Clara James Tutoring was, until recently known as Starr Tutoring.
A business which had gone from being one person who had a dedication not to fail and the naive belief that all tutors offered tailor made lessons that would be fun and boost confidence, to a business that is now set to become the number 1 tutoring company in the UK.
Back in 2012, Dawn Strachan started Starr Tutoring. She chose the name because it had a good ring to it and her maiden name was Starr, so it seemed a logical choice.
When Clara, her oldest daughter started school, she seemed destined to do well. She was doing everything she was supposed to do and was keen to learn. However, although the presentation of her work was brilliant: lots of colours and images, it got harder to ignore the fact that her spelling was awful.
In order to help, Dawn attended a course on “Supporting your child with reading and spelling”. As part of the course you were expected to create a case study on the child you were supporting.
At the end of the course, she presented her case study and it was suggested she went to her daughter’s school and ask for Clara to be tested for Dyslexia. This was back in the early 2000’s and dyslexia was still seen as an excuse and Clara was (at the time) a quiet child, so it just seemed easier to disregard the suggestion.
Consequently, not having the confidence to fight her corner, Dawn started a mission to find out what she could to support Clara herself.
At the same time, Dawn was also studying her degree in Childcare and Education, working in an early year’s setting and an Autism Base for children who couldn’t cope in mainstream schools.
Everything Dawn was learning reinforced the idea that learning should be fun. It should be varied. No two people will learn the same way and we need to cater for that. In order to learn you need to be relaxed. if you are stressed you will find it difficult to absorb any new information. It is important to boost confidence and understanding and not just learn information by rote.
Over the coming years Dawn worked in a variety of educational settings and studied endlessly. Every time, the same message was reinforced.
Then when she started Starr Tutoring, she sat down with a friend and they brainstormed what they would expect from a tutor for their own children and this along with what Dawn had learned became the foundations of Starr Tutoring.
Before long, it became evident that what Dawn was offering was completely different to most other tutors and within 6 months it became a full-time commitment.
As the years passed, Starr Tutoring’s reputation for offering an astounding service grew along with a reputation for supporting children who had special needs.
In 2015, Dawn’s son Jamie finished his A’ levels with phenomenal results and decided that whilst he got his head around what he wanted to do next he would take a gap year to Australia. Two weeks later she was saying good bye to him at Heathrow Airport. Whilst accepting this was one of the hardest things she would ever have to do, she also realised that she needed to find other tutors to take on some of the tutoring work because otherwise, Angel her youngest daughter would also be leaving home and they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to spend any time together.
So, that was when Starr Tutoring started to really take hold and the reputation locally became outstanding. Dawn was particular about who she would employ and with that it meant word continued to spread and the reputation grew and grew.
Why did this happen? Because instead of seeing people as a monetary target, every person that got in touch was seen as someone they could potentially help.
The first question asked every day is what would be the best tutor in the world do?
What can we do that will make us better?
There is an increasing number of children who need help. The curriculum is getting consistently harder and those who just about managed to get by before, are now amongst those who are struggling.
In 2019, it was decided that in order to offer this level of support on a national frame work, the only option was to franchise. To find other people who had similar beliefs about education. People who wanted to build a business they were proud of. People who wanted to make a difference not just to their own lives, but also that of other people.
When the company name went in to be trade marked it was contested by another company. Although Dawn had been trading under the name for 7 years, it was her maiden name and it was significantly different to the other company’s name, it was agreed it was time for a change.
So, Clara James Tutoring was born. An accumulation of her oldest 2 children’s names. And the angel that acts as a pointer to symbolise that where the student is, is where you’ll find us, is Angel her youngest daughter.
And hopefully, this personal name reflects the personal service that is offered.
Thank you for reading this far.
If you want to find out more about becoming a franchisee with Clara James Tutoring, message us with your name, email address, phone number and postal address and we will get something straight out to you.
