TEACHER | SOLO ENTREPRENEUR

Hello and thank you for taking the time to visit the Socraflix website. I'm Laura, a 36 year-old History teacher from Nottingham with fourteen years of classroom experience. As I type this, I'm currently 'watching' the Euros England v Spain Final (I'm not really watching it, but there's an in-built social pressure to have it on in the background) and I am also heavily pregnant with twin boys. So it's fair to say I'm not your usual 'Founder CEO of an EdTech Company.'

When designing Socraflix, I had myself in mind. Not 2024 me, a self-confessed know-it-all who only needs a premium-quality board pen to teach a lesson. But the rookie me, who was over-burdened with planning lessons for a very challenging GCSE class, who lacked the knowledge, skills or support to succeed. Who was then given an A Level class in my least favourite topic and then blamed myself when complaints came through from parents because I lacked the confidence to teach it well.

I would have happily paid £20 a month for videos that guided me through the GCSE or A Level curriculum; not only could I have pressed play on a video when I didn't feel confident enough to explain a difficult concept - but I could have set the videos as homework and used the 'Big Brother' spy technology to learn which ones have actually watched it! Oh, how much easier my life would have been!

The Teacher Martyr is not a new phenomenon. Nor is the mental health challenges faced by Britain's teenagers, who must sit exams in a one-size-fits-all education system. However, these age-old problems have been intensified by the Covid pandemic. I worked on the front line of the Covid pandemic as Head of Year 11 in 2020/1 and watched as students struggled to claw their way through their exams without consistent teaching or a stable routine. We are another decade from knowing the true impact on the academic achievement and future prospects on the Lockdown Generation. But a new beast has emerged post-Covid, the Terrible Beauty of AI. While many have looked upon it with suspicion and fear, I have seen it as an opportunity to create a solution to the problems in our education system that were thrown into stark relief during the Covid years.

I have always been a writer. Novels mainly, but I've also dabbled in bid-writing and journalism. I've always been a creative thinker and problem-solver. As a teacher, I actually enjoy writing model essays for my students to show them how it should be done. I see how these skills are much needed, but much lacking in the current e-learning provision.

But more than this, I've always been a hustler. One summer, I marked over 1,000 exam scripts so I could get that extra bit of cash for my house deposit. I worked as a private tutor so I could beat School Holiday Prices and go globe-trotting. I now have the world's greatest incentive to succeed. I'm about to become a twin mum!