Building the Future of Life Education Together
A Letter FROM THE FOUNDER
◾ Part 1
Reflections on the Current State of Education in Australia
At Qs School, our journey in education has not only allowed us to witness students’ academic success, but also to uncover the challenges students and parents face in areas such as mental health, emotional communication, personal growth, and the search for meaning in life.
Consider the following cases from within our community:
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Student C, who attended top schools from high school to university, found himself disillusioned and depressed after four years in the workforce, realising that the predictability of his life didn’t align with his true desires.
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Parent Z, highly educated and hardworking, planned to send both of his children to private schools, but struggled under intense work pressure. He questioned whether providing his children with a traditional education would simply lead them to a life like his—filled with responsibilities but devoid of joy.
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A high-achieving student, H, was active in school, yet chose to end his life in November of his first year at university, leaving behind unanswered questions about life’s worth.
These challenges have even been exacerbated by the pandemic and rapid developments in AI. From our experience in the education industry, we have identified various common root causes:
1.1 Challenges in Adolescent Growth and Learning
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Academic pressure, mental health struggles, and lack of motivation are common challenges for Australian youth.
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Data shows that over 25% of primary and 30% of secondary students suffer from symptoms of depression or anxiety. Bullying affects 34% of adolescents, and over 40% lack an intrinsic drive for study and life. These issues not only impede academic performance but also create an emotional health crises.
1.2 Issues in Family Education
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Parent-child communication deteriorates as children age, with over 16% of teenagers assessing their family functioning as below 'Good'.
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Many parents, burdened by work pressures or inappropriate parenting methods, fail to meet their children’s emotional needs. This in turn deepens generational gaps and negatively impacts families and children’s development.
1.3 Challenges in Career and Life
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Young professionals often feel lost about their career direction and life purpose. Studies reveal that 37% of employees under 30 have voluntarily left their job within the past year, due to poor career progression or lack of long-term prospects, leading to frequent job-hopping.
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Over 66% of working parents feel burnt out by the dual pressures of work and childcare, affecting their professional performance, mental health, and family harmony.
◾ Part 2
Our Reflections and Explorations
As the co-founders of Qs School, my wife, Ms. Melinda Yan Chen, and I have been committed to education from the very beginning. Prior to establishing Qs School, Ms. Chen taught at Monash University and RMIT University, contributing many articles and two well-received books on educational practices. My own journey began in academia and evolved into structuring organisational systems. Education has always been our shared passion and mission.
In 2012, we revitalised a failing training school in Box Hill. Building on that success, we launched Qs School in 2014, invited our business partner Kevin Guo joined us at the early stage, creating a comprehensive academic system and online platform for Grade 1 to Grade 10 students. In 2017, we introduced the Qs Franchise system, which expanded our reach to nine campuses in Melbourne, offering complete teaching system and online resources for students from Grades 1 to 12.
Our initial goal was to provide high-quality educational resources, enabling students to achieve academic excellence, realise their personal value, and ultimately contribute to society. While we’ve achieved remarkable academic results, we’ve also recognised deeper, systemic issues in education:
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A narrow focus on external success: Many students view academic achievements and income as the sole indicators of their self-worth, leading them to lose their passion for learning and for life.
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Mental health crises: The pressures of academic and social expectations have led to worrying outcomes, including depression and even suicide.
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Disillusionment in the workplace: While some graduates achieve well-paying jobs, many struggle to find meaning or purpose in their work.
This prompted us to ask:
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What is the ultimate goal of education? Can traditional achievements like going to a good school, getting a stable job, and earning good income truly bring about sustainable growth and true happiness?
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Has education overlooked the value and vision of life? Have we merely created “chasers of success” without guiding students toward true meaning, value and purpose?
Thus, we have committed to shifting education’s focus from 'knowledge and skills' to 'growth in life', fostering individuals with responsibility, purpose, and intrinsic drive.
