Helping education companies grow their sales in schools
We’re Heather McAvan and Alicia Coad — two education specialists who help companies understand how schools think, decide and buy. With experience across teaching, product strategy, edtech growth and school engagement, we support organisations who want clear, honest insight into how their products land with teachers and leaders, and what to do next to build trust and traction in schools.
Who we are
Heather is a former teacher and experienced edtech founder with over 20 years in education and publishing. She played a key role in Twinkl’s early expansion into a global brand as their CMO, developing strategy for international markets and later became a non-executive director at Kapow Primary during a major growth phase.
She founded Mrs Mactivity in 2017 and has grown it into a platform used by over 20,000 teachers and schools. She also founded Time for Phonics, a DfE-validated programme later acquired by Discovery Education. Heather specialises in product direction, teacher insight, messaging, SEO, brand growth and identifying opportunities in the education market.
Alicia, as co-founder of BlueCow Education, has worked with hundred of edtech companies, from small teacher-led start ups to multi national organisations. She has helped education companies connect directly with headteachers through online market research events. She specialises in ensuring products are correctly positioned with clear customer pipelines. Alicia also works extensively with Independent Schools shaping their marketing and admissions strategy.
We support education businesses with clear, practical guidance across product, positioning and marketing.
With real classroom experience, deep sector insight and a proven track record growing major education brands, we help you reach the right people in the right way.
We help education companies understand their audience, shape their product and communicate more clearly with teachers and school leaders.
Understanding your product in the eyes of schools
Working with education companies of all sizes, we help founders and teams understand how their products and ideas are interpreted by teachers and school leaders. Drawing on years of experience in edtech, publishing and real classroom practice, we offer clear, honest insight into what schools value, what they question and what needs tightening before a product is ready to grow. Our work focuses on the realities of school life and decision-making, giving organisations clarity that’s hard to gain from internal discussions, early marketing or trade shows alone.
Shaping a clear direction for your next steps
Every organisation needs something slightly different. Some want to know whether the UK is the right market, others need to refine a prototype, strengthen early messaging or understand why adoption has slowed after early traction. We combine strategic thinking with practical review - including access, usability, positioning, pricing and feedback from relevant teachers and senior leaders - to build a grounded picture of where things stand. The result is always the same: a clear sense of direction, realistic next steps and the confidence to move forward, whether that means entering the UK market, refining the product first or focusing efforts elsewhere.
How we work
We keep things simple and focused. Rather than following a fixed process, we look at what you’re trying to achieve and shape our work around that. We’re clear about what we see, honest about what will make a difference and thoughtful about how we guide you forward. Above all, we only take on projects where we feel we can add meaningful value — and our approach reflects that.
Services for education suppliers
1-1 Meetings
1-1 Meetings with school leaders take place online and last 30 minutes. The school leaders self select so come on to the meeting keen to learn about your product having chosen you from a shortlist.
School Leader Webinars
We organise a group of 10-20 School Leaders who join you online to learn about your product. The beauty of this option is it gives you an opportunity to speak to a group together, saving you hours of time.
Online Supplier Showcases
These online sessions bring together a group of eight companies and you each speak for six minutes with time for questions. We provide a group size of 20-30 school leaders who are looking for solutions for their school.
Connecting education suppliers with school leaders through proven events and meetings.
We understand the full marketing mix, from email, social media, events, appointments - blending them together through our offerings enables you to achieve your goals
We operate on a results basis only with our 1-1 meetings - no meetings no bills for you!
We have transparent pricing with initial projects starting from just £350
We work with companies large and small, from start-ups to multinationals
Companies we worked with as BlueCow Education:
