Our story

We're a fresh new face on the education scene. Our mission? To deliver high-quality, syllabus-optimised resources that also have the capacity to spark students' intellectual curiosity and ignite a life-long love of learning.

OUR MISSION

Learning resources for a new generation

We've entered a new era of education. In an AI-saturated world, the tools that we're providing the next generation with feel increasingly redundant.

But the world is not standing still nor will it press 'pause' to let us catch up.

This is why these words from Google's former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google back in 2014 seem all the more prescient: "The No. 1 thing we look for is general cognitive ability, and it’s not I.Q. It’s learning ability. It’s the ability to process on the fly. It’s the ability to pull together disparate bits of information."

Educators and curriculum design must ensure that students develop "learning ability" — the ability of students to find, analyse, and use resources to answer questions and design solutions, and apply their knowledge using judgment.

That's the driving philosophy behind Smart Guides.

Our resources aim to nurture curiosity and a life-long love of learning, while seeking to cultivate skills that may be uniquely human: creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence.

MEET THE FOUNDER

Elizabeth Cooke

Hi, I'm Elizabeth, Smart Guides' founder.

In 2022, I graduated from the University of Oxford with a first-class honours degree... but my journey through education hasn't always been smooth.

In 2013, I left my semi-dilapidated comprehensive school to pursue self-education, convinced that there was a better way to learn. The decision raised more than a few eyebrows.

However, if my self-education journey taught me anything, it was that there is a dearth of resources for high-achieving students on the market — the kind of resources that inspire students to make their own forays into self-directed research and that encourage the habits of life-long learning.

Smart Guides is the realisation of this market gap. It is also a reflection of my deep passion for learning and education.

First class BA (Hons) Modern Languages and Philosophy, University of Oxford

Former business journalist