Twelve teenagers are being given the chance to take part in a radical social experiment. For three weeks, they will be left alone to create and run their own school, from scratch.

Under the teenagers’ supervision is a group of spirited 11- and 12-year-olds. As well as having a real budget to manage, the teenagers have to feed their pupils, organise activities, entertain and teach them. They have to deliver a curriculum covering academic and creative subjects. The teenagers’ school is also subject to regular inspections to make sure it is maintaining standards.

It’s a tall order, especially since the teens are living under the same roof, 24 hours a day. To stand any chance of pulling the experiment off, the group has to survive all the struggle and pain that comes with working as a team. Intense relationships will be made and broken, leaders will rise and fall and, in the midst of it all, there will be moments of real achievement and revelation.

Three weeks of communal living will test them in a way they’ve never been challenged before and life after school hours could well be as anarchic as the school they create together. On the other hand, they may prove capable of running both their own lives, and the school, with compelling maturity.

Monday 15 October