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PawSteps

One learning platform for school, home — and everything in between.

Every step leaves a print

▶ Open the live prototype The ask →
Seed round · Ciera O'Rourke · ciera.rose@icloud.com · July 2026
The problem

Three markets, one missing platform

The same child is failed three ways — because the family tools, the school tools and the therapy tools never meet.

111,700+

🏠 Home-educated in England

Up ~50% in five years — the fastest-growing sector in UK education, running on Facebook groups, spreadsheets and exam-centre panic. Nobody owns the journey.

DfE estimate, 2023/24
£19,000

🏫 Per AP place, per year

Schools and LAs must place vulnerable children — and pay premium prices for provision they can't see into. Monitoring = emailed Word docs.

sector averages; varies by region
54,000+

🏫 EHCPs awaiting provision

Teachers drown in marking, therapists in notes, SENCOs in evidence. The data exists — it's just never joined up.

illustrative; verify pre-raise
The wedge

Enter where the money already is: AP & EOTAS

Typical AP placement
£19,000
per pupil / year — often little visibility of attendance, progress or wellbeing
PawSteps AP/EOTAS place
£5,550
/yr — full curriculum + 3 hrs/wk live tutoring + weekly therapy + automatic LA reporting

1 · Must-spend budget

LAs and schools are statutorily obliged to place these children. Not discretionary edtech spend.

2 · Broken supply

AP demand outstrips places; school refusal (EBSNA) is rising. Commissioners are actively hunting alternatives.

3 · Data is the product

Live outcomes, wellbeing trends and auto-filed returns — commissioning teams currently get none of this.

4 · The trojan horse

Every AP child brings a school and an LA into the platform. The classroom licence follows the placement in.

The product

One child. One record. Six doors.

Underneath: one append-only evidence spine. Every report — parent, EHCP, LA return, inspection pack — is a query, not a document someone maintains. Tap a door to open its live demo.

Proof

Not a Figma — a working prototype, today

2,000+ lines, 17 interactive panels, 6 role views — every claim in this deck is clickable. Demo takes 10 minutes.

Why we win

Moats that compound

The evidence spine

Years of longitudinal, consented learning data per child. Every year on-platform makes leaving costlier — and the benchmark norms get better only for us.

Consent architecture

Home-ed families trust nothing that smells of surveillance. Opt-in, revocable, transparent sharing engineered in from day one — a culture moat competitors can't retrofit.

Safeguarding governance

Named safeguarding lead, <15 min human moderation, immutable audit — the compliance bar that keeps casual entrants out of child-to-child features.

Two-sided marketplace

Therapists and teachers sell programmes (keeping 90%); children publish to each other. Supply begets demand begets supply.

A brand children choose

Pip the Fox, paw points, real zoo cams, points that feed real hedgehogs. Procurement gets you in the door; the child's affection keeps the subscription alive.

Business model

Four engines, one licence

£9.99/mo

Family

Up to 4 children · free tier forever.

£4–6/pupil/yr

School

Whole platform, unlimited staff, MIS sync.

£1,850/term

AP / EOTAS

Curriculum + tutoring + therapy + LA returns.

£29/mo

Therapist

Unlimited caseload · marketplace, keep 90%.

Scenario-flexed model (Excel): Conservative £0.96m → Ambitious £2.6m Y3 revenue. Cumulative funding need to Y3: ~£1.15m base.
Go to market

Placements first. Classrooms follow.

1
Now → Sept 2026 · Validate

Find out what dies first

5 structured discovery interviews (scripts written). Waitlist live, split by persona. Kill criteria pre-agreed — before it costs money.

2
Year 1 · Pilot & prove

10 schools, 2 terms, free

Results published warts-and-all. First 6 AP/EOTAS placements with 1–2 friendly LAs. 300 founding families.

3
Year 2 · The wedge opens

Commissioning teams scale it

LA framework listings; AP placements scale. Pilot schools convert; SENCOs pull therapists in; therapists pull caseloads in.

4
Year 3 · Land & expand

Classroom licences follow placements

Marketplace opens. Wales & Scotland curricula double the addressable base.

Sales motion: families self-serve · schools via pilot conversion · LAs via commissioning relationships — one BD hire, year 2.

Where we are

Built before the raise

✅ Interactive prototype

17 panels, 6 role views — the full platform, clickable end to end.

Open it →

✅ Feature blueprint

Developer-ready spec: modules, data model, integrations, phased sizing.

✅ Financial model

3-year, 4-engine, scenario-flexed — assumptions all exposed.

Open it →

✅ Validation kit

5 interview scripts with pre-agreed kill criteria + pilot offer.

✅ Landing page

Persona-split waitlist, ready to collect market signal.

Open it →

◻️ Next 90 days

Interviews run · 2 pilot MOUs signed · safeguarding lead identified · technical co-founder search.

Honesty line: zero revenue, zero users today. What we're selling is speed of learning — the kit above turns £1 of seed into validated knowledge faster than anyone else in this market.
The ask

£1.5m seed · 18 months

Through to LA contracts and paying schools.

55%

Product & engineering

4→7 person team; evidence spine, learner core, Teacher Studio, SEND Hub.

18%

Content & partnerships

EYFS/phonics commissioning; zoo & expedition partners; Oak spine integration.

15%

Pilots & go-to-market

10-school pilot, published evaluation, LA relationships, one BD hire.

12%

Safeguarding & compliance

Named safeguarding lead, moderation, CE+, WCAG audit, DPIA/DPA.

Milestones bought: pilot evaluation published · 2 paying schools · first LA framework win · 40 AP/EOTAS placements · 1,500 paying families.