I want to open this one with the problem rather than the pitch, because a Mexican family deserves to know it in the first paragraph rather than the fifth. We teach from Nairobi. Most of Mexico runs nine hours behind us. A Mexican after-school slot at four in the afternoon is one in the morning here, and no serious school runs classes then. So the supplementary model that works across our European and African markets does not transfer to Mexico as-is. What does work is narrower, specific, and — for a large share of Mexican students — genuinely better than it sounds.
The gap, and the one direction that works
Nine hours, fixed — Mexico ended daylight saving across most of the country in 2022 and Kenya has never observed it, so nothing drifts seasonally. That fixed gap runs one way usefully: our teaching hours land in the Mexican morning. A class at seven or eight in the morning in Mexico City is four or five in the afternoon in Nairobi, which is an ordinary teaching slot for us. Anything later in the Mexican day is night here. So the question is never whether a family wants morning classes; it is whether their child’s mornings are available.
Why Mexican school shifts answer that question
This is the part that turns a constraint into a fit, and it is specific to Mexico in a way that took me by surprise. Mexican schools very commonly operate two shifts — turno matutino in the morning and turno vespertino in the afternoon. A student in the vespertino shift attends school in the afternoon and has their mornings entirely free, which is precisely our window. For those families, a nine-hour gap stops being an obstacle and becomes an ordinary timetable: our classes in the morning, school in the afternoon, homework in the evening. Add full-time and post-secondary students who take mornings anyway, and there is a real cohort here for whom this works cleanly.
And who it does not work for — said plainly
A student in turno matutino, at school from seven or eight in the morning, cannot take our classes during the school day and cannot take them after school either, because after school in Mexico is the middle of our night. For those families the honest answers are limited: a small number of subjects on weekend slots, or recorded-first study with fewer live sessions, or simply that we are not the right provider. We would rather say that at enquiry than sell a timetable that collapses in March. A US-based online school is closer to Mexico on the clock than we are, and any family for whom mornings are unavailable should weigh that.
What we are actually good for here
Two things, mostly. The first is Cambridge A-Levels. Mexico has one of the largest IB communities in Latin America and a deep American-curriculum sector, and comparatively little Cambridge — so a student applying to UK universities through UCAS often finds their campus offers no A-Level route at all. That is a subject-availability problem, not a schooling problem, and it is exactly what a live group of five solves. The second is fees: the top of the Mexican international market is priced among the highest in Latin America, and a professional family with two children is frequently outside it however good the schools are.
The regions where the map runs out
Beyond CDMX, Monterrey and Guadalajara, two areas stand out. The Bajío — Querétaro, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes — is an automotive and aerospace corridor with German, Japanese, and Korean manufacturing communities, and its schooling has not kept pace with its plants. It is the same pattern we already serve in Győr, Žilina, and Kragujevac. And the Riviera Maya has an international resident population growing far faster than the schools serving it, strung along a coast where no single campus is convenient to everyone. In both, live delivery is not competing with a campus; it is filling a gap.
And where the local school is the right answer
A Mexican child in turno matutino at a good school, heading toward a Mexican university through the national route, does not need us — and I would rather say so than sell around a nine-hour timezone. Our value here is narrow and real: A-Levels where the market is thin on them, fees a professional family can meet, reach into the Bajío and the coast, and a morning window that happens to match half the country’s school day. Where none of that applies, the local school will serve a child well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nine hours — does this actually work?+
In one direction. Classes are available across the day, including after-school, because we run two teaching teams in different time zones. For students in turno vespertino, whose school runs in the afternoon, mornings are free and it works cleanly. For turno matutino students it usually does not, and we say so at enquiry.
What if our child is in turno matutino?+
Talk to us before enrolling. The realistic options are a small number of weekend slots or a recording-led approach with fewer live sessions — or, honestly, a provider closer to your timezone. We would rather tell you that than have a timetable fail in March.
Why would we choose Cambridge over the IB here?+
Mexico is very well served for the IB and the American curriculum and comparatively thin on Cambridge A-Levels — which is what UK admissions through UCAS reads most directly. Families targeting Britain often find no local A-Level route.
Do you hold RVOE?+
No, and we say so plainly. We work alongside a Mexican school that does; the qualifications we teach carry international rather than Mexican official validity.
