Southwestern Advantage UK Ltd

Southwestern Advantage UK Ltd: home learning sets sold by student dealers

Southwestern Advantage UK Ltd is the UK arm of a publishing and distribution operation that, according to the company, has been producing family-orientated products since 1855. University students and recent graduates have been selling those products since 1868, and the company states that they are again available in the UK through independent student dealers. The firm is registered in England and Wales under Company Number 12691315.

The current sales force is described as young independent business people from countries including Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Their summer in the UK is presented as a cultural and entrepreneurial experience, and the company notes that thousands of students from UK universities have taken part in the programme over the years, both in the United States and in the UK.

How the products reach families

Dealers work door-to-door, which the company says allows them to give individualised advice on which products might suit a particular household. Deliveries are made in person by the student dealer, who also provides a short explanation of how to get the most from each item. All deliveries are guaranteed by Southwestern Advantage. The website includes a dealer-verification tool so that a customer can check whether a seller is authorised to distribute the products.

The learning system: books, apps and websites

The catalogue is built around a set of printed volumes that are designed to work alongside companion apps and websites. The company describes it as a system that grows with the child from nursery to sixth form or college, and says it was designed with input from a national board of educators. It is presented as suitable for public, private and homeschool settings, and the company claims it addresses the "whole child" by combining academic content with life and leadership skills.

My Set

• My Books: a four-volume series introducing colours, numbers, shapes and words, with a parent section at the back containing word-building tips and activities.
• My Fun With Words: a two-volume illustrated picture dictionary with more than 1,200 words, covering sight words, multiple-meaning words, spelling support and subject-specific vocabulary, aimed at children up to year 3 of middle school.

Ask Me Set

Two sets of seven books, fourteen in total, aimed at children aged 7 to 10. The volumes cover topics such as outer space, reptiles and mammals, and other cultures, and each set includes an interactive static sticker book and reading-comprehension activities. The covers work with the Skwids app to add augmented-reality features.

Explore & Learn Set

A six-volume series of "how and why" books for ages 9 to 12, covering nature, science, geography, history, social studies and language arts through hands-on projects, short stories and activities. The set includes posters of the human body, a world atlas and glow-in-the-dark constellations, plus science projects and a cross-reference index.

Advantage Volume Library

A four-volume reference set for ages 7 to 18, made up of Maths I, Maths II, Science and Topic Source.

• Maths I and II: cover required and advanced maths courses for ages 7 to 18, with reference charts on properties, formulas, theorems, proofs and functions, and thousands of worked examples. The company notes that the books include several different instructional methods to reflect changes in maths teaching. Tutorial videos, quizzes and worksheets for this content are available on the Advantage4Teens site.
• Science: addresses required and advanced science courses for ages 10 to 18, with articles, charts, tables and diagrams covering space science, earth science, ecology, biology, chemistry and physics.
• Topic Source: a report-writing resource for ages 10 to 18 that gathers information on 95 commonly assigned nonfiction topics, provides MLA-style referencing of sources and points to additional related websites.

Who the material is aimed at

The range spans nursery-age vocabulary building through to secondary-school and university-bound maths and science, with separate sets for roughly 7 to 10 and 9 to 12 year olds. The company frames the books as support for homework, tests and quizzes, and as reference material for school writing assignments, presentations and science fair experiments.

Company background and contacts

Southwestern Advantage UK Ltd gives its address as Freshford House, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, BS1 6NL. The company states that its parent group, Southwestern Family of Companies, aims to invest in purpose-driven people and to help them develop skills and character.