Navigating The Challenge of Choosing The Right School: How [YELLOW CAR] Helps Parents Make Informed Decisions

By: Matt Emma

The moment a child comes of age to go to school, there is one perennial question in the minds of parents: What factors need to be considered when choosing a school? Despite collecting all manner of information and brochures, the answer to the question often shifts towards a school’s academic performance.

However, there are certain integral elements of choosing a school that parents unknowingly overlook due to the lack of awareness surrounding them. And [YELLOW CAR] is opening the door for those conversations with one aim: to assist parents in choosing a more holistic educational experience for their children.

“Most parents weren’t taught how to choose the right school for their child’s overall educational experience. They’re often taught to be preoccupied with the metrics that focus only on the child’s formal education,” says Dr. David Willows, the Co-Founder of [YELLOW CAR]. “The purpose of school is not just what happens at the end, it’s the experiences they make in those 13-14 years. As cliché as it may sound, it is indeed about the journey, not just the destination. And we help parents understand that by guiding them to ask better questions and see beyond the surface.”

[YELLOW CAR], an experience strategy firm, is on the path to enhancing school experiences for students, teachers, and parents by shifting focus away from the fixation on result-based factors of choosing schools and prioritizing the quality of the student experience.

With tools and resources aimed at analyzing and elevating the experiential quotient of organizations, [YELLOW CAR] is helping schools guide parents to make more informed decisions when choosing a school.

Unlike structural metrics, prioritizing experiential elements involves integrating multi-sensory engagement, storytelling, emotional connection, social sharing, data collection, and long-term relationship building. These facets contribute toward creating a meaningful and holistic experience, establishing trust and loyalty.

While experiential strategy is common in sectors like retail and hospitality, it’s far less prevalent in education, where it arguably holds the greatest potential. “Parents want to provide an educational experience to their children, but they aren’t always aware of how that experience is designed, which often lacks connection, collaboration, and strategy,” says Suzette Parlevliet, the Co-Founder of [YELLOW CAR]. “And students share this sentiment, often expressing their dissatisfaction across different aspects of their school experience.”

[YELLOW CAR] is bringing a paradigm shift to this space by offering holistic solutions that aim to reshape educational institutions through experiential strategies rooted in intention, communication, and insight. Founded in 2022, and with clients on six continents, the company has developed evidence-based, structured, and response-driven tools to help schools measure and improve the experiences of students, families, and employees.

This initiative arose from the realization that existing metrics like generic satisfaction surveys or Net Promoter Scores often fall flat. “Traditional and generic satisfaction surveys have often led to nowhere; they don’t have the impact they could,” Willows adds. “Due to this, there’s no specific way to know what their experience is.”

With tools like the Felt Experience Indicator®, [YELLOW CAR] enables schools to measure what students, parents, and staff are actually experiencing, across dimensions like Happiness, Connection, Belonging, Understanding, Confidence, and Gratitude. These aren’t abstract ideas; they’re the emotional markers of whether a student feels seen and supported every day.

And for parents, this data is potentially a game-changer. It reveals the school’s climate, culture, care, and the unspoken dynamics that traditional metrics often overlook. [YELLOW CAR] also offers interactive tools and gamified reflection exercises to help families reflect on what truly matters to them in a school.

But [YELLOW CAR]’s impact doesn’t end with families. Their work extends deeply into school organizations, helping them align, listen, and design better experiences across the board. Their process often starts with a School Experience Audit, which identifies disconnects between what the school thinks it’s delivering and what stakeholders are actually experiencing. From there, the Felt Experience Indicator® helps create a more nuanced picture, one that includes not just students, but also parents and employees.

That broader lens is vital for school leaders. If employees feel undervalued or parents feel excluded, it trickles down. [YELLOW CAR] helps organizations see these connections clearly and work toward integrated strategies that aim to improve the overall environment. Exercises like co-creation sessions give students and teachers a chance to sit down together, reflect on the data, and brainstorm tangible changes, leading to small wins that may build long-term trust.

And at the heart of it all is listening.

“In a world where trust must be earned, people want to know they’re being heard,” Parlevliet explains. “Sometimes it’s not about fixing a problem. It’s about acknowledging that it matters.”

[YELLOW CAR] ensures that everyone, from school leadership to front-line staff, understands they play a role in shaping the student experience. Its workshops help create a common language around experience design, enabling teams to move from silos to a shared purpose.

Their approach is strengthened by cross-pollination, which identifies patterns across schools globally and transforms them into models that can be adapted anywhere. “We ask: How can we build something that applies beyond one school?” Parlevliet shares. In doing so, the firm turns local insights into universal tools. Tools that help parents choose better, and tools that help schools lead better.

In today’s world, results still matter, but they’re only part of the story. What matters more is the experience behind the results. Because the right school doesn’t just prepare children for examinations, it shapes who they can become along the way.

With [YELLOW CAR]’s practical tools and frameworks, parents can more effectively evaluate how a school supports emotional growth, well-being, and meaningful connection. They’re empowered to choose schools that align with their values and their child’s needs, making informed decisions with confidence and clarity.