Students at ETU School are having fun with their programming class. [Photo by Wu Kaixiang/China Daily]

When mother-of-three Li Yinuo returned to Beijing after living in the United States, she was flummoxed－like many Chinese parents－about how to choose the right school for her oldest son.

"There is no satisfactory option," sighs Li, formerly a partner for management consultancy McKinsey in the US and China. "Public schools stymie creativity and individuality while international schools end up nurturing Chinese as foreigners."

Chinese families often plan their children's future from infancy. Parents used to save every penny to buy a property in a good school district, however shabby the home was.

Now many are looking for alternatives, but they have few options.

"Many still value academic excellence so they believe public schools will best prepare children for the gaokao (the national university entrance exam)," says Li.

She was a straight-A student in that system herself, but she knows its drawbacks: "Rote learning and homogenization are the last thing we want."

In March 2016, she decided to start her own school, inspired by a visit to California's Khan Lab School, which operates under the motto "Everyone's a teacher. Everyone's a student."

"It resonated with me. Young people are capable of far more than society currently recognizes," says Li.