Be Their Guide: levelling the playing field so every child can realise their potential
Parental engagement is one of the strongest predictors of academic success, yet disadvantaged families often face significant barriers to providing it. Opportunities for encouragement, dialogue, and the development of thinking skills are present in many homes regardless of socioeconomic background. However, wealthier families are more able to supplement this support—either by offering it themselves or by paying for private tuition—options not available to families with fewer resources or less academic confidence. This engagement is especially critical as children transition into completing work at home. Here, the most effective support is not about giving answers, but about fostering thinking, questioning, and problem-solving. Research shows that children without such support spend only a third as much time on homework as their more advantaged peers. When done well, homework becomes more than a set of tasks: it provides a space to nurture metacognition—helping children to think deeply, reflect on their learning, and build agency. Through dialogue and shared experiences, parents can help children develop confidence, independence, and resilience. When such support is absent, the socio-economic gap in attainment grows wider.
Over years of schooling, this difference compounds and accelerates to a gap of 18-24 months before exams. One child learns how to learn, while the other falls further behind. This is a primary mechanism by which the socioeconomic achievement gap is not just maintained, but actively widened through everyday processes like homework. It’s critical that children are supported in the years where parental impact on learning has the most impact.
Our Mission
Be Their Guide levels the playing field by ensuring every child has access to the same quality of academic support at home. We connect schools and families through ethical, human-in-the-loop AI that empowers caregivers to guide learning with confidence. By providing disadvantaged students with the encouragement and metacognitive guidance more advantaged peers often take for granted, we help all children realise their full potential.
Our Vision
We imagine a future where education flows seamlessly from classroom to home, strengthened by the partnership of teachers, caregivers, and carefully designed technology.
In this future:
• Parents and guardians feel confident supporting their child’s learning, either directly sitting with their child boosting motivation and metacognitive skills, or in passing, when questions are asked.
• AI serves as a supportive tool for caregivers, never a substitute, always under human oversight.
• Every child, regardless of background, enjoys the same opportunities for encouragement, guidance, and growth. They receive a boost both in remembering and understanding content, and how to think.
When families are supported, children are empowered. And when children are empowered, they thrive—not just at school, but in life.
Why We Exist
The attainment gap is not about ability—it is about equity of opportunity. Too many children fall behind, not because they lack talent, or their parents are unwilling to help, but because parents face barriers to the kind of home learning support given.
Be Their Guide exists to level that playing field. By combining the best of education research with responsible use of AI, we are building a bridge between school and home, supporting caregivers to guide thinking at home:
Teacher → Schoolwork → AI support → Caregiver → Child.
This cycle ensures that no child is left without guidance, and no parent feels powerless when it matters most.
Our Approach
At Be Their Guide, our approach is simple but powerful: put human relationships first, and let technology serve as a supportive scaffold.
How We Work
School-to-home ethical AI to raise attainment
• homework.guide – Helps parents guide homework without giving answers using newly developed metacognitive theories and a Quadratic ZPD. AI provides carefully designed prompts that encourage children to think for themselves, while keeping the teacher’s instructions at the centre.
- Teachers upload homework to the platform
- Caregivers can look up homework due, and chat directly with the AI
- Caregivers can also use shortcut buttons for example, to simplify and explanation, or translate to a different language
- The AI supports caregivers guiding learning through metacognitive processes and dialogue – no bias, no hallucinations.
- This support allows all caregivers to be comfortable with any homework set by the school and this removes barriers that would otherwise restrict home support.
This creates an insulated pipeline of support:
Teacher sets the work → Parent is empowered with AI prompts → Child learns with guided support towards independence → Equity in learning.
It is a cycle that strengthens—not replaces—the school-to-home link.
Human Oversight at the Core
We believe AI can only be safe, effective, and equitable when it is designed with human oversight. For us this means:
• Teachers lead – They set the learning within the platform.
• Caregivers guide – They bring encouragement and support grounded in metacognitive strategies.
• AI supports – It scaffolds, never substitutes, and always operates within the boundaries of human direction. It won’t hallucinate or give biased answers as it it used in a closed loop school-to-home pipeline.
Anchored in Safe, Ethical AI Principles
Our work aligns with both international and national frameworks for responsible AI:
• UNESCO’s Global Principles on AI in Education
• Human-centred and inclusive design.
• AI that reduces inequalities rather than deepening them.
• Protection of children’s rights, agency, and privacy.
• UK Department for Education’s 2025 Framework for Safe and Effective AI Use
• Human in the loop at every stage.
• Transparency and safety: no hidden processes, no data misuse.
• Closed-loop information: our AI only uses teacher-provided content, ensuring accuracy and trust.
By embedding these principles, Be Their Guide offers funders, schools, and families the confidence that our innovations are both responsible and impactful.
Responsible AI: Our Pledge
At Be Their Guide, we believe technology should always serve people, never replace them. Our use of AI in education is guided by six core commitments:
1. Human in the Loop
Teachers lead the learning, caregivers provide encouragement, and AI supports. Technology will never replace the vital human relationships at the heart of education.
2. Human Oversight
Every interaction is guided and overseen by a trusted adult. AI is a scaffold, not a substitute, ensuring that children remain supported, safe, and in control of their own learning.
