When we started The Teacher’s Connections, we were two teachers and mums trying to solve a problem we understood very personally. As parents, there are lots of things we’re happy to shop around for. But when it comes to our children, it’s different. Who do you trust to walk through your front door, sit alongside your child when they’re struggling with school, pick them up from kindy, or look after them while you head out for the evening? That decision feels big because it is big.
As The Teacher’s Connections has grown from a small idea between two teacher-mums into a nationwide network of more than 250 teachers, it’s something we’ve thought about constantly.
We started with the people we would trust ourselves
The original idea behind The Teacher’s Connections was actually very simple. Teachers are pretty amazing people to have in your family’s corner.
As teachers ourselves, we knew how much experience exists within the teaching community that families often can’t easily access. We knew teachers who were brilliant at helping a child finally understand fractions, teachers who could work with a teenager preparing for NCEA externals, and teachers who were incredible with anxious children or those who simply needed a little more confidence.
We also knew teachers that parents would absolutely love to have babysitting their children. People who genuinely enjoy being around kids, know how to handle the chaos that can come with bedtime, and who we would happily leave our own children with.
That became our starting point. We wanted to connect families with people we would genuinely feel comfortable having in our own homes and around our own children. It sounds simple, but that idea has shaped almost every decision we’ve made since.
Then things grew… quickly
What started small didn’t stay small for very long. Today, The Teacher’s Connections has more than 250 teachers in our network across Aotearoa, providing tutoring from primary school right through to NCEA, Cambridge, IB and Scholarship level. Our wider team also provides babysitting, nannying, music, swimming, enrichment and other support for families.
Growth is exciting. As founders, seeing something you created reach families around the country is incredibly special. But growth also creates a challenge. How do you get bigger without losing the thing that made people trust you when you were small?
We never wanted to become a faceless booking platform where a parent submits a request and a computer spits out a name. There is a person and a story behind every enquiry we receive.
Sometimes it’s a mum worried because her teenager has fallen behind after being sick. Sometimes it’s parents desperately trying to find someone they trust so they can attend a wedding. Sometimes it’s a child who has decided they’re ‘bad at Maths’ and needs the right teacher to show them that they’re not. And sometimes it’s simply exhausted parents who would really, really like to go out for dinner together.
We get it, because we’re parents too.
Trust isn’t something you can automate
As we’ve grown, we’ve obviously had to put more systems and processes in place. That’s inevitable when hundreds of teachers, carers and families are involved. But there are some things we don’t think should become impersonal, and matching families with the right person is one of them.
A teacher can have incredible qualifications and still not be the right teacher for every child. The same is true of a babysitter or nanny. Personality matters. Experience matters. Location and availability matter. Most importantly, what that particular child and family need matters.
That’s why we still spend so much time behind the scenes talking to families and our team, working out who might genuinely fit. For our tutoring families, that might mean finding an NCEA marker who knows exactly what an Excellence-level answer requires, or a primary teacher who knows how to rebuild the confidence of a reluctant reader.
For babysitting, it means parents knowing that the person arriving at their home isn’t simply someone who responded to an online ad. For nanny placements, it can mean finding someone who doesn’t just meet the practical requirements, but actually feels right for the family.
Those details matter to us because they would matter to us with our own children.
Finding the right person is about much more than availability. Personality, experience and the needs of each child all matter.
Being voted for by families means something different
Recently, The Teacher’s Connections was named a People’s Choice finalist in the 2degrees Auckland Business Awards. Being a finalist in any business award is exciting, of course, but this particular category felt different to us.
Because People’s Choice is exactly that: people choosing you!
Our community actually took the time to vote for and support a business they believe in. For us, that means a lot because our business is built almost entirely around trust. Parents trust us with something incredibly important: their children.
Knowing that families and members of our wider community were willing to put our name forward and vote for us felt like a pretty special vote of confidence. It also made us stop and reflect on something else we’re enormously proud of. As we’ve grown, every Google review we’ve received has been five stars.
We don’t say that because we think everything will always be perfect. We’re dealing with people, children, busy families, schedules, sickness and real life. Things happen. What we’re proud of is the relationships behind those reviews.
They represent children who have become more confident, parents who have found some breathing room, tutors who have gone above and beyond, and families who have trusted us enough to recommend us to someone else. For a growing business, there really isn’t a bigger compliment.
Trust grows through community too
One thing this recognition reminded us of is that so much of our growth has come from mums talking to other mums.
Almost every week we hear, “My friend recommended you,” or “Someone in my mum’s group said you were amazing.” Those recommendations mean everything to us because they come from people who have already trusted us with their own children.
That’s why we’re looking for a small group of mums to collaborate with The Teacher’s Connections over the coming months.
Not influencers. Not people with thousands of followers.
We’re looking for mums who are a trusted voice in their community. The kind of person other parents message asking for a babysitter recommendation, a tutor for Year 6 Maths, or someone to help with after-school care.
If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you. We’re building a small community of mums who genuinely love sharing great finds with other parents, and we’d love for you to be part of it.
Growing without losing the personal bit
We’re still learning. The Teacher’s Connections today is very different in size from the little business we started, and we know it will continue to change. But there are parts of it that we don’t want to change.
We still want families to be able to tell us what’s actually going on. We still want to know that the tutor we’re suggesting makes sense for that particular child. We still want our teachers and carers to feel valued as people, rather than profiles in a database. And we still want to run the business through the same lens we started with:
Would we trust this person with our own children?
Because ultimately, we’re not just business owners. We’re two mums too. We know what it feels like to hand someone else responsibility for your child, whether that’s for an hour of tutoring, regular after-school care or an evening of babysitting.
The fact that more and more families are trusting us to make those connections is something we don’t take lightly. Being recognised in a People’s Choice award has made us stop for a moment and appreciate just how much that trust means.
To everyone who has booked with us, recommended us to another parent, left a review, voted for us, or sent us a message saying that one of our teachers made a difference to their child, thank you. Every recommendation, review and vote has helped a small idea between two mums grow into something much bigger than we originally imagined.
The Teacher’s Connections may be getting bigger, but we hope it always feels personal.
Kelly & Jenny x
Co-founders, The Teacher’s Connections
This article was written by Kelly and Jenny, co-founders of The Teacher’s Connections, in partnership with Hey Māmā.