Inside Schools | Stories of how schools think, build, and evolve

Inside Schools

Stories of how schools think, build, and evolve

Read by 400,000 educators and school leaders worldwide

Over the last ten years, I've visited more than 100 schools and worked closely with thousands more around the world. Many of them have changed how I think about what a school can be.

That's why I'm starting Inside Schools, where every month I will share a story from a school that has made a design choice worth understanding. The goal is simple: to share real examples of how schools are thinking, building, and evolving. 

I hope these stories inspire you the way they've inspired me!

Deepanshu Arora
Co-founder & CEO, Toddle

5 May, 2026 Western Academy of Beijing

The school where culture does the work of strategy

The Western Academy of Beijing has run on the same three founding philosophies for 30 years. Every policy the school makes must trace back to them. The strategic plan approved in 2022 has no fixed targets and no end date. Alignment at WAB is not a management practice, it is a cultural one. That difference shapes everything from how AI gets introduced to how a new parent is told what the school will not do.
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