Case Study

As a qualified primary school teacher, Pauline Nelson is registered with GTCNI and with NISTR. She aims to provide children with top quality primary tuition (Key Stage 1&2) in Literacy and Numeracy and tuition for the AQE tests. This can be provided in-person or via Zoom with flexibility for individual or small group sessions, which makes it more cost effective for some.

Pauline commenced the business back in 2019 with a fresh, flexible approach to the product and the process. The product is the ‘stuff children need to know’ and the process is ‘how they learn it’. Growing demand was the reason that she started the business in the first place and what started out as favours for friends - while she was at home full time, has become a service for many whose children need a bit of extra help with key concepts or who can benefit from revision and consolidation in the run up to AQE tests.

The Covid-19 lockdown put an end to live tuition sessions, so she had to do a lot of learning herself - transferring all she taught online and making it just as much fun as before! On the business side, getting to grips with finances, marketing and upscaling the original idea, particularly on the internet, have been her biggest challenges.

"My methods are innovative and fun - I use songs, stories, rhythm, rhyme and games to deliver and consolidate key concepts – and it works! I can switch seamlessly from ‘live’ to online teaching, which means distance and unforeseen circumstances don’t need to come in the way of regular teaching sessions" Pauline explains.

Pauline highlights the benefits of the Business Start Up Coaching programme: "the coaching really helped my confidence! Doing what you know is a good start but taking the step into something bigger - when you don’t know much about the business end of things - is daunting. My business mentor gave me the encouragement and vision to see beyond a limited application of my skills. She began where I was – and I didn’t know much – and gave me a crash course in business planning, finances and spreadsheets for dummies.

I was able to put the grant towards the cost of a large digital drawing pad and pen, which has become a vital piece of my online teaching equipment."