◾ Part 3
Our Practices and Plans
3.1 Past: Exploration and Practice
Over the years, we’ve travelled globally—visiting the UK, Europe, China, Japan, Taiwan, and more - to learn from experts and pioneers in education. In 2022, we began preparing for Life Academy, implementing initiatives such as:
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Cooperating with New Zealand Pure Education and obtaining the support of its professional consultants to develop a parent's mental life growth course. So far, seven trial courses have been held, with nearly 100 participants, many of whom have benefited from them, and some of the participants have become volunteers for the courses;
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Hosting parent gatherings, book clubs, and cooking workshops to enhance family relationships.
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Establishing Spark Me, a platform for career and life planning for high school students.
In this process, our educational practice has not only brought positive impacts to the parents and communities of some Qs families, but also prompted some young people to change, gradually opened up the path of internal sustainable growth, demonstrated the power of leading families and teams, and became a "lighthouse" in the lives of people around them.
It is particularly worth mentioning that our pursuit and mission have had a profound impact on our two sons. They are not only proud of us, but also began to pursue a more fulfilling and meaningful life. Their way of thinking and values have undergone profound changes, from focusing on stage goals (such as career or economic achievements) to exploring the ultimate goals and directions of life. They show stronger internal drive and sense of responsibility. In daily study, work and social participation, they always take responsibility with a positive attitude and strive to become a role model for actively changing the world.
3.2 Current: Resource Introduction and Goal Building - Creating Role Models and Showcases
Building on these successes, we aim to officially launch Life Academy in 2025, focusing on three core pillars:
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Life Academy for Transformative Parents: Help parents to improve from cognition to wisdom awakening, deeply understand the essence of life and the meaning of family, create an environment full of love and support, not only promote the harmonious coexistence of family members, but also lay a deep psychological and value foundation for the healthy growth of the next generation.
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Life Academy for Evolving Youth: Guide young people to explore the deep meaning and value of life, transcend short-term goals and external achievements, establish a long-term sense of mission and social responsibility, and cultivate role models who can lead future sustainable development, carrying personal dreams and serving social development.
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Life Academy for Purposeful Careers: Inspire them to rethink the true meaning of work, combine personal pursuits with social responsibility, promote ESG practices with both internal and external cultivation and sustainable development as the core, not only create value at the material level, but also promote the progress of human civilisation at the spiritual and mental levels, and build a healthy, hopeful, environmentally friendly and civilised future for the whole society.
We believe that through these profound changes, life education will become a bridge connecting individuals with families, society and the world, allowing everyone to achieve self-breakthroughs while jointly shaping a more intelligent, harmonious and civilised world.
How to support the three major sections:
Currently, it is planned to use the Mind Life Growth course and Personality Cognition and Cultivation course as the main courses of Life Academy – Parent Life Academy, Youth Life Academy, and Workplace Life Academy.
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We look forward to the Mind Life Growth course, which will guide students to open up cognitive visibility, break through thinking limitations, improve their mind, cultivate awareness and insight, increase wisdom, find the direction, responsibility and mission of life, and achieve inner growth and life development.
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We look forward to the Personality Cognition and Cultivation course, which will start the students' inner growth journey. Personality determines destiny. Understanding oneself, knowing others, and managing emotions and behaviours are important foundations for efficient communication, career development, and personal happiness. Through systematic personality cognition theory and practice, students can discover their own personality strengths and potential, learn to adjust personality shortcomings, cultivate their mind and upgrade, and be the master of their own destiny.
We plan to give full play to the advantages of bilingual education in English and Chinese to meet the needs of families from different cultural backgrounds.
3.3 Future: Building an Educational Ecological Community –Upgrading Happiness and Civilisation Communication
In the future, we will be committed to building an educational ecological community that integrates family, school, and society, taking life education as the core, and promoting education from knowledge transmission to life growth, value realisation, and civilisation communication.
Specific goals:
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Interdisciplinary integration: combining cognitive science, philosophy, life science and other fields to create multi-dimensional educational content;
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Cross-regional cooperation: linking with international educational institutions, introducing cutting-edge resources, and building a curriculum system that is both localised and internationalised;
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Personalised growth: providing precise support and customising the growth path for each learner.
