Like many other new bloggers I googled ‘how to write your first blog.’ It didn’t make things any easier or less daunting. But one veteran blogger advised to keep it simple by focusing on who you are, why you’re blogging, and what you will be blogging about. Here we go!
I’m Carrie, Director of Learning Performance Training, the UK’s largest study skills company. My parents started the company in in 1992 when I was just 8 years old. They had watched my elder brother struggle at school due to his dyslexia. His teachers sadly, considered him stupid and lazy (he wasn’t). Some twenty years ago dyslexia was little known and little understood.
Galvanized into action my Mum, discovered ‘Let’s Get Motivated,’ by John Dibley. Impressed by his simple, yet effective learning strategies a dialogue between Dibley and my parents began. I remember late night phone calls (emails didn’t exist back then) as John lived in Australia and big discussions centered around how they could introduce study skills into every single school in the UK. It was exciting. It was new.
It started small, local and in our garden shed. I worked every summer answering phones, filing, & stuffing envelopes. Every member of our family was involved in some shape or form, even our dog, Bella, helped on occasion. There was no escaping Learning Performance’s fever!
Twenty years and a lot of hard work later, Learning Performance has a team of 50 + presenters who visit over a 1,000 schools across the UK each academic year with our study skills workshops. Last year we reached over 200,000 students.
This figure blows my mind! At least 200,000 people discovered the techniques that make learning easier. At least 200,000 kids learnt how to learn.
We are still a family – run business, which customers and employees tell me gives a personal edge. I love that. I love working for Learning Performance – my family, I love providing skills to students who otherwise may have given up on learning, I love being part of something that has tangible value.
To be frank, I dragged my heels over starting a blog. We have a loyal customer base and I didn’t see how blogging could engage our already established audience. But teachers after attending our INSET days or students who had our workshops kept asking for more. A Year 11 student actually suggested blogging to me as forum to exchange ideas. Well, a massive thank you to that enterprising individual! I hope he finds this blog one day.
There we have it – my first blog!
Feel free to leave comments or suggestions for future posts. You can visit our website www.learningperformance.com for further details on what we do & offer.
The LPT siblings and directors.
Learning Performance Training 