Everything you want to know about the school, the curriculum, the location, and how to get involved.
Telos Academy is a modern international school in development near Ericeira, Portugal. We are planning a school for roughly 500 students aged 3–18, with the final size shaped by demand from local families, designed around mastery learning and real-world competence. We expect to open for the 2029/30 academic year.
Telos is the ancient Greek word for purpose and fulfilment. We chose it because we believe education should be directed toward something meaningful, not just exam performance.
No. We are currently in the development phase: site selection, architect engagement, and regulatory preparation are underway. We expect to open in September 2029.
Telos Academy was founded by Brian Liston. Brian is an entrepreneur and technologist with a background in highly regulated industries and applied AI. He co-founded zerohash, a regulated digital asset platform, where he led product and engineering, as well as leading the initial federal and state licensing programmes. More recently, he has held product leadership roles at Revolut (one of Europe's most licensed fintechs) and Pachama (an AI company, acquired by Carbon Direct).
He moved to Portugal with his family and, after seeing what schools like Alpha School in the US were achieving with adaptive technology, concluded that the Lisbon coastal region deserved a new modern educational option. Telos Academy is the result.
We cannot manufacture history. What we can do is be transparent about who is building this, what their qualifications are, what external accreditation we will seek and in what order, and how we plan to demonstrate competence before asking families to commit. We take seriously the concern that joining in the first year carries real risk for a child. Our task is to de-risk as much as possible, and make any remaining risk legible and manageable, in order to earn trust before enrolment opens, not after.
Our development roadmap shows exactly what we are doing and when.
No, and we want to be direct about this. Building a school that only serves international families with international incomes would be a failure of ambition, and it is not what Ericeira needs.
Portuguese families are part of this community too, and a school that sharpens the division between locals and arrivals is one we do not want to build. Portuguese language and cultural integration are core to the curriculum, not a bolt-on. We are also exploring how the fee structure can reflect the breadth of the community we are in, including what access might look like for families on local incomes. We do not have a complete answer yet, but it is a question we are taking seriously from the start.
We are building for students aged 3–18, from early years through to secondary. See our Ages & Stages page for how each stage is structured.
Cambridge International is our prioritised curriculum framework, now being formalised through our Portuguese licensing and Cambridge registration. For students aged 17–18, we are also exploring the IB Diploma Programme as an additional pathway.
We are aware of Alpha School, and are transparently inspired by its structure and self-reported results. We share structural similarities: a focused morning academic block, personalised pace, afternoon real-world activities.
What we are building does differ in some important ways, however: we are Portuguese-rooted; we have prioritised Cambridge International as our curriculum standard, as opposed to the US Common Core curriculum used by Alpha; we are hyper-focused on community input; and most critically, we will have qualified teachers onsite to educate and drive the curriculum, alongside the adaptive software (Alpha has no teachers on-site).
Our philosophy page sets out what we stand for, and how we learn covers the model in detail.
Yes. Accreditation is a core part of our plan. We are pursuing a Portuguese school licence as our first regulatory milestone, followed by Cambridge International registration as our curriculum standard. Further accreditations may be added as the school grows. We will publish progress on our Roadmap page.
English is the primary language of instruction. Portuguese language learning is a core part of the curriculum. We believe students should be genuinely rooted in the community they live in.
Yes. The constant adult presence in the school will be qualified teachers, not generalist guides. This is both a values decision and a regulatory requirement: Portuguese Ministry of Education authorisation requires credentialed teaching staff.
This is one of the ways Telos differs from the model it is most often compared to. Alpha School in Texas operates with non-credentialed guides; we do not. Our teachers carry the responsibility for each child's learning, alongside the adaptive tools.
We will also draw on subject specialists, visiting practitioners, and local experts (surfers, makers, farmers, musicians, engineers) for the afternoon programme. Our head of school appointment is scheduled for late 2027, with broader faculty hiring through 2028. See the Roadmap for the full timeline.
Our current planning is for approximately 500 students at full capacity, though the final size will be shaped by demand from local families. We will open with a founding cohort and grow over several years.
Yes - and this is central to how Telos works. There is no ceiling on academic progression. A student ready for more advanced material will access it, regardless of age. We group by capability and progress, not by year of birth. This is what mastery learning means in practice: you move on when you are ready, not when the calendar says so.
Pace alone is not mastery, and we have designed the Think session with that in mind.
The adaptive tools use spaced repetition to reinforce learning: skills are scheduled to resurface at increasing intervals after they have been taught. A child who grasped something shallowly will start getting it wrong when it reappears weeks later. The system catches that before it becomes a gap.
They also use interleaving: problems arrive in mixed batches across topics, not isolated by unit. A child who relies on pattern-matching to get through a chapter will not truly get it. Interleaving builds understanding across subjects continuously, rather than drilling one topic in depth and moving on.
