We speak to Tom Wates, former teacher and founder of Don’t Lean Back (dlb), voted to have one of the top 25 products that may just change the world speaks (Bloomberg Business Week).
Tom is a high level Game Changer, who hated school from the minute he started until he left school at 16. He says, “I felt different to everyone else, didn’t enjoy exams and left school with very few qualifications – I couldn’t wait to start work.”
Tom’s teachers didn’t know what to do with him. He was considered disruptive and traditional teaching methods just didn’t work for him, like many children, but he has gone on to become a hugely successful entrepreneur. He says, “Schools are judged on how well pupils do in their GCSE and A-level exams. However, some of the most creative and successful people I know don’t have particularly good grades.”
There are many amazing young people whose talents are missed at school every day. Tom says, “All too often the young people teachers don’t know what to do with are singled out for being different. What the Young People Index allows us to do is understand how pupils make their impact – it helps pupils understand how they contribute to school and think about where they want to go in the future.”