TAP: Helping Parents, Students & Staff Build a Positive Place in Education

TAP (Thank And Praise) is a unique social thanking platform to thank the unsung heroes working in education while raising funds for good causes.

TAP was started by a couple who adopted a special needs son and have always found it hard to acknowledge their amazing workers in Education, and Healthcare.

“Our culture often seems driven to look for the worst, to highlight what is wrong, instead of giving thanks and praise for the good that can be found in so many, especially in unsung heroes in education and healthcare"

Sandie Curtis, TAP Co-Founder.

TAP conducted research with over 250 members of the public before COVID and found a strong statistic: “on average, 70% of people who describe themselves as 'Thankers' do NOT get to give thanks”. COVID has increased this number through the lockdown and restrictive social rules. It has been a stressful year for everyone, especially education workers.

Have you found it harder to send your message of thanks to an education worker? TAP has answered this problem by building a Free-to-Use digital social thanking platform. A good place to start is the website – www.thankandpraise.com. They provide the right digital channels that provide an easy, fast and safe way to send messages of thanks. Personal messages have been collected and brought smiles to staff. Here is a positive example of a message to Bremer Secondary School:

“Thank you to my history teacher for always being very supportive, making sure that I'm okay and doing well with my tasks. You don't understand how helpful it is and how it keeps me going everyday!”

The messages collected through TAP support the Wellbeing of staff, benefit the school culture, and the relationships between students, parents and staff. Here is a lovely testimonial from a school that uses TAP’s services – from Charlotte Webster, Parent Engagement Lead at St James Exeter - “Well-being is a top priority. We have a fantastic and incredibly hard-working staff body who are dedicated to the children in our community. TAP is a brilliant platform which will provide a simple way for parents and carers to share their praise, positive feedback and thanks with our team”.

Thousands of personal messages have been collected for specific education staff, teams, organisations and the whole Education industry. There is no cost for the public or organisations to use their services. TAP checks the messages for positivity only and shares them with the appropriate organisation and media channels.

Any education organisation can use TAP’s full range of services:

Thank a key worker privately;
Praise an education or healthcare organisation publicly;
Raise funds for an education or healthcare organisation.

TAP is already being used successfully at a range of nursery, primary and secondary schools in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Devon, Essex, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire and Surrey, including the UK’s largest secondary school, Exmouth Community College.

TAP is present in other areas:

Healthcare and Social Care organisations;
working with like-minded associations such as the Governors for Schools;
partnerships with the media and running a TAP podcast.

TAP is not going away when COVID calms down. They are looking to expand into other countries and already working in Australia and the UAE.

“TAP is a mission-led business with a goal to change the world and make it a better place. We believe that the giving of thanks is hugely beneficial in education to both the recipient and the giver of thanks and that’s what our platform is for.”

Matt Findel-Hawkins, TAP’s CEO and Co-Founder.

If you want to know how to use TAP’s service in your business or school – please get in touch with James McLoughlin, [email protected]. You can also send a message of thanks on the TAP website and they'll do all the hard work for you - a simple solution which will mean so much to the recipient!