3. Equity First
We design AI to level the playing field, giving disadvantaged families the same access to guidance and support that wealthier peers already enjoy.
4. Transparency and Safety
Our systems operate within a closed loop of information. AI only draws on teacher-provided content, avoiding bias, misinformation, or hidden processes.
5. Privacy and Protection
Family conversations are never shared or used to train external AI models. Data is safeguarded so that parents and children can trust the support they receive.
6. Global and National Alignment
Our approach is grounded in UNESCO’s Global Principles on AI in Education and the UK Department for Education’s 2025 framework for safe and effective AI use. These frameworks guide every aspect of our design and practice.
Why This Matters
AI in education is at a crossroads. Used carelessly, it risks widening inequalities and undermining trust. Used responsibly, with human oversight and ethical safeguards, it can help every child realise their potential. Ethics is not an add-on; it is the architecture itself.
At Be Their Guide, we pledge to always put children, families, and fairness first.
The platform and use of AI are fully compliant with the both the Department for Education’s Policy paper Generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education updated in August 2025; and the Department for Education’s Safe and Effective Use of AI in Education released in June 2025. Specifically, there is always a human in the loop: the teacher, who sets the homework, and the caregiver at home, who encourages and supports the child. The AI does not generate new subject content; it only draws upon the homework and guidance provided by the teacher. This closed-loop design eliminates the risks of external bias or “hallucination.”
Safeguarding and Purpose
Safeguarding is in-built. Because many caregivers may not be able to verify the accuracy of AI-generated subject answers, our platform avoids providing them. Instead, it focuses on encouraging metacognitive thinking and reflective questioning, always grounded in the scope of the teacher’s set work. No caregiver–AI conversations are ever used to train external large language models or stored after use.
Impact on Caregivers and Children
The platform emphasises caregiver perceptions of children’s learning, confidence, and independence. Strengthening these perceptions builds trust in the home, which in turn contributes to children’s attainment and helps narrow the socioeconomic attainment gap.
Evidence, Equity, and Innovation
Rooted in evidence and driven by equity, Be Their Guide brings together two core strands of parental support: homework.guide, an AI-powered tool that helps parents guide homework without giving answers; and reading.guide (coming soon), a digital companion to support joyful, effective reading habits at home.
Leadership and Vision
Founded and led by a UK expert in teacher training and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, Be Their Guide is building the foundations for national impact. We are now seeking founding partners, funders, and leadership team members to help scale this work and ensure all families can access the confidence and independence needed for children to thrive.
Empower Learning with Proven Strategies
Discover essential tools and insights designed to help parents and educators bridge the attainment gap effectively.
Metacognition as a spectrum
Our AI works on the latest research showing that metacognition supports learning from unconscious actions to highly planned and reflective activities.
AI Support
An ethical ‘closed-loop’ system connecting schools and homes. The engaging platform supports parents through metacognitive solutions, no AI hallucinations or bias.
Quadratic ZPD theories
A more knowledgeable other is expanded from the teacher, through AI to the caregiver to expand thinking skills, supporting the caregiver to guide the learning.
Join Us
Reach out to enquire about joining the founding team, or being part of the upcoming fieldwork. Whether you’re a potential partner, funder, school, or volunteer—please get in touch using the links above, or fill out the form below.
We are looking for new schools for test studies to develop the platform. There is no cost, and the platform follows University of Oxford ethics guidance.
We need Founding Experts willing to donate their time and expertise to a cause that will be transformative for so many young people’s life chances.
- Fundraising & Account Managers: To shape our income strategy and secure sustainable grant funding and partnerships.
- Operations and Executive Leaders: To help scale the charity, build school partnerships, and manage impact delivery.
- Trustees and Advisors: To help steer our ethical direction, financial governance, and national strategy.
We are looking for support for charitable, government, and independents sources so that we can develop and support more schools, caregivers, and children learn on a more level playing field, and attain fair and equitable outcomes in their learning journey at school.
Contact us
Our Origins: A Research-Driven Vision
Be Their Guide was born from a doctoral research project at the University of Oxford exploring how artificial intelligence can support parental involvement in homework. This research—centred on metacognition, equity, and sociocultural theory—identified a clear opportunity: AI can enable, not replace, meaningful parent–child interactions.
This work led to the creation of homework.guide, a platform where parents receive tailored prompts to guide their children through difficult tasks, aligned with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Children are supported to think, not just to complete.
Connecting schools and homes through a Quadratic ZPD AI platform to support caregiver-guided homework metacognition: an international longitudinal study grounded in sociocultural activity theory.
Our Projects
homework.guide for KS2 and KS3
An AI-powered homework assistant for parents. Teachers upload homework, and parents receive prompts to guide — not solve — the work. Grounded in doctoral research at Oxford, this tool prevents over-helping and builds children’s thinking.
reading.guide (launching soon for KS1)
A structured, joyful guide to home reading. Supports parents in building their child’s vocabulary, comprehension, and confidence. Works with any book. Grounded in literacy pedagogy and child development research.
📧 admin@betheirguide.org
🔗 www.betheirguide.org
Be Their Guide is a UK-based charity currently in formation, built from doctoral research at the University of Oxford and committed to equitable parental involvement in education.