SANDS School founding teacher Sean Bellamy has been shortlisted for the Global Teacher Prize – known as the Nobel Prize for teaching – with a $1 million payout.

Mr Bellamy, right, who set up the Ashburton alternative school, has made the top 50 from 8,000 nominations across 148 countries.

Two other teachers from the UK have made the shortlist. The winner will be announced in Dubai in March.

Mr Bellamy said: ‘It’s really flattering to be in the top 50 and the student appraisals, which have been part of the process, have been lovely affirmations of my 28 years with Sands.

‘I’m sure the prize will go to someone who is genuinely changing the world for the better, someone teaching in a war zone, for example, but it’s great to be in the top 50.’

The prize is about celebrating teachers who inspire their students and the communities around them.

The prize academy includes prominent names such as Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey; Carina Wong, deputy director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and Jeffrey D Sachs, a world-renowned professor of economics and special advisor to the UN.

Mr Bellamy set up Sands School in 1987, shortly after the closure of Dartington Hall School, where he previously worked.

He said: ‘We needed to create a school and so sat in a garden with 14 teenagers and designed a school together. It’s possibly the first time in history children were at the beginning of such a creation.

‘Sands is designed to be run democratically – no uniform, no petty rules and everyone on first name terms.

‘And what rules we have are decided collectively. No adult has the power of veto; all staff are selected by students and on equal pay; and we all clean, cook and decorate the school together.’

Mr Bellamy entered the award after being approached by Ashoka, an organisation which specialises in social entrepeneurship.

‘By entering myself for the prize I am not looking for a personal accolade,’ he added. ‘What my reaching the last 50 does is bring Sands School and democratic education to the attention of a wider audience. Most people have never heard of this kind of approach and don’t know that schools like Sands are even a possibility.

‘I teach so my students can think. I teach so they can understand themselves and be creative, empathic and critical. The subjects are only a medium for those things to develop. Lessons are just opportunities. Learning to think is not learning to regurgitate.’

The South Korean Ministry of Education has consulted Mr Bellamy on how to educate its youth in more mentally healthy ways.

He is now working with a professor of psychology at Seoul University to design research into democratic schooling and emotional intelligence.