What is the GSGI Advisory Service?

A consultancy to advise parents, one-to-one, on choosing the best schooling for their children. Our editors know what's good, what's dodgy... they even know if the hard truth is there are no good options for you in that country.

Click here for Advice Request Form.

Each editor is a lively, helpful advisor who has been in your shoes many times. By email or phone before you move, or in person once you arrive, she'll give you up-to-date, informal advice on the best local schools, the inside scoop on them, and which one is right for your child.

And you can throw in those other questions, too - the ones about housing and piano lessons and furniture and school shoes.

In short, each editor is a sort of one-woman coffee morning.

GSGI advisors can give advice on:

o       Specific local schools  

o       Educational systems, curricula, exams for a particular country

o       Cultural overview (expat survival and life in the host country)

o       Other questions about moving overseas

On a more personal level, The Good Schools Guide International Advisors...  

• Can network with other editors or parents for an accurate picture of particular schools 
• Provide a lifeline to a new country
• Offer sympathy and support to anxious parents
• Can assist clients by putting them directly in touch with other parents or will speak to other parents from the school
• Can offer advice on the pros and cons regarding your own child, in an objective and detailed manner
• Can act as a point of contact to approach the school to ascertain the availability of places and other information required by prospective parents, e.g. school reports
• Can put together an informal profile of the parents and the children to match the pupil with the school. 
• Can provide other educational support (via GSGI info network)

Who are these people?

Our advisors* have spent their adult lives moving with the diplomatic corps or multi-national corporations, and come from a range of professions and backgrounds - professional educators, journalists, corporate executives, diplomatic wives.... 

But all are expats, all are parents, and all have had years of experience analyzing and dealing with their own children’s schooling across the globe.

...and how do they know what they know?

Ears to the ground, GSGI editors talk to other parents and visit the schools themselves. 

They look at the usual suspects - test scores, buildings, where children go from here (ie other local schools? Top boarding schools back home? Good universities?), and especially compare schools with the best of similar schools worldwide.  

GSGI editors know the schools where they live, and they've ferreted out the secrets of expat survival there.  Because of their infectious enthusiasm for this intrepid nomadic life, they are exactly the sympathetic, savvy advisors parents need for educational and even cultural advice about new postings or proposed relocations.

How do I engage an advisor?

Advice Request Form

Tell us what you need, and we'll tell you if can help. Fill out the Advice Request Form with as much information as you can, and submit it to us. (Or you can call us and we'll walk you through the form, subscription, etc).

All information is treated in the strictest confidence. We act as agent for our advisors; if we have an advisor in that country, as soon as your details have cleared through the secure Netbanx section of this site, we'll put you directly in touch her so the two of you can agree about consultation by e- mail, telephone or in person at times that are convenient for both of you. If we don't have the right advisor, we may be able to suggest someone else who can meet your needs.

What is the cost?

Our standard fee is £495 for up to three hours of any combination of phone, email, and/or face-to-face, and £150 for each additional hour. Special arrangements can be made between you and your advisor for half or full day meetings (click here for Advisory Rates).

We will refund your fee if you are not entirely satisfied with the results, or even if - after a few minutes - we discover we can't help.

Please read the terms and conditions of their agreement with you; if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

*GSGI advisors act on their own account, and are not agents, employees or partners of the GSGI. The full terms and conditions of their agreement with you can be found here, and if you proceed to contact any of them having read this page you will be presumed to have read and agreed to this agreement.