Charlotte Phillips

Charlotte Phillips is an Oxford graduate and a former teacher (she was a music specialist at a south west London prep school for a decade), parent and consultant. Before joining The Good Schools Guide as a school reviewer and consultant, specialising in SEND, she wrote about education and family life for The Telegraph, Times and Guardian, among others, and has also contributed original musical compositions to a schools' song book.

She has first-hand experience of neurodivergence within her immediate family so understands just how challenging - and rewarding - life can be when conventional educational pathways, expectations and timings don't always work. The only thing that matters, she says, is whether a school is right for a particular child, something that glowing exam results and fabulous facilities won’t necessarily tell you. 

As a veteran of some wonderful moments but some dreadful ones too, she enjoys putting her experience and knowledge at the service of other parents for whom finding the right education is not always straightforward. 'Getting the right school for the right child is endlessly satisfying,' she says.