Meet Our Fantastic Team of Tutors

Your child will always be taught by dedicated subject specialists with many years of teaching experience.

All of our tutors are fully qualified teachers, with DBS clearance and a first aider is always on site.

Richard
Maths tutor (Head of Centre)

Richard founded Top Grades Education in 2019; renting a room in the local parish hall on a Saturday morning. Growing enough in two years to open our own tuition centre with three classrooms and a team of five tutors really is a dream come true. Prior to leaving school to run Top Grades full-time Richard worked as a secondary school Maths teacher for 26 years and a senior leader for 12 years.

Richard loves the 'penny drop' moments, he says, "it's the best part of the job, the look on a child's face when they realise that they can do something that they struggled with in school."

Richard's teaching philosophy is based on 'understanding' not on tricks and rules. Giving people tricks and rules (the way many adults were taught) is shallow learning. If you forget the rule you have been taught you can't perform the calculation. 'Understanding' why you are doing something provides a far greater chance of remembering what to do. Understanding provides the scaffolding beneath the tricks and rules!

Lots of children have a 'fear of getting it wrong'. Richard says, "the first thing children need to know is that it's okay to get it wrong!" Richard values errors and misconceptions as they provide some of the best learning opportunities!

Feedback from parents about the support that Richard has provided for their children has been fantastic. The most frequent feedback is that their children are so much more confident. That is music to our ears because confident children achieve their Top Grades!

Emma-Top Grades English Tutor and Head of Centre

Emma
English Tutor (Head of Centre)

Emma is the co-owner of Top Grades Education and married to Richard. Emma has worked as a secondary school English teacher for 23 years and as a successful Head of English driving improvement in local schools for over 10 years.

Emma has a passion for English, she recognises that the life long benefits it brings across the curriculum and into adulthood are life changing. Emma says that, "working with our students, seeing the rapid progress they make and watching their confidence bloom makes it a pleasure to go to work!"

Emma loves literature and says that, "engaging the children with a love of reading and immersing themselves in a story or character is one of the great joys of my job." With a wealth of teaching and examining experience Emma is able to support GCSE students with their specific English Literature texts and particularly enjoys bringing Shakespeare texts to life. It's not unknown for her to become a bit emotional in class 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' is sure to set her off! The children have to read the parts that she can't get through.

Emma is a dyslexia specialist teacher and is able to complete
Full Diagnostic Dyslexia Assessments.
Contact us today to arrange an appointment.

Emma has been studying the latest research and the very best multisensory techniques to support children for whom reading and writing are most challenging.

Parents are delighted with the outstanding support Emma provides for their children. Please take a look at some of the reviews they have left.

Testimonials

Richards tutoring helped our daughter massively. She gained confidence in her ability and clearly increased her knowledge in areas of Maths that she wasnt clear about. This significantly helped her achieve her high grades. Would highly recommend Richard.