When the choice of school matters

Parent Advisory by a former Head of School

For families choosing schools across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the international circuit. Briefs written by a named former Head, so every recommendation carries an author who stands behind it.

Book a complimentary consultation

Three directions of travel

The practice covers three audiences across UK and international education.

UK Inbound

Families moving into the UK

Boarding, day, and prep school placement for international families relocating to the United Kingdom or considering UK education for the first time. The work covers shortlisting, application strategy, interview preparation, and the schools that do not appear on the standard agent lists.

Families often pair the placement work with 1:1 tutoring through Sophyra Tutors. The tutoring practice runs under the same safeguarding leadership, with Level 3 DSL oversight.

UK Outbound

Families moving from the UK abroad

For families based in the UK or Ireland choosing international schools, considering returns from boarding, or planning relocation. Combines twenty years inside British international schools across four countries with deep familiarity of the UK admissions cycle.

International Families

International schools and university planning

For families based outside the UK who want strategic advice within the international school circuit, or who are planning a child's move to university. Coverage includes school-to-school comparisons across regions, transitions between stages, and the university admissions cycle for older students.

For families who prefer autonomous self-service, take a look at Sophyra Next, our online platform for working through subject choice and university options at your own pace.

Engagement tiers

From a single written brief to a standing advisory relationship across a child's school career.

Complimentary consultation

No charge · 30 minutes

A first conversation by video call. Establishes scope, suitability, and whether the practice is the right fit for what the family is trying to achieve. Every engagement begins here.

School Approach Brief

Scoped at consultation · Ten working days

A brief outlining academic profile, wellbeing and pastoral support, application strategy, and assessment fit. Produced within ten working days, allowing time for assessment and school contact.

Full Placement Mandate

Scoped at consultation · Up to 12 months

A retained engagement across the school year of the move. Includes the School Approach Brief, application planning, interview preparation for the child and family, and direct introduction to admissions where appropriate. Up to two children covered. Capped at twelve months from instruction.

Retained Advisory

Scoped at consultation · Annual

A standing arrangement for families with longer horizons or larger portfolios of children. Covers shortlisting, applications, transitions between phases (primary to secondary, secondary to sixth form), and the ongoing decisions that arise across a school career. Renewable annually.

Academic Assessment

On request · Add-on

A standardised academic assessment via CEM, the Cambridge Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, benchmarking the child against national data to inform shortlisting and applications. Available within any engagement or on its own.

A self-service alternative

Sophyra Next is our structured guidance platform for families who would rather work through study decisions independently. It takes students from subject choice to university matching, affordability planning, and relocation, beginning with a strengths assessment and best-fit course and university options worldwide, then planning the application and the steps that follow.

Take a look at Sophyra Next

On confidentiality

Every family engagement is preceded by a mutual NDA

Parent advisory work touches on family circumstances, financial considerations, and children's academic and pastoral profiles. A mutual non-disclosure agreement is signed before any document is produced or any introduction is made.

For professional advisers

The Private Family Desk

Education decisions often sit inside a wider family move: a relocation, a change of jurisdiction, a new posting. Family offices, private-client lawyers, relocation and immigration advisers, wealth managers and concierge services introduce clients to us when a school decision needs senior educational judgement alongside the legal and financial planning already under way.

The desk gives those advisers one senior point of contact rather than three suppliers. It covers the school decision itself, teaching where there is an academic gap to close through Sophyra Tutors under the same safeguarding leadership, and university planning through Sophyra Next. A family may take one of the three and never the others.

Confidential from the first conversation

A mutual NDA precedes any engagement, and we can work directly with the family or through you, as the client prefers.

Independent of the schools

We take no commission from any school, and no school can pay to appear in a recommendation we make. What we advise is what the evidence supports.

The client relationship stays yours

We advise on the education decision and report as agreed. Everything else remains with the family's existing advisory team.

Contact our office for a confidential discussion.

Start with a conversation

Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation. We will work out whether this is the right help, and if it is, which tier fits.

Book a complimentary consultation