Our big ‘Why’
At Parent Guide to Education, we have a passion.
We worked in schools for over 30 years between us, and we know that the education system is broken.
It’s not the fault of schools. Between league tables, Ofsted, and the expectation that they’ll be able to keep doing all the things they used to, despite the constant budget cuts, it’s almost impossible. Teachers have an insane workload, and therefore there’s simply not enough time to get to know students well enough to help them succeed.
That’s why, as ex-teachers, with the time and the experience, we want to help you do that.
Nobody knows your child like you do. Imagine if you also knew exactly how to help them learn, and reach their full potential. Imagine how much more confident they’d be, and how much less stressful their exams would be.
That’s why we’re here. To help you help them.
We believe:
- You can make a difference to your child’s exam results
- You can be involved and support them without them feeling like you’re ‘nagging’
- You can help your child become a better learner, regardless of your own experience of education
- Revision / homework doesn’t have to be a battle. You’re on the same side.
Where it all started:
We started the Parent Guide to GCSE because we realised that, despite the £million industry around supporting students through exams, no-one was supporting parents.
The idea came when a fellow parent on a school Facebook group posted asking how on earth to help her daughter with a particular piece of maths homework. It was bar modelling, which is a newer method, so none of us had ever met it at school ourselves. I’d had a similar problem with fronted adverbials… That was my ‘lightbulb moment’.
I did some research, and couldn’t find anyone specifically helping parents to support their children through GCSEs, and given that half their learning time is spent at home, that seemed crazy to me!
We wanted to create a place where parents could find all the support they need, so that they can feel confident they are doing the right things to help their child succeed.
As teachers, we’d seen so many parents with questions, desperate to help, but not knowing how.
As parents ourselves, we also knew we’d found it difficult to get that balance between nagging and supporting, as it’s a whole different ball game when it’s your own kids!
How we do things:
We are a family-run business, and we want our members, customers and community of parents to feel like family too.
That’s why we always try to help in any way we can. We’ll happily hop on a zoom chat to answer questions, because we like to put faces to names. For us, it’s all about you.
You want to help your child get ready for what’s ahead of them. You want to make sure they reach their potential, while also not wanting to stress them out.
We want to help you help them.
Our motto:
Knowledge beats nagging
What’s next?
We want to be able to support as many parents as possible. Having started with the GCSE years, then continued to Post-16, the plan for the future is to work our way backwards until we can help with all school years.
We want to build a team with the same passion for supporting parents that we have, who have expertise in different stages of education, so that we can help with everything from their first days at primary school through to their last day of Post-16 (if not further!).
We’re busy looking into ways that we can support everyone, since we know not everybody can afford to spend money on supporting their child. (If you’ve got suggestions, or work in a school or for a charity – get in touch!)
Want to get involved?
If you’d like to know more about us, or get involved with what we’re doing, you can get in touch via emily@parentguidetogcse.com, or book in a quick chat here.
Journalist / podcaster? Download my press kit or full media bio.
School? Check out our schools page (or get in touch, we’re pretty flexible about what we can offer your parents).