She criticised the cold war and found world fame with the song 99 Red Balloons, then starred in films and even presented the Eurovision Song Contest, but now the German singer Nena is turning to something rather different - education reform.

The 1980s pop diva has founded her own school and, unsurprisingly, it is far from conventional. The Hamburg-based Neue Schule, which started its first term this week, has no grades or exams unless the students want them. "Every pupil will choose when, what and with what assistance he or she learns," explains the school's website. Its students, aged from six to 17, take part in mixed-age classes. As part of its "democratic model", school decisions are taken in weekly votes involving students and teachers. The school already has a waiting list until 2012.

Nena, who is sending two of her four children to the school, says her own education left her uninspired. "When I was a child, like all children, I had so many ideas and so much curiosity. I wanted to take on the world but the teachers were the ruling force," she told the newspaper Die Welt. "That doesn't encourage children; it represses them."

There are already a number of alternative schools in Germany which seek to encourage children's individuality without competition and hierarchy. Nena's school was inspired by the Sudbury Valley school in the US, founded in the 60s to let students learn without set curriculums.