A Burnham-On-Sea entrepreneur who invented a GCSE revision product has been named as the winner of a regional business awards competition.
Nathan McGurl, who lives in Burnham-On-Sea, founded The Study Buddy in 2018 to help students and their parents to structure and plan revision in the run up to GCSEs.
He has been announced as the winner of the Education Specialist category in this year’s Corporate Livewire Prestige Awards, which recognise small and medium-sized businesses that have proven to be the best in their market over the past 12 months.
The judging panel base their decisions on areas such as service, quality of the product and innovative practices.
In awarding The Study Buddy as best in category in the South West event, the judges specifically commented on all the positive feedback from parents and students that they found.
Nathan told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “This has been a tough year for many small businesses. To hear that we’ve won this top award is such a fabulous way to end the year.”
“I came up with this approach to make a difference to students and their parents. And I’m over the moon that the positive experiences of the mums, dads and teens that are using the approach in their GCSEs and A Levels played a big part in our win.”
The Study Buddy was created by Nathan, who applied corporate project management techniques to help his son overcome his procrastination.
The result is a simple approach to managing study in a sensible and structured way. This is top of many people’s minds at the moment, with the disruption caused by Covid-19 and continuing uncertainty over next year’s exams.
“The pandemic has obviously had a huge impact on education this year. It’s not just time lost in school but also knock on effect on the confidence, readiness and motivation that many students feel,” explains Nathan.
“We have to work to the basis that exams will take place in the summer. So, it’s especially important that teens consolidate the learning that happens in the classroom by study independently at home.”
“Cramming is never a sensible approach to exams. More than ever, students should be looking at ways they can knuckle-down and make a start sooner rather than later. It can be tough, but the clarity and structure of our approach has helped students all over the country.”
Burnham-On-Sea.com first reported n 2018 on Nathan’s product The Study Buddy and Nathan says it has helped many students and their parents to structure and plan their revision in the run up to GCSEs.
The Study Buddy’s revision method is free to use and Nathan says that he’s always happy to talk to local families about the newly award-winning system and how to go about creating great plans. More information can be found at www.thestudybuddy.com
