Curiosity-led education. Built on verifiable proof, not factory-model schooling.
Our students achieve audited, top-tier outcomes — such as 269/270 in OCR A Level Chemistry and a 14-year-old ranked #3 in the UK on TryHackMe. We achieve this not by rote memorisation, but through a model inspired by Sir Ken Robinson: moving away from 19th-century industrial batches to cultivate individual curiosity through dedicated 1-to-1 coaching and authentic project builds. By combining rigorous qualification preparation with practical engineering, we ensure our students view examinations as a baseline floor for their capability, not the ceiling.
We are STEM-focused, project-based, and AI-integrated. Our students don't just memorize textbook theory. They build with it, audit it, break it, and defend every design decision under oral viva questioning before faculty and engineers.
— The Catalyst approach.
GCSE, iGCSE & A-Level excellence, governed by transparent AI policy.
Every student at Catalyst follows a structured academic programme covering GCSEs, iGCSEs, and A-Levels — delivered through daily 1-to-1 coaching alongside the Catalyst AI Diploma. Faculty use AI for diagnostic retrieval practice, simulated viva questioning, and rapid feedback. Students use AI as an audited co-engineer, research tool, and critical partner under strict, published boundaries:
Students log their AI prompts
Every prompt, model version, and tool interaction is recorded in student engineering journals. Process and prompt provenance are fully transparent.
Honest AI use is graded
We evaluate how effectively students direct, audit, and refine AI outputs. Skillful, critical tool orchestration is recognized and marked.
Hidden AI use is plagiarism
Submitting AI-generated work without attribution is strictly prohibited and subject to zero tolerance, verified through live viva defenses.
Teacher-signed decisions
Every academic grade, progression review, and termly assessment is personally evaluated and signed off by a qualified human teacher.
UK & EU data residency
All student code repositories, transcripts, and coursework telemetry remain hosted exclusively within UK and EU jurisdictions under GDPR.
Zero training on pupil data
We use enterprise zero-retention API endpoints. External foundation models are strictly contractually prohibited from training on student work.
Academic Teaching & Learning Pathways
Explore our detailed term-by-term curriculum roadmaps, foundational lab practicals, computational thinking, and junior/senior defended vivas from Primary (KS2) through Lower Secondary (KS3) to Upper Secondary (iGCSE).
Student Academic Dossiers & Attainment Transcripts
Live academic profiles, verified attainment scorecards, and interactive termly report generators for enrolled scholars.
It started with a robot.
In the lead-up to the 2021 semi-finals of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE — a global competition with a $10M prize pool for fully teleoperated avatar systems — our students entered. The serious field was university labs and industrial research groups.
We qualified. The University of Sheffield qualified. We were the only two teams from England that made it through. COVID stopped us from going further.
But by then we knew. These students hadn't reached a global semi-final by being drilled for exams. They reached it by building, breaking, fixing and defending a real piece of engineering for two years. Catalyst is the school we built so the next group could do that from the first day.
What the students built
- PlatformFully teleoperated avatar
- VisionOpenCV on Raspberry Pi with Intel Neural Compute Stick
- HapticsCustom system, designed in-house
- FrameAluminium, machined on-site
- PowerIn-house Li-ion battery packs
- Stage reachedXPRIZE semi-finals (2021)
Proof in numbers.
Verifiable proof. Real-world capability. The AI-Project School.
From dropping just 1 mark in OCR A Level Chemistry to ranking #3 nationally on TryHackMe, our students demonstrate excellence through verifiable results. They build systems, audit AI models, and defend original research before expert panels. The two aren't in tension. At Catalyst, they're the same thing.