“We still have a choice to make a difference”: former BRIT School student provides £40,000 in services to the school that he loves.
Spectrum Specialist Support founder Lucian Ivan says people may not control every decision affecting education, but they are not powerless, and those who are able to help have a responsibility to act.
A former BRIT School student is turning a deeply held belief about personal responsibility into practical support this summer by involving his company in essential repair, cleaning and maintenance services for the school, provided entirely at no cost.
Lucian Ivan, founder of Spectrum Specialist Support, says people understandably feel frustrated when systems fall short and leave gaps that affect fundamental parts of society, like schools and education. But he believes frustration should not become resignation.
Individuals and businesses may not control every decision made on their behalf, but they still have a choice about whether to stand back or use what they have to make a difference.
It's easy to feel frustrated when wider systems leave gaps in something as fundamental as education,” Lucian said.
“But we still have a choice about how we respond. It's not just about waiting for big top-down changes. When we see gaps, we still have the right to take things into our own hands when something is not right.
“I believe that if someone or something has helped you get to where you are, it is your duty and responsibility to give back when you are able to do so.
“The BRIT School helped me, and now I can involve my company and use what we do every day to help the school. This summer, that is exactly what Spectrum is doing.
During the summer holidays in mid-August 2026, Spectrum's team is scheduled to carry out a programme of external repair, cleaning and preventative maintenance across the BRIT School's main building and annex.
The work is valued by Spectrum at £40,000 and will be provided free of charge.
The planned programme includes cleaning sections of the façade, removing graffiti, replacing defective flashing on flat-roof areas, repairing damaged render, installing snow guards and securing external metal window grilles.
Together, the works are intended to ensure the most urgent and important things that need doing are addressed and to make sure the school is looking its best. Carrying out the programme during the school holidays will minimise disruption to students and staff.
Rather than make an unrestricted financial donation, Lucian is contributing the service his company is best equipped to provide.
The labour, specialist access methods and agreed works will be supplied without charge to the school, using Spectrum's rope-access, pole-system and mobile-platform capabilities to complete work at height without traditional scaffolding.
Our students deserve spaces that look and feel as inspiring as the work they create inside them. Tackling complex roof repairs, facade cleaning, and window safety maintenance on a campus of our size requires serious specialist skill that is both logistically and financially demanding.
“Having Spectrum take care of this entirely pro bono frees up vital resources to focus on teaching. For Lucian to bring his own business's expertise back to his old school — saving us significant time, disruption, and cost — is both deeply moving and incredibly generous. We are immensely grateful to Lucian and the Spectrum team for giving us such a brilliant start to the new academic year,” said Louise Cooper, Chief Operating Officer at The BRIT School.
Lucian explained:
The BRIT School is the important part of the story. It gave me confidence, support and opportunity, and it continues to give that start to young people today.
“I want our contribution to point people back towards the school, what it makes possible and why it is worth supporting.
For Lucian, the decision is rooted in what the BRIT School gave him personally. He says the school did more than provide an education: it gave him confidence, encouragement and the sense that a different future was possible.
The BRIT School is a huge inspiration to me. I genuinely do not believe I would have had the confidence or the support to build the life and business I have today without it,” he said.
“When you are young, the right people and the right environment can change the direction of your life. That is what the school did for me, and it is why giving back now feels like a responsibility rather than simply a gesture.
His message to others is deliberately simple: Give back what you can. And if you're a former BRIT School student, consider giving back to the school that gave you your start.
Lucian is not asking every alumnus to match Spectrum's £40,000 contribution, nor is he presenting one company's work as a solution to the BRIT School's wider funding challenge.
His appeal to his fellow alumni is to ask them to think honestly about what the school gave them, what they are now able to offer and where that contribution could be useful.
Giving back does not have to mean £40,000,” he said.
“It could mean mentoring a student, offering work experience, sharing contacts, volunteering professional skills, providing equipment, making a small donation or simply helping the school reach the right people.
“The amount is not the point. The point is choosing to do something when you can.
He hopes Spectrum's contribution will encourage former students to look again at their own relationship with the school and consider a practical way to support the next generation.
I hope this makes other former students stop and think about what the school gave them, and what they might be able to give back now,” Lucian said.
“Everyone's answer will be different. What matters is that we do not assume somebody else has to act first.”
“Just because we have left does not mean the connection disappears,” Lucian said.
“The school gave so many of us a special shared experience. I hope this brings people back together around the idea of giving something back, so future students can have that same opportunity.
Why the appeal matters
The BRIT School provides tuition-free, specialist creative education to over 1,400 young people, with all areas judged ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.
The school's success, however, does not remove the need for external support.
In May 2026, principal Stuart Worden said the BRIT School must raise more than £2.5 million annually to bridge the gap between core state funding and the true cost of delivering industry-level arts training that prepares students for successful futures.
The BRIT School's own donation page says it relies on the generosity of individuals and organisations to help fund the people, productions, programmes and facilities that enable it to remove barriers for young people seeking careers in the arts.
This support is vital at a time when access to the UK's £145 billion creative economy remains starkly unequal. Research shows individuals from privileged backgrounds are around twice as likely to secure creative roles than those from working-class backgrounds.
For Lucian, those figures do not mean responsibility should move from the state to alumni or businesses alone. Proper public funding remains essential. But people who care about an institution do not have to wait passively when they already have the ability to help.
We should continue to ask for the right decisions and the right level of support for education. But we are not bound by what the people in charge of our systems do or choose not to do.
“We still have the right to take things into our own hands when something matters to us. Complaining and acting are not opposites. We can do both.
Lucian's hope is simple: that the story prompts communities, businesses and supporters to ask not only how our systems could be better, but how they can contribute to change too.
Former students, businesses and supporters interested in helping the BRIT School can visit its donation page or contact development@brit.croydon.sch.uk.
