Can do hard things, and do them well. Knows things deeply, and can work out the rest.
You’ll see a child who explains how, not just what.
Why this school exists
Our Story
Your child will spend more than 13,000 hours in school.
Whether those hours give them grit, curiosity or a friend who lifts them is still mostly luck: a great teacher by chance, a captain’s badge, something special at home. We started Cornerstone so it wouldn’t be luck.
A cornerstone is the first stone laid in a building
The First Stone Is Your Child
We did not begin with a syllabus or a building. We began with how children learn, and who a child can become, and built the school around that child.
Four Walls Around One Child
Our mark is a courtyard seen from above: four walls, a child in the middle, and a gap at the bottom. The gap is the way in. Each wall is a cornerstone, and each answers a question you will ask us.
What will they learn, and how deeply?
Eight streams, each taught, coached and tracked the way we track maths, from the core to running the school.
See how children learnWho will teach my child?
Every teacher is chosen after a demo lesson with real children.
Meet the teachingWhere will my child spend the day?
On the campus we’re building, a shadow stick on the roof that Grade 2 marks every month, to watch it move.
Walk the campusWill my child get the attention they need?
A child writes 52 − 27 = 35. We find the one step that slipped, and teach that step at the child’s level.
See how we notice
Capable. Kind. Unafraid.
Capable
Kind
Unafraid
The five habits
The one skill that never expires is learning the next thing.
When answers are a click away, depth tells right from confident.
Machines give answers. People still have to weigh them.
When anything can be faked, people follow those they trust.
Ideas are cheap. Seeing hard things through is rare.
The Founders
“We began with the sixteen-year-old we hope to meet, capable, kind and unafraid, and worked backwards. Every class, every routine and every teacher’s habit is here because it leads to that child.”
Akanksha RawatCo-founder · Academic lead 
“We are not building a school to be quick or famous. We are building one that is still doing right by each child fifty years from now, the way my family has tried to for the last fifty.”
Aseem KhareCo-founder · Business and sustainability 
“If the child is with you for six hours, where are those six hours going and what outcomes are we getting with every minute of the child?”
Nimish ShahCo-founder · Systems, technology and brand
Akanksha Rawat
Co-founder · Academic leadDesigns how and what children learn: the learning goals for each fortnight, how learning is assessed, and the training every new teacher gets.
Akanksha studied Physics at St Stephen’s, worked at Deutsche Bank and holds an MBA from INSEAD. She studied Montessori classrooms in Europe and spent six months as an apprentice at Eklavya before founding Cornerstone. She also walks senior-grade families round the school.
From Six Children to a Campus
Neev, today 2019Neev opens in Baner with six children.
- 2020–21
Covid. We keep going.
Neev, today 2022Back on campus.
Gurukul, Sus Road, today 2024Gurukul opens at Sus Road.
Gurukul, today 2026Two hundred children. Neev, from Nursery to Sr KG. Gurukul, Grades 1 to 4.
The campus we’re building · visualisation PlannedThe campus we’re building at Bhukum, for Grades 5 to 10 to grow into. Planned to open right after Diwali 2027, subject to approvals.
Nursery – Sr KG
Neev
Grades 1 – 4
Gurukul
The campus we’re building · visualisationGrades 5 – 8 (from 2028–29)
Middle Years
The campus we’re building · visualisationGrades 9 – 10 (from 2029–30)
Senior Years
Grades 1 to 4 run today at Sus Road. Grades 5 to 8 begin in 2028–29 and Grades 9 and 10 in 2029–30. Aligned to Cambridge Curriculum. Grade 10 is the IGCSE.
A parent’s view
“They aren’t just building a school, they are creating a community.”
Book a visit
Come and watch a morningVisits at Gurukul, Sus Road: 45 minutes, up to three families at a time.