Our Educators

Bringing New Standards

Tute believes passionately that the industry needs new standards, and is actively seeking to build the UK's first tutoring accreditation scheme with the Institute of Education. We are also breaking new ground in trying to establish a national standard for tutoring, and a benchmark against which excellence can be measured.

In parallel we have brought together some of the best talent in UK education to ensure that the services delivered by Tute are to the highest standards. This team works alongside the founding management to ensure that our decision making always puts our stakeholders first, and reflects the Tute Creed.

Our in-house team is led by Marie Stafford. Marie is a literacy specialist with over ten years’ experience teaching parents how to develop their English skills so they feel confident helping their children with homework. As well as working in FE colleges and university departments, Marie has taught in the family learning areas of primary and secondary schools and non-traditional learning environments, such as community centres and heritage venues.

One of Marie’s proudest moments was designing and delivering the course content for the In Touch volunteer programme, which brought together Imperial War Museum North and The Manchester Museum. It won the national Adult Learners’ Week award for ‘Opening Doors’ in 2009 and the volunteers became ambassadors for lifelong learning amongst their families, peers and the wider community.

As well as being an outstanding teacher, Marie also works as an English examiner for two of the UK’s examining bodies. This ensures she keeps up-to-date with the latest subject specifications and educational news. Marie is our Head of Learning and manages the following in-house team:

Chris Bevington

Chris is an experienced teacher who has worked in all aspects of education from primary to adult education and degree level courses for over twenty years. He has helped to develop an online presence for several organisations including charities, colleges and schools in London and the South West. He has worked as an examiner and moderator for AQA, Edexcel and OCR exam boards and is an Advisor for the Arts Awards project up to Gold Award level.

Chris is currently involved with the Cornwall Youth Work Partnership, helping to encourage young people to participate in education through conventional and unconventional means, including distance and online learning and to act as an intermediary in assisting them to find suitable pathways to further education.

As a tutor, Chris has wide experience in one to one and group situations, helping children to develop skills and confidence and he has been able to raise their achievement greatly through personalised learning plans and directed exercises. It has always been his aim to help children develop the skills they need to learn effectively and to enjoy their successes.

Teresa Smithers  

Teresa is a maths and science specialist with over ten years' teaching experience in schools, colleges and private institutions. She's worked closely with pupils in schools with special measures to specifically build confidence in mathematics, with difficult pupils, resulting in an overall improvement of performance in students' application to their studies which was ultimately reflected in their resulting GCSE grades.

Teresa spent eight years working in FE colleges in the North West developing course curriculums and associated resources for nursing and social care courses as well as developing new methods for best practice with the addition of key skills to many programmes. This resulted in an access for all policy to key educational programmes designed to support the British workforce deficit. She has specifically worked with university staff and members of the NHS to promote and support women wishing to undertake careers in healthcare.

Recently Teresa has used her wealth of experience in education to support pupils and students outside of school as a self-employed tutor operating a small business. She has used her business skills and gained knowledge of students over her teaching career to enable many students to overcome their barriers to learning - specifically confidence in their abilities, motivation towards their studies and a direct understanding of the necessity of foundation education (primarily Maths and English) in pursuing a lifelong future career.

Robin Waddling

Robin has helped hundreds of students over the years. He has regularly taught all key stage 3 sciences and Chemistry and Physics at Key Stage 4 and Chemistry at Key Stage 5. He excels at boosting students' grades, at the C/D or A/A* borderline at GCSE. Robin also has had many years of successful grade building in AS and A2 Chemistry, with different examination boards. When working with students he likes to ensure that they have a clear understanding of key concepts and when necessary, will take a slight step backwards and repair earlier misunderstanding to enable students to confidently master current work.

He graduated from the University of London with a degree in Chemistry (1st Class Hons) and has a Doctorate from Leicester University (Organophosphorus Chemistry). He has been Head of Science of a large faculty and a senior manager of an 11-18 school where he led the school's Teaching and Learning developments. He provides tutorials to individuals and well as class groups and is developing our teaching and learning materials.

Tony Garwood

Tony has been involved with maths education and preparing students for maths exams for over 30 years. He has extensive experience of GCSE, IGCSE, AS and A level and has successfully prepared students for other exams. As well as a successful classroom teacher, he has led 3 maths departments and been a Head Teacher. He has worked at schools in Kent, London, Brighton and Tenerife. He has taught successfully across the ability range at schools serving varied communities. He was involved in curriculum development with SMILE (Secondary Mathematics Individualised Learning Experience) and has been a math inspector in both Lambeth and Bexley. Since returning from Tenerife, he has been developing his online tutoring skills and is working with students face-to-face at a Tutorial College. He greatly enjoys teaching maths and is passionate about making sure all his students achieve their best.

Stephanie Andrews

Over the last decade Steph has completed over 10,000 hours of teaching and tutoring, working with hundreds of students of all ages and levels in private schools, public schools, and home school tuition. She has tutored both privately and through companies like Beverly Hills Tutoring Center, and many others throughout several countries. She has experience travelling with families as a private home school teacher in the US, Japan, and Greece, creating daily curricula spanning from primary to College. Steph has spent the last few years in England preparing students privately for GCSE, A-Level, Keystage 2-4, Psychometrics (IQ tests), and organisation skills, as well as tuition online.

Steph is originally from the US and graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, and received her Master’s degree with High Honours in Chinese Medicine from Emperor’s College. In her spare time she is writing a book about mathematics and its useful applications in life, which is not always taught in schools.