Dr Stephen Curran teaching at his current tuition centre in Slough. He is about to open a second tuition centre in the town to meet growing demand.
A centre aimed at helping children to build on the foundations of what they have learnt at school is set to open in Slough later this year – creating up to 33 new jobs in the town.
AE Tuition – which has been successfully running an existing tuition centre in Slough for more than 10 years – has purchased another building in the town to meet the growing demand for places.
When it opens in September this year the new tuition centre, which is located in Langley, will cater for 250 children with 10 members of staff. By September 2017 this is expected to rise to 750 children and 33 members of staff.
Much of the demand for places is from parents who want to prepare children for the annual 11+ entry exams for Berkshire’s six grammar schools, four of which are in Slough along with the 13 grammar schools in neighbouring Buckinghamshire
Owner, teacher and former government advisor, Dr Stephen Curran, said: “We have been looking to expand for quite some time because the demand has become so high – we have had to turn families away.
“There are many parents out there who not only want to help their child pass the 11+ exam, which is just part of the service we offer, but there are also others who want to boost their children’s skills in the core subjects.”
Dr Curran added: “I’m passionate about the need for children to acquire the basics at primary school age before they go to secondary school and it seems many parents agree with me.”
“I am therefore delighted that we are now in a position to meet that demand and help even more children unlock their academic potential.”
Dr Curran first began tutoring in his spare time, while working as a teacher in the 1990s.
By 1999 he had so many groups of students that he needed to hire a hall to teach them in and also employ four assistants to support him.
Before long there were two more teachers and 30 assistants and Dr Curran focussed full time on tuition, forming his company AE Tuition. In 2005 he opened permanent premises for tuition purposes.
Since then Dr Curran has gone on to write the AE Publications series of ‘how to’ books for children aged 7 to 13 and was invited by the government to sit as an advisor on the new Maths National Curriculum.
“Accelerated Education came about because I noticed that children were not doing as well at the end of their primary school years,” Dr Curran reflected.
“Children often left primary school without basic skills, because they hadn’t focussed sufficiently on learning the fundamentals first.
“Our tuition centres are all about ensuring that the fundamental skills are in place so young people are ready to tackle education as it becomes more complex in secondary years.
“We are great believers in teaching children technique, getting them to practice it, and then testing that they have grasped the technique. We aim to develop free, independent thinking children but to achieve this we must first build good foundations in numeracy and literacy.”
AE Tuition currently employs 180 members of staff and teaches up to 1,500 children in five different subjects: English, Maths, Science, Verbal Activity and Non-Verbal Reasoning.
The centre is aimed at children who are in school years 3 to 7.
Since its opening in 2005, 80-86% of children who have studied at AE Tuition’s existing centre each year have gone on to achieve a grammar or independent school place of their choice.
ENDS
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