With four teenagers currently moving through the GCSE and A Level years in our household, we have become mildly obsessed with the idea of the ‘incremental gain’.

A decade on from Oppidan’s very first mentoring sessions, Walter sat down with one of the young people who was there at the start. This is the Class of 2016.

Exam periods can be a challenging time for the whole family. For teenagers, they often bring a mix of pressure, uncertainty and high expectations. For parents, it can be difficult to know how best to help. You may want to support your child, but worry about saying the wrong thing, adding to the pressure or not doing enough. 

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?

This May half term, we’ll be back at Peligoni on the Greek island of Zakynthos, running morning revision camps for students preparing for upcoming exams.

I’m delighted to be leading Oppidan Education’s work in Portugal. I’m an international educator and advisor with experience across UK, French, American and IB systems, as well as bilingual and ESL environments. I’m also a mother of three children who have experienced multiple school systems and educational transitions.

Henry Faber of Oppidan Education shares how mentoring builds confidence, executive skills, and support networks teens actually respond to.

Take a look at some of our work from further afield with this film about Matthew’s journey from school in Seoul to being awarded the prestigious King’s Scholarship at Eton after working with his mentor Felix.

One of the biggest questions parents ask about studying in Europe is, “Will the degree be recognised back in the UK?” The reassuring answer is yes — and, in many cases, it can even offer real advantage.

The Netherlands has quietly become one of the most popular study destinations in Europe for UK students — and with good reason. Over 2,000 degree programmes are now taught in English, the academic standards are excellent, and student life feels both independent and well-supported.

As the smartphone debate rumbles on, our brilliant pro mentor Renée has written a poem about her relationship with her device and the off-the-wall information it exposes her to.

If your teenager is beginning to explore university options, it is worth looking beyond the UK. Across Europe, universities are welcoming more English-speaking students than ever - offering world-class teaching, lower fees, and a genuinely international experience.

Henry is increasingly spending time in NYC, building Oppidan’s brand there and working to support families and schools. Read more about what’s he’s been up to. 

I meet families every week who feel the pressure to rehearse endlessly and polish every answer to within an inch of its life. But the best school interviews are never the ones delivered by children who have pre-determined their reponses; they’re the ones where a child speaks freely, honestly and with a genuine sense of individuality.

The disruption to professional white-collar starting roles is likely to be significant in the short term. This is something we are already seeing, with almost forty percent fewer entry level graduate vacancies this year compared to last year.