Lord Harris of Peckham is the major sponsor of the Harris Academies in South London.

Lord Harris was born in 1942, was educated at Streatham Grammar School and is married with four children. In 1957 he took over the running of the family business of three carpet shops and is now chairman and chief executive of Carpetright plc, which has over 500 shops in the UK and Europe. Lord Harris and his whole family are personally committed to providing the best possible education at the Harris Schools and to giving all students every opportunity to succeed in their chosen careers.

Lord Harris’s vision is that rather than working in isolation, the Harris Academies will work together as a federation. This will enable the schools to use their combined resources and collective expertise in order to assist each other and so raise standards faster than would be the case with schools working in isolation.