Founded in 2015, Little Learners is a multi award-winning children’s activity provider which offers educational messy play classes for babies to preschoolers across over 30 locations in the UK and Australia. It was created and founded by a qualified primary teacher who designed an innovative mark making programme following the journey of four fun characters – ‘The Mark Makers’.
Messy play, painting, play dough, scribbling, dance and more are used to encourage children to mark make and learn early writing skills through play. We want to help children to develop a love for early writing. Classes, parties and events are offered and Little Learners also undertake work in schools and early years settings.
At Little Learners children are encouraged to use hands, fingers, feet and toes to make marks which will help to strengthen their core muscles and develop their gross and fine motor skills. These skills are vital for holding and controlling a pencil and letter and number formation when they reach school age.
Our aim is to make writing fun and encourage every child to MAKE THEIR MARK!
We’re proud that Little Learners has won multiple national awards now, including achieving ‘Highly Commended’ for Franchisor of the Year, Woman Franchisor of the Year and Young Woman in Franchising. Furthermore, we won Business Growth of the Year, New Woman Franchisor in EWIF Awards and Best Newcomer in Top Franchise Awards.
We were over the moon to receive a ranking in the prestigious EF100 2020 & 2021. Last year Little Learners also achieved Highly Commended Best Academic/Creative Activity and Best Kids Party Activity in national awards and were immensely proud to be awarded 5 Star Franchisee Satisfaction in 2021 – with a 97% score!
The franchisor is extremely ambitious for the Little Learners brand and all our franchisees. She’s proud of our offer – to parents/carers and their little ones in our classes and to prospective franchisees.
We are always evolving as a brand and are very excited to be piloting our Little Learners Playspace venues across the UK. Alongside this, our story and activity book range is licenced by a large educational manufacturer and offers support to schools’ early year’s programmes and also sells to retail stores.
We’re all excited at the impact that our classes are having on children’s ability to write and ENJOY writing and we’re also excited at the impact that our franchise opportunity has on parents seeking a more flexible career. We know how important family is and a Little Learners franchise can offer a great work-life balance – you can even take your own children to work with you!
Our training package includes access to our E-Hub which contains online training videos, files, manuals, downloadable documents, marketing materials and more. This is found in the back end of our website and is fully accessible to all franchisees.
We have an in depth operations manual and our online training videos which touch base on every aspect of running your own business – from how to apply for DBS checks to the planning and running of classes. We are always learning and expanding, so therefore ensure to update all franchisees on any new training or business ideas there are. This is often done via Facebook live stream, in our private group, webinars or in our weekly franchisee newsletter.
Our annual conference gives our franchisees the opportunity to come together and share ideas. We invite speakers from different areas of business to come along and provide training and information to help the growth of our franchisees business. Our regional coordinators are always on hand to help with training and continued help and support.
Our franchisees will mainly focus on marketing, advertising, planning and networking on days where they are not physically running classes, parties or events. They will need to ensure that their classes are active for sale on our website and that they are taking calls and replying to queries from current/potential customers.
They will need to plan out each term, ensuring they are diversifying classes and events to give our customers originality and new experiences. Advertising by leaflet dropping, creating advertisements in local magazines/newspapers, local playgroups, social media and more.
We have an amazing social media following and franchisees would need to ensure all of their business platforms are up to date, and they are regularly posting and interacting with the public. Networking with other small businesses and companies can also help to further their business and provide opportunities for business growth.
