Pressman
14th November 2008, 09:27
A mum of three is hoping to revolutionise the way education is funded in Britain by launching new a new social networking website aimed at school children and their parents.
School Together Now is the brain child of Esther Guy, a mum from Surrey, who hopes to raise millions of pounds for schools throughout the country.
The site aims to connect youngsters and their parents to their local schools and create an online community which could be particularly useful for those parents whose career prevents them from participating in the school run.
It includes a database of 33,000 UK state and independent schools. Users, who can be either children or parents, create a profile linked to their school and can then share information with school staff, other parents and fellow pupils.
The site, www.schooltogethernow.com (http://www.schooltogethernow.com/) will also carry advertising – and each school will get 20% of the advertising revenue associated with its listing.
School Together Now is already live on the web but will be launched formally in the New Year. Pupils as young as five can register to become members with the consent of their parents. Other social networks do not allow under 16s to register.
The site’s founder Esther Guy came up with the idea after juggling motherhood with her career as operations manager for a busy recruitment company.
Esther, who has three daughters, twins aged seven and a four year old, said she was tired of missing out on her daughters’ childhoods.
She said: “There must be thousands of parents like me all over the country who struggle with full time work and commitments to their kids.
“I have a 90 mile round trip to work every single day and it means I miss out on the school run and on meeting other mums and dads at my girls’ schools.
“I’m lucky because we have extended family who can lend a hand and drop off or collect the kids at school but it means we are not able to share their school experience as much as we would like to.
“I decided to launch this website because due to the limitations on my time I struggled to build a rapport with the other mums in the playground.
“A generation or two ago the school was the hub of the community and everyone would gather round the gates and share their news. But times have changed and more and more parents, both mothers and fathers, are now in full time work.
“It means a lot of those old communities have been lost and now we are leading our lives in other ways. The internet is becoming increasingly useful and sites such as Facebook have become valuable resources for people to organize their social lives online.
“But until now there was nothing aimed exclusively at schools, parents and children and that is something we are going to rectify.”
Esther, who lives with her husband Chris, a plasterer, and their three girls in Tadworth, Surrey, added that School Together Now could radically alter the way schools are funded.
She said: “If the site becomes a success, as we hope it will, then there will be a massive financial benefit for schools. This is so much more than just a business to me. I want it to be a socially responsible platform where pupils, parents and schools can all benefit.
“We have created a model where one fifth of all profits will be donated to schools. As parents ourselves we wanted to create something which would benefit everyone concerned, both parents, pupils and schools. The site also offers a useful platform for local businesses and we hope to attract advertising from small companies run by parents of pupils at a particular school.”
She added that the site will be monitored and vetted closely to ensure all content is suitable for youngsters to view. Facebook and other social networking sites do not allow users under the age of 16 to register.
ENDS
Notes For Editors:
Further information, including images, is available by contacting Steve McComish at Pressman PR Ltd on 0115 9648214.
School Together Now is the brain child of Esther Guy, a mum from Surrey, who hopes to raise millions of pounds for schools throughout the country.
The site aims to connect youngsters and their parents to their local schools and create an online community which could be particularly useful for those parents whose career prevents them from participating in the school run.
It includes a database of 33,000 UK state and independent schools. Users, who can be either children or parents, create a profile linked to their school and can then share information with school staff, other parents and fellow pupils.
The site, www.schooltogethernow.com (http://www.schooltogethernow.com/) will also carry advertising – and each school will get 20% of the advertising revenue associated with its listing.
School Together Now is already live on the web but will be launched formally in the New Year. Pupils as young as five can register to become members with the consent of their parents. Other social networks do not allow under 16s to register.
The site’s founder Esther Guy came up with the idea after juggling motherhood with her career as operations manager for a busy recruitment company.
Esther, who has three daughters, twins aged seven and a four year old, said she was tired of missing out on her daughters’ childhoods.
She said: “There must be thousands of parents like me all over the country who struggle with full time work and commitments to their kids.
“I have a 90 mile round trip to work every single day and it means I miss out on the school run and on meeting other mums and dads at my girls’ schools.
“I’m lucky because we have extended family who can lend a hand and drop off or collect the kids at school but it means we are not able to share their school experience as much as we would like to.
“I decided to launch this website because due to the limitations on my time I struggled to build a rapport with the other mums in the playground.
“A generation or two ago the school was the hub of the community and everyone would gather round the gates and share their news. But times have changed and more and more parents, both mothers and fathers, are now in full time work.
“It means a lot of those old communities have been lost and now we are leading our lives in other ways. The internet is becoming increasingly useful and sites such as Facebook have become valuable resources for people to organize their social lives online.
“But until now there was nothing aimed exclusively at schools, parents and children and that is something we are going to rectify.”
Esther, who lives with her husband Chris, a plasterer, and their three girls in Tadworth, Surrey, added that School Together Now could radically alter the way schools are funded.
She said: “If the site becomes a success, as we hope it will, then there will be a massive financial benefit for schools. This is so much more than just a business to me. I want it to be a socially responsible platform where pupils, parents and schools can all benefit.
“We have created a model where one fifth of all profits will be donated to schools. As parents ourselves we wanted to create something which would benefit everyone concerned, both parents, pupils and schools. The site also offers a useful platform for local businesses and we hope to attract advertising from small companies run by parents of pupils at a particular school.”
She added that the site will be monitored and vetted closely to ensure all content is suitable for youngsters to view. Facebook and other social networking sites do not allow users under the age of 16 to register.
ENDS
Notes For Editors:
Further information, including images, is available by contacting Steve McComish at Pressman PR Ltd on 0115 9648214.