Building well-being – upgrading from individual to global
The core of well-being lies in individual awakening and environmental support. We are committed to promoting happiness upgrades at three levels through life education:
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Individual happiness: helping students find the meaning of life, improve internal and external balance, and become the core force in the family and team;
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Family and community: creating a healthy and harmonious growth environment through family education and community activities;
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Global responsibility: cultivating global citizens with a sense of social responsibility, and contributing to environmental protection, public welfare, and civilisation inheritance.
Benefiting Australia and the world
We take Australia as the starting point and promote the model of the School of Life to the world, benefiting more people from more cultural backgrounds. Through the combination of online and offline forms, we export advanced educational concepts and cultivate role models and future leaders with a global vision. We will also cooperate with international research institutions to promote innovation in life education and welfare science and become an important force in the development of global education.
Spreading civilisation – the combination of education and culture
The ultimate mission of education is the inheritance and innovation of civilisation. In the future, we will spread positive values through education, promote cultural exchanges and global collaboration. With the educational ecological community as a platform, we hope to become a model of life education and bring the glory of happiness and civilization to every corner of the world.
◾ Part 4
Expected Resource Support
In order to achieve the comprehensive development of the Parent Life Academy, the Youth Life Academy, and the Workplace Life Academy, we hope to further promote the realisation of the goals through the following resource support:
4.1 Learning and introducing advanced world experience
We look forward to cooperating with people of insight in the fields of education, training, life education, etc. around the world, learning and drawing on the world's cutting-edge educational concepts and practical methods, and integrating advanced life education models into our curriculum development and practice. At the same time, through international exchanges, we will introduce educational resources that adapt to different cultural backgrounds to create an education system with a global vision and local characteristics.
4.2 Talent and team building
Achieving our vision requires strong leadership and effective coordination across all aspects of our initiatives. We recognise the importance of bringing in talent with project management expertise to oversee key areas such as curriculum planning, stakeholder collaboration, resource allocation, and team coordination.
This role will ensure that our programs are delivered smoothly, align with our objectives, and meet the diverse needs of students and families. By building a capable and committed team, supported by experienced professionals, we can create a foundation for sustainable growth and meaningful impact in life education.
Furthermore, we will continue to attract outstanding talents in fields such as education, psychology, sociology, and life sciences. Through professional development and training, we aim to empower our internal team to provide exceptional services to parents, teenagers, and professionals. This dual focus on coordination and innovation will ensure our programs are both effective and sustainable.
4.3 Information collection and in-depth research
In-depth understanding of the real needs and challenges of students and families is an important foundation for our educational practice. We thank the teachers from different public and private schools in Australia in the education group for providing valuable feedback on students' behavioural characteristics, challenges and development trends. This information helps us design courses and activities more accurately. However, we still need to further expand the source of information, explore more comprehensive social trends, and conduct in-depth research to ensure the scientific and effectiveness of our education system.
4.4 Social attention and support
Changes in education require the attention and joint efforts of the whole society. We hope to get support from all sectors of society, including cooperation from enterprises, participation from public welfare institutions, cooperation from more educational institutions and widespread recognition from the public, to form a virtuous interaction between education and social development.
4.5 Policy promotion
We are well aware that education reform cannot be separated from policy support. We hope to promote policy publicity and guidance by contacting the three levels of government and legislators, promote the development of life education, and jointly create a healthier and more sustainable education ecology.
4.6 Gratitude and Vision
The core mission of Qs School is 'to establish people with love' and the core values are courage to take responsibility, keep pace with the times, pursue excellence, and grow sustainably.
Education is not only the transmission of knowledge, but also the guidance of the meaning of life. By building a future education ecological community, we hope to bring more happiness and well-being to society. Every step of Qs School's efforts is to move forward to build a future full of love and hope.
We have spent ten years to build a Qs School academic education system, and we hope to spend another ten years to upgrade it into a holistic education ecosystem for students and parents. We look forward to working with you, together, we create a brighter future filled with wisdom, harmony, and hope.
Cyril Li
Co-founder and Director of Qs School
