It starts with a belief in the power of education
To reduce poverty
And inequality:
To transform lives. 

It is grounded in the incontrovertible truth that every child deserves to
dream
And every pupil has the right to soar over the same high bar,
So we provide ladders and guide ropes and safety nets;
We fill heads and hearts and hands,
Using imagination and determination to realise the future, not repeat the
past
Neither romanticising nor vilifying
But looking for and at hard truths,
Analysing evidence and outcomes, because expertise is to be valued and impact is key.

 It is about innovation and change, with reason, and at pace
Which rebuffs the constraints of bureaucracy and flies in the face of
naysayers,
Not packaging up articulate excuses for under-achieving
But insisting on the possible, with grit and courage;
Seeking ideas from every culture and quarter
Because no one has all the answers
And we are smarter when we look out not in,
When we question and when we share.

It embraces falling down,
because it is a great way to discover better means of jumping up,
faster and higher
To reach for the skies.

It ends with a new generation of truly diverse leaders
Eager to solve the world’s most intractable problems
Fluent in a new alphabet of ethical leadership:
Ambitious, Brave, Curious, Determined, Extraordinary, Fast and Good
Who will not tolerate any form of bias or discrimination
Relentlessly breaking through glass ceilings
And systematically, proactively, pulling others up behind them
To realise their dreams.

The Laidlaw Foundation exists because inspirational education changes lives.