Beyond the tools, teachers track what algorithms cannot see: how a child reasons aloud, the quality of their written work, their ability to defend an argument, their collaboration with peers. Afternoon projects are where those skills show up and get assessed independently of any platform.
Cambridge International is our prioritised curriculum standard. Its external outcome standards provide a validation layer that is independent of how each day is taught.
Yes. University preparation is a core outcome of Telos. We want to provide children a modern education, with as much time spent outdoors as possible. But we don't want to compromise on education standards or limit their future opportunities.
To that end, we have prioritised Cambridge International as our curriculum framework. It is the same underpinning used by respected international schools worldwide, providing externally recognised qualifications and proven pathways to universities in the UK, EU, and beyond. It is being formalised as part of our regulatory and accreditation process. Mastery-based learning does not mean unstructured learning. It means a child advances when they have genuinely understood something, not because a term ended.
For students aged 17–18, we are also exploring the IB Diploma Programme as an additional pathway. We will confirm accreditation targets on the Roadmap as they are formalised.
Most international schools run a traditional school day: six or more hours of teacher-led instruction, mixed-ability classes, and a curriculum paced for the average student. Telos is built differently. We use a focused morning academic session, personalised and adaptive, where each student works at their own level and pace. The afternoon is project-based work, physical development, and real-world labs. Students finish each day having genuinely mastered something, not just covered it. Read about the philosophy behind this →
The morning academic block is a focused two-hour personalised learning session using adaptive technology. Students work through maths, literacy, and core subjects at their own pace, mastering each concept before moving on. This is based on the research of Benjamin Bloom, whose work showed that one-on-one tutoring produces roughly two standard deviations of improvement over classroom instruction. We are building a model that replicates this at scale.
Afternoons are organised into three distinct sessions:
Make: project-based learning and workshops covering financial literacy, public speaking, entrepreneurship, coding, and the arts.
Explore: outdoor physical sessions on the Atlantic coast, including surfing, hiking, team sports, and open water.
Belong: community projects and civic engagement, building relationships with the people and place around the school.
Yes. Visual art, music, theatre, and movement are part of the afternoon programme across all four stages. Not as a single class per week (which is the norm in most schools and not what we want), but as a genuine track alongside projects, outdoor sessions, and community work.
Where our own staff are not the right fit for a specific discipline, we will bring in visiting practitioners: working artists, musicians, and makers from the local community. Studio, workshop, and performance space are part of how we are thinking about the physical site, not afterthoughts.
If you have ideas, or know people we should speak with, please get in touch.
The adaptive learning tools are used in the morning academic block only. The rest of the school day is hands-on, physical, and offline. How the morning block works varies significantly by stage:
See the full Ages & Stages breakdown for more on each phase. We will publish a detailed account of the tools used at each stage before enrolment opens. If you have specific concerns about a particular age group, get in touch.
Near Ericeira, within the Mafra municipality, approximately 40 minutes north of Lisbon. We have secured the site.
The area offers the lifestyle conditions that matter for families: the Atlantic coast, open countryside, a genuine community, while remaining accessible to Lisbon. It is an increasingly popular destination for the families we're building for, and we believe it is underserved by quality international education.
Not initially. Families will be responsible for transport at opening. We may introduce transport options for the wider Lisbon coastal region as the school grows, but this is not part of the opening plan.
Admissions will open in 2027. See the roadmap for updates on the timeline, or join the waitlist to be notified first.
We have shared an indicative tiered pricing structure with survey respondents, published on the follow-up survey results page. Fees rise across stages, reflecting the cost of educating older students:
These numbers are not final and will be confirmed before enrolment opens. If you are planning ahead and need more detail, get in touch directly.
This is something we are actively thinking about. We will publish our approach ahead of admissions opening.
Yes. Sibling pricing is part of how we plan to structure fees. One of the things we love about Ericeira is that it is genuinely a multi-child family ecosystem, and we want to support that. We are designing the fee structure with this in mind from the outset.
Specific sibling discount rates will be confirmed closer to enrolment opening in 2027. If you have three or more children and want to talk through your situation now, get in touch.
We are in early conversations with investors and partners who share our vision. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us directly.
Our Roadmap page shows the development timeline. Join the waitlist to receive updates as milestones are reached.
Does a device-based morning mean less social interaction?
The image of a room of children working silently on screens for two hours is a fair concern, and not what we are building. The space itself matters: the morning block takes place in a well-lit classroom with natural light, not a darkened computer lab. The session runs in short focused intervals: roughly twenty minutes of independent work, followed by a break. Those breaks aren't passive: students discuss what they've been working on, compare problems, ask each other questions, and often step outside.
When a student is stuck, they don't wait. Teachers circulate throughout, and students who need more support move into a small-group or one-on-one session with a teacher rather than grinding through something alone.
The rest of the day is built entirely around group work: project teams, outdoor sessions, and community activities. Students finish the day having worked alongside each other in every sense.