You are much more than a score.
Every year, thousands of young people walk out of exam rooms believing a number has just told them who they are, what they're capable of and what their future looks like.
We started More Than a Score because we don't believe that for a second.
We're Dan and Laura. We're parents, former educators, internationally accredited coaches. Between us, we've spent nearly 40 years inside the world of education that shapes how kids see their own potential and put labels on themselves that affect them for years.
Dan was an award-winning assistant principal who's worked across a wide range of school communities across Australia, including remote Western Australia. Laura was an expert high school teacher and coordinator who oversaw VCE programs, and sat side by side thousands of students and families over 17 years. Regardless of where we were, we kept seeing the same thing from two different angles: great kids, full of promise, quietly convinced they'd already missed their shot, squashed by expectations, or that they somehow weren't good enough.
So we made a podcast to help them and their parents, started writing a book to push back against this, and now, run live events.
What we actually believe
Three things sit at the centre of everything we make.
No score can define you. A mark measures one kind of thing on one kind of day. It was never built to hold the whole of a person.
There's no one right path. The straight line from school to university to career is one route among many. Plenty of people who are thriving took a road that looked nothing like it.
You really don't want to peak in high school. The skills that matter most over a life, resilience, creativity, curiosity, the way you treat people, communicating, and working with others, mostly get built and refined after the final bell.
Why us
There’s a lot of noise aimed at parents right now. Some of it is fear dressed up as advice.
We try to be something different: trusted translators between the education world and your kitchen table. We talk to the people who’ve lived it, the ones who went unscored and built something real, the school leaders quietly changing how success gets measured, the young people figuring it out in real time.
Then we provide helpful insights, practical tips, and new perspectives - without the jargon or judgement.
If that sounds like something that would be of help, you’re in the right place.
Subscribe to the podcast and our practical articles. It's free, comes out each week and is written with busy parents and educators in mind.
Great to have you here,
Dan & Laura
Want to bring More Than a Score to your school community or sponsor what we are building?
Get in touch with us or read more on our Partner With Us page.
