This weekend, the This is Haslemere team were lucky enough to be invited to join in the celebrations at the Sundial Festival in Churt. If you could capture what community means in a single event, this would be the absolute epitome of the word. The atmosphere was inclusive and welcoming - all ages were enjoying themselves, making friends and forming valuable connections. We met so many fascinating people, learned so much and had a brilliantly entertaining time too.

Over to Larry Sullivan and the Leo Lion team to tell you more about the history of Sundial and the important work that this celebrates each year....

More than 20 years ago, the Sundial Festival began as HemiHelp Day, a simple idea to bring families together, offer support, celebrate children and help people better understand the challenges faced by others.

As Sundial grew, it became the much loved family and community event centred around the musical and theatrical talents of students from Stepping Stones School, later renamed Undershaw, a tradition that continues today. Since then, the school family and wider ecosystem have grown into something far bigger than anyone could have imagined, but the purpose of the festival has remained unchanged: bringing together people who believe that the true measure of any society is how it cares for its most vulnerable members.

Around the festival site are the schools and initiatives that make up the wider Leo Lion Foundation family: 

Undershaw Education Trust, including Oakleigh, the newest primary specialist provision for children with speech, language and communication needs.

Pathways Community Trust, built around three pillars: Pathways School, supporting students unable to access education; the Cookie Bar and Bike Bar Alternative Provision; and Pathways Together, an outreach service.

Widad in Dubai.

Each has been supported by the Leo Lion Foundation, but all are united by one belief: children facing the greatest challenges deserve the best start in life, the best education, the best environments and the opportunity to flourish.

That vision is quickly becoming reality. Under Emma West’s leadership, Undershaw continues to go from strength to strength, with the former home of St Mary’s Infant School soon to open its doors as the home of Oakleigh. In addition, Leeha Watney has joined as Headteacher to lead Pathways Sundial School into its next chapter, with another site just one mile away being explored as its future home.

Pathways Together, led by Adam Murphy (who brings both professional expertise and lived experience of autism), is extending outreach support to help families navigate a complex system.  In the meantime, George Pickersgill and Laura Lambert are creating what will hopefully become a benchmark for Alternative Provision through the Cookie Bar and Bike Bar, where young people develop confidence, independence and employability skills. And, most recently, Trevor’s Quarry Farm Honey and honey products created by students are already becoming firm favourites in the new Bee Corner at the Cookie Bar.

Alongside this, the intention is that Quarry Farm can evolve gently over time into a place for alternative provision, work placements, respite and best practice, working carefully with the South Downs National Park and the local community it will serve.

Together, these schools, alternative provision and outreach work are creating new opportunities for children and families at every stage of their journey.

The ambition now extends beyond Surrey. The hope is to launch the first Pathways Places community on the Isle of Wight, supported by more than £1 million of grant funding from the Leo Lion Foundation alongside access to patient capital for future property development. It marks the beginning of bringing the Pathways model into communities that have too often been left behind.

Alongside this education family are many of their long standing philanthropic partners, including PEAS, Habitat for Humanity, Challengers and many others who carry out inspiring work day after day.

The wider 'family' also includes interests in 11 private equity backed businesses, including Bloomnow.me, a skills platform enterprise, with equity in these businesses committed to the Foundation. A portfolio of more than 40 global technology investments spans energy, advanced computing, robotics and artificial intelligence, and is chosen not only for financial returns, but for its potential to harness technology in service of humanity, reflecting the values that guide everything the foundation does. The surplus generated is reinvested through the Foundation, creating patient capital for future schools, alternative provision and philanthropic initiatives. The same philosophy underpins the Future of Capitalism competition and network, now on tour, with Austin, Texas hosting this year, followed by Shenzhen China, before it returns to London.

At first glance these worlds may seem very different. In reality, they are all part of the same story.

Education inspires philanthropy. Philanthropy creates opportunity. Enterprise generates patient capital. Patient capital enables us to build exceptional schools, support families, invest in innovation and reshape education for the digital age rather than the industrial age. It is philanthropy designed to sustain itself, not simply to give, but to keep giving. Everything you see today at the Sundial Festival is connected.

Once a year the Sundial Festival brings this whole community together. Every performance, every conversation, every partnership and every friendship exists because thousands of people have chosen to believe in the same simple idea: every child deserves the opportunity to flourish.

“Just because something is serious doesn’t mean it cannot be fun.” John Cleese

Larry and the Leo Lion Team