Alpha

Back in 2012/13, Matthew was living in Brazil, working for an online English school. He was deeply frustrated by the lack of organization the company offered, let alone the complete absence of care it provided for both its students and teachers. He knew that if the company would just get more organized and work more like a school, it would help teachers help students. 

Most online English schools are founded by business people or techies who spy a market or develop a platform. They cared more about making money than actually helping people truly learn the English language and grow from it. With this business model, the goal most English companies had for its students was to keep them dependent on the company. Matthew knew that like any good parent, good teachers want to help their students learn independently and think for themselves, even if it meant that reaching that goal would mean students eventually and inevitably leaving him. 

Having always been the kind of teacher who genuinely cared for his students' growth and well-being, teaching at this company made Matthew extremely dissatisfied. And having taught for a number of different organisations, he thought that the low esteem and trust that he was feeling at the company was typical of the way teachers were treated.

Matthew decided he wanted to work at a school that was built and run by teachers, not business people. He realised that instead of solving the problems students have, if you solved the problems teachers face, then solutions for students would follow. That's because a motivated, happy, effective teacher creates a motivating, happy, effective learning environment. And in motivating, happy, effective environments, students flourish. He wanted a school that took good care of its teachers (something he had not seen in any English school he'd worked for). 

Matthew wanted to work with people who sincerely want to help others—the kind of teachers who aren't competitive with each other, but collaborative with others in order to reach their shared goal of helping each student. He wanted a school where students didn't just learn the English language, but one that helped students grow and learn from and in English and learn how to learn.

And if he couldn't find that school, he'd just have to build it himself. 

Beta

The English Farm is three main components: records, reservations and communications. The first version of The English Farm was a combination of Google docs, an online calendar and Skype.

On the strength of his experience teaching online and face-to-face, Matthew set to work building a site that could function as an online school and allow teachers to collaborate to the best of their ability. There were a couple of false starts, but eventually Matthew had a prototype site that he could test with real students.

Go!

In 2015, Matthew quit his job (with his second kid on the way) and pitched to TEF's first major client. TEF started for business proper in 2016 and has grown from strenth to strength ever since.