The origins of the business were planted way back in 2008 when my eldest son, Mike, started school.
Dyslexia runs in my family, with both my dad and brother having negative experiences at school because of it.
I therefore wanted my son to have a positive school experience, even if we discovered he learnt in a dyslexic way.
I let the school know our family history of dyslexia and was told that it was too early to tell and that they couldn’t recognise it in students until they were at least 7 years old. Unfortunately this appears to be still very much the thinking in the present day.
As soon as Mike started to learn to read and write it was obvious to me, he had dyslexic tendencies. You can’t live with dyslexics and not recognise it. However, school were very unsupportive, with the head teacher refusing to offer any assistance for Mike.
The most alarming thing was that at the age of 5, Mike began to say things like:
Starting your school journey with this belief could end up in disaster not just in school but into adult life. My dad believed he was thick and stupid because he couldn’t spell or write properly. My brother never went for promotion or changed his job for fear of failing.
At this time, I was studying Cognitive Hypnotherapy and NLP and was beginning to understand the power of our thoughts and how our brains worked. Part of my training was focussed on how we learn and how to overcome learning limiting beliefs.
This was the start of the roots beginning to grow in the business and Mike won’t mind me telling you that he was my experiment to discover what would help him. My overall goal was for him to leave school, confident in his ability to learn, but more importantly believe that he could do anything he wanted, there were no limitations. This goal is the one that underpins the work we do with every student we work with.
In my estimation as an education consultant, the current exam based academic system, doesn’t suit at least 50% of students, and hence we have many of our students leaving school believing they can’t learn or are not good enough. I therefore made the decision in 2015 to work only with students, mainly teenagers. My thinking being, that helping children understand how they learn and give them the confidence to find their way means they won’t be defined by a system that just doesn’t suit them.
To support my understanding of the school system I became a parent governor at a secondary school in 2015. I wanted to see how schools work, the pressure they are under and how I may be able to support them. It reinforced the fact that schools are all about results and every student has their own targets and goals based on what the system feels they can achieve. Schools are measured by the results they achieve, as are teachers, and there is little room for creativity and teacher’s, have little freedom to teach off syllabus.
As an education consultant, my son Mike is an example of everything I strive for all students to have, confidence, self belief and a love of learning, their way.
2020 saw the launch of the Study Success Programme. A programme designed to help GCSE students discover their best way to study and revise. Although designed for the students there are additional resources for parents too.
Helping students find their natural way to learn with an education consultant.
Identifying those beliefs that are standing in their way to learn. The “I can’t” type statements.
Making sure their learning experiences are positive ones and overcoming the negatives.
As many of our GCSE students moved onto their 6th form journey it became clear that the transition to year 12 is a big one. Many students struggle to settle in, and it can be a cause of much stress for students and parents alike. That’s why we developed the Successful Sixth Former Programme which launched in 2022. A unique programme offering support and guidance for the first year of their sixth form journey.
In 2022 the business was being run at capacity and we started looking for ways to help more students. Rather than trying to clone myself we started looking at offering the business model to others who have the same passion to help students, in this unique and holistic way.
At the start of 2023 the decision was made to offer the business as a Franchise to the right people, to help students find an education consultant who is the best fit for them. It became More Than Learning Ltd®, and this is where we are today. Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more.
