentoring session with a renewed focus and confidence it was a real buzz.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can multiply the impact of one-on-one mentoring to impact more students.

The school has done a great job in recent years with initiatives to close the knowledge gap with the world of work and help students fulfil their potential.

What if we could use our knowledge of finance and tech to really turbocharge these efforts?


The Playfair Academy

The idea behind the Playfair Academy is to give students a greater depth of knowledge and open their minds to the possibilities that exist within the finance and tech industries through a structured curriculum.

Selecting the students

We want to select students who are high potential but low motivation and come from backgrounds where they are unlikely to be exposed to the finance and tech industries through their families or friends.

The school will use both quantitative and qualitative feedback from the students’ teachers and wider school community to select the initial class.

All students will be either 1 or 2 years away from taking their GCSEs. A key part of our thesis is that to really change young peoples’ lives, you have to intervene early — decisions (good or bad) compound over a lifetime.

Outline curriculum

Warner Yard

The programme will be delivered at Warner Yard, giving students an immersive experience in a professional working environment.

The sessions will be constructed along the following themes:

Session 1: demystifying the world’s of finance and tech

Session 2: discovering life and career stories from the Playfair team and our founders

Session 3: being a VC for 1/2 a day, reviewing potential deals

Beyond the formal sessions, we will also be looking to offer work experience at Playfair and with our portfolio companies.

Desired outcomes

Our aim is that after going through the Playfair Academy, students will have:

  • increased confidence when they enter an office/working environment (boosting their ability to perform well at interviews in the future)
  • gained a broad understanding of what happens in the finance and tech industries
  • heard from a member of the Playfair team or a founder whose story has inspired them

I’ll be posting on the blog after each session to review what went well and what didn’t work. If the programme is a success, then we’ll look to share all the materials we have produced in the hope that others may use them for similar programmes with other schools in London and across the UK.

Chris Smith

Written by

Partner @ Playfair Capital

Playfair Capital Blog

This publication features the articles written by the Playfair Capital team and friends.

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