About The Private Education office
Education should be as individual as the child
The Private Education Office was founded on a simple principle: important educational decisions deserve time, thought and a genuinely personal approach. Our aim is not to make education more complicated, but to make an increasingly complex educational world feel more considered, manageable and personal.
Families today face more educational opportunities than ever, yet navigating schools, curricula, examinations and university pathways can be challenging. The Private Education Office brings these elements together, providing thoughtful advice and personalised academic support centred on each student’s individual strengths, ambitions and future.
Our advice begins with a considered understanding of the individual, from academic strengths and interests to character, confidence and future ambitions. As these evolve, we provide continuity of counsel, ensuring that each decision reflects both the student’s development and the family’s wider educational priorities. By looking at the complete picture, we help families understand not only what their options are, but which are most appropriate for their child and why.
Founded by Dr Candace McGovern
The Private Education Office was founded by Dr Candace McGovern, an education consultant and educator with more than fifteen years of experience across the UK, US, Middle East and international education sectors. Her career spans private education consultancy, admissions, academic tuition, curriculum development, university teaching and assessment, including work as an International Baccalaureate examiner.
Candace has advised high-net-worth and internationally mobile families, supporting students across British, American and international curricula, with particular experience in international schools, the IB Diploma Programme (IBDP), UK independent schools and Swiss boarding schools. Her work has taken her across Switzerland, including Gstaad and other leading education destinations, providing private educational support alongside broader international consultancy. Her leadership experience also includes working as an Admissions Director in Saudi Arabia, providing first-hand insight into international school admissions and the priorities of globally mobile families.
Her wider career brings a distinctive cultural and academic perspective to her work. She completed a graduate internship with Christie’s Auction House in New York, and later contributed to the development of art and history programmes at Rockefeller Center. Her experience also includes education and programme development with Macmillan Publishing and the New-York Historical Society.
This breadth of experience underpins The Private Education Office’s approach, combining academic expertise with an understanding of the complex decisions families encounter throughout a child’s education.
Personal, International and Thoughtfully Considered
The Private Education Office combines the strategic perspective of education consultancy with the individual attention of private academic support. Experience across British, American, International Baccalaureate and other educational pathways enables us to consider opportunities beyond the boundaries of a single system, whether a family is internationally mobile or simply wishes to preserve a wider range of possibilities for the future.
Support may centre on a single important decision or develop into a relationship spanning several years. In either case, families benefit from personal oversight, discretion and continuity, with advice informed by experience across teaching, assessment, admissions, educational systems and programme design.
As circumstances and ambitions evolve, we remain a consistent point of counsel, bringing together the right expertise when it is needed while retaining an understanding of the student, the family and the wider educational journey.
Private Education, Thoughtfully Managed.
The best educational pathway is rarely the same for two children. Our role is to help families find the one that is right for theirs.
Begin with a conversation.