Our Story
We’re Extend Education and we publish resources that challenge and inspire students to become active, engaged and autonomous learners.
Our Managing Director and Publisher, Sophie Russell
I’m Sophie, the Publishing Director of Extend Education. I discovered my passion for publishing whilst completing my English Literature MA at Cardiff University back in 2008. I was then lucky enough to get a job working in the Publishing Department of the International Baccalaureate – commissioning and developing international series such as Ten Tales from Different Cultures for the PYP, the MYP workbooks and IB Skills series, right the way through to the online Questionbanks and IB Prepared books.Â
The idea for Extend Education began in 2018 when I was working for Haremi. I was lucky enough to act as the Publisher for some of the world’s most high-profile classroom and revision resources on behalf of publishers such as Pearson, Oxford University Press and Hodder. However, what I realised was missing was a publishing company that didn’t just publish for the big subjects but focused on under-represented subjects and curricula as well.Â
Extend Education began with this mission in mind. We wanted to set up a publishing company that had creativity to pursue innovative books that schools would love. And we’re totally committed to providing support for even the lowest-candidature subjects if we can.
Our Office and Team
We are a team of committed and passionate publishing professionals based in historic Cheltenham in the UK.
We all think educational publishing is the best industry in the world. We know what we do makes a difference to students and teachers and feel proud to be part of the lifelong learning journey of inspiring individuals. Â
Our office is based at Sunningend Business Centre in Cheltenham, on the historic site of H.H. Martyn & Co.’s Sunningend Works which was once a remarkable centre of British craftsmanship, architectural decoration and engineering. Continuing that spirit of creativity and craftsmanship in our own way, we are a relaxed, happy team and we really believe the passion for what we do helps us to create amazing and high-quality resources for students and teachers.Â
Our Sustainability Goals
We are so proud to be one of the first publishers to be accepted as members of the UN SDGs Publishers Compact and we aspire to develop sustainable practices and act as champions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
On our journey, we have partnered with Ecologi to plant a tree for every order we receive and we are working towards a fully climate positive workforce
Wherever possible, we aim to print and ship as close to your location as we can to reduce our environmental impact! Traditional printing usually requires large orders in anticipation of sales. Often, any books that go unsold are destroyed. This results in wasted paper, wasted energy, added greenhouse emissions, pulping, and landfill overflows. Instead, we produce our books in ultra-short runs or only when an order has been received. This print-on-demand model of book manufacturing reduces supply chain waste, greenhouse emissions, and conserves valuable natural resources.
We are also committed to producing materials for schools that encourage sustainability literacy – to prepare students for the challenges in years ahead.