A major education white paper has just come out from the government. If you have a child in school, or even if you don’t, it is worth having a look here to see what it might mean for you.  

With school open evenings, subject choices and opinions coming from every direction, few decisions feel quite as weighty as the choice between A Levels and the International Baccalaureate (IB). Both are rigorous and are globally respected.

In the downpour of February, we were delighted to host an event at the Royal Academy bringing together Thomasina Miers (Co-Founder of Wahaca), Walter Kerr (Co-founder of Oppidan Education) and Tom Barber (Co-Founder of Original Travel) for a practical and frank conversation about taking a sabbatical with your children. 

It’s the question parents ask me most. In any talk I give, it’s the time parents get out their notebook, jot down ideas on their phones.  

These are two very different processes, with somewhat different workloads to them. Both systems offer first-class institutions and great global opportunities, but the journeys to admission differ in structure, style and focus. Understanding these distinctions is the first step towards making a confident choice.

For decades, the path after school has felt almost predetermined: finish your A levels, go to university, get a degree, start your career. But that path is no longer the only one worth walking, and a growing number of students and families are starting to ask a very reasonable question: is university really the right next step?