Lumiar Institute was established in 2002, started operating in 2003 and is the educational offshoot of Fundação SEMCO (SEMCO Foundation). Not only is the Institute the entity responsible for Lumiar Schools, but it is also active in research and development, an initiative beyond the attributions of the school. These R&D activities are partially developed through the resources provided by Fundação SEMCO, and partially from the resources obtained from partnerships. There was just one Lumiar School at first – located at Rua Bela Cintra 561, in the neighborhood of Consolação, in São Paulo. It was created by Lumiar Institute to be an innovative school. The enforcement of Education Guidelines and Framework Act (LDBEN) was taken seriously when the school was created as well as the bold principles set out in the Curriculum Standards (PCN), among which we could mention:

• An Education Perspective that envisions education as a continuous and permanent development process of human beings that encompasses not only the cognitive aspects of such development, but also its emotional and social aspects; and which takes place by means of a number of interactions of the individual with his human and natural environment, in and out of school;
• A Learning Perspective that sees learning as a process to create and expand skills as well as to develop competencies through which people become capable of doing things they were not able to do before;
• A School Perspective that sees school as a privileged learning environment that is set up to provide students with rich, flexible and enticing learning opportunities, that fosters the freedom to learn so as to encourage the student’s autonomy and, at the same time, demand that students be accountable for their choices, decisions and actions in an environment that favors individuality and, simultaneously, cooperation;  diversity and, at the same time, equality of rights and existence of common attributes; tolerance and mutual respect;
• A Curriculum focused on the students’ development of competencies and not on merely delivering content of subjects by teachers and that is thus characterized as a Competency Matrix, organized based on the Four Pillars of Education proposed by UNESCO and not as a list of subjects to be taught;
• A Learning Methodology focused on the participation of students in Learning Projects carefully tailored to make it easier for participants to develop specific competencies, and proposed in a number and in modalities so as to enable students to truly exercise their freedom of choice – this participation replaces traditional classes;
• A Learning Assessment Methodology centered on the constant and thorough record of relevant observations made about the development of the student in his Learning Roadmap Portfolio, both through activities related to the Learning Projects and those which are not included in the project by means of activities described as integral part of the “Hidden Curriculum”: participation in meetings and committees, the role that the recreational activities perform, the relationships with friends and with professionals (education-related or not) of the school, etc.
• A team of Education professionals divided into two groups:
• on the one hand, Tutors (Mentors, Advisors and Counselors) of students, who are hired by the school to work full time (minimum of 6 hours a day) and whose role is to monitor and assist, year after year, the same group of students in all their activities, including those regarded as merely recreational, so as to interact with those students and their parents, in order to incorporate extra-curricular information to the students’ Learning Portfolio and keep parents informed of these students’ performance, provide them with guidance, together with their parents,  to choose the projects in which they will take part and assess them periodically (at least every two months and by the end of the year);
• And, on the other hand, Master who are competent and highly interested in the areas relevant to the development of competencies of students. They are hired by the school for limited time periods (two to four months, as a rule) and they are expected to plan and coordinate learning projects and assess the development of competencies of the students participating in these projects;
• A democratic and participative Management System which finds its best expression in the “Circle”: a general meeting attended by the school community that is held every week to discuss problems that are raised by any school community member and that may range from disciplinary issues to issues related to the food served or bathroom cleaning;
• A creative and innovative use of Technology, which is put into practice as an individualized and customized learning tool for students, rather than a tool just to support class management or to deliver content. Within such a perspective, Lumiar, instead of focusing on the knowledge of subject areas and on a Cross-Subject Development of competencies, adopts the opposite approach: focuses on the development of competencies and uses a cross-subject approach on the pursuit of relevant subject area knowledge who are part of the student’s education as they are deemed to be necessary or useful for the implementation of their learning projects or to define and implement their life Project.