Winners of Family Business of the Year 2022 Award

We did it! I’m so incredibly proud to say that Little Owl Tuition are winners of the Family Business of the Year 2022 Award.

We were lucky enough to be nominated last year for our services to education at the Birmingham Awards, so to be nominated and actually win this year was an absolute joy. Telling our story to the judges and celebrating our win with our family, friends and stakeholders has been a reminder of just how far our Little Owl family has come and why Mike and I love what we do!

Let’s take a look at where it all started…

We started this journey 5 years ago, when our little girl Willa was born. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew that I needed to be more flexible in my work in order to spend more time with her. I was currently on maternity from a local secondary school where I was Head of Year and progressing quickly through the ranks. I loved my job. There was absolutely no doubt I still needed to work with children, but as all teachers know, there is little room in schools for flexibility. My priorities changed quickly. Willa became our world and working 12 hour days was no longer an option for me. Something had to change.

Mike had spoken to me before about the prospect of tuition. We did some research and threw ourselves into it. Every nap time was spent researching the 11+ and night times were spent marketing. It started small, I had one group of three (lovely) children who came to our house once a week for 11+ tuition. I loved it and I was hooked.

From there, we grew. Soon we had a couple of small groups and I could see the progress of the pupils. We moved house and converted our garage into a classroom. It was certainly a talking point having a classroom in our house but it worked and it was an amazing space! Before we knew it, we had 3 lovely groups of 6 and a waiting list. I was back at work, pregnant again and business was thriving. After having Baxter, our son, Romy joined the team and we knew we were onto something special. Romy had recently had a little boy also and looking for flexibility in using her skills as a teacher. By the end of 2020, we had groups on every night of the week and waiting lists as long as our arms!

We decided to take the plunge and lease a premises. After much searching, we came across 10 Boldmere Road and we were both certain it was ‘the one’. Mike spent months renovating the space to make it into a homely and inviting classroom suitable for two groups at a time. It was perfect. By this point, Charlotte had joined our team and by September 2021, we were ready to open.

The rest, as they say, is history!

What happened next?

Interview day was nerve-wracking! We went in and we were met with the most welcoming panel of judges, from all walks of life and business. We were able to speak about our family, the business and our values as a team.

We were told that now was not the time to be modest and we were able to reflect on everything we had worked towards and achieved. Charity work we had done, volunteering in schools, sponsoring sports teams, escalating pass rates, Ofsted accreditation, traditional classroom based teaching; you name it, we told them! It was amazing to be able to tell people what we had achieved and reliving our journey was quite emotional.

The night itself…

The night was upon us! Our good friends Sally and Tom were coming along to support us and we were excited for a great night. However, when you have two children under the age of 6, things never quite go to plan, do they? Mike and Willa were both struck down with sickness and Mike could no longer attend, the timing was impeccable!

Our table erupted as Little Owl Tuition was crowned the winner and I was SO proud. Messages started flooding in and it dawned on me everything we have achieved. The years of hard work and dedication. The worry, the endless emergency childcare call outs to our parents. Working two jobs at once. Late nights sat at the laptop. It was all worth it.