For HNWs, education is not just about academic excellence. It is also an investment in world-class specialists who can help guide children in the right direction on their educational journey, both from an academic and a personal perspective.
As such, personalised education and tutoring have become essential tools in ensuring that children of HNWs receive the highest quality learning experiences tailored to their needs. Whether it’s preparing for elite college admissions, mastering advanced subjects or developing life skills beyond the classroom, these top-tier specialists offer bespoke tutoring solutions designed to help students excel and thrive in an increasingly competitive system.
The specialists listed below can assist with admissions, consultancy, mentoring and assessment preparation – among other things. The top education advisers and tutors featured in our list have a demonstrable record of getting results – whether that means helping a child win a place at the right school, setting them up for exam success or helping them deal with the stresses and strains of modern education.
Many education advisers now combine consultancy with hands-on tutoring, assessing students’ goals and providing the tools they need to achieve them. This is what Ivy Link’s Adam Nguyen does: his tutees can be as young as five, and he works to encourage them ‘to cultivate their talents and interests,’ whether that involves enrolling them in a competitive fencing course or providing tutoring in specific subjects.
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Education specialists can also assist families with the practical aspects of schooling, such as relocating for a particular school. Matthew Smith of Helicon View Learning tells Spear’s that experts can provide clients with the broader ‘context around education,’ often drawing on their own first-hand experience of private school networks.
As mental health gains greater recognition in schools worldwide, the advisers featured in the Spear’s index are prioritising it as well. Oliver Gilsenan of Lionheart Education, who runs a private one-to-one school for the children of billionaires and UHNW individuals, tells Spear’s that a ‘deep understanding of mental health’ is central to his approach. He has also recently opened a healthcare-focused accommodation specifically designed for young people in recovery programmes.
Similarly, Natalie Verbo of Firefly Education specialises in offering bespoke teaching solutions to children with learning difficulties and special educational needs, helping them overcome challenges associated with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia. ‘My job is providing a personal and empathetic service to those with busy and complex situations and international lifestyles,’ she tells Spear’s.
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- Methodology
- The best education and tutoring specialists: some names to know
- The best education and tutoring specialists: the complete list
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Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to the Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best education and tutoring specialists: some names to know
Matthew Goldie-Scot
- Focus: Multinational educational consultancy
- Position: Managing director
- Firm: Thuso
Former academic Matthew Goldie-Scot joined the multinational educational consultancy Thuso in 2020 after having spent almost a decade at Carfax Education, where he founded its strategic consultancy arm and subsequently served as group managing director.
‘In private client work – be it education planning for families or in the context of investments – honesty, transparency and open dialogue are key,’ Goldie-Scot tells Spear’s. With experience in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as Western Europe and the US, Goldie-Scot is an expert resource for private clients and family offices seeking to establish educational institutions.
Read Matthew Goldie-Scot’s full profile on Spears500.com
Thomas Harley
- Focus: Tutoring and homeschooling
- Position: Founder
- Firm: HRB Education
Thomas Harley is the founder of HRB Education, which offers a wide range of educational services, from private tuition to homeschooling, special needs teaching and admissions support. He is an experienced GCSE and A-Level tutor, and a homeschool teacher who has a comprehensive understanding of the international education system, having worked for HNW and UHNW clients in over 12 different countries.
Harley tells Spear’s that HRB Education strives to find only the very best tutors for its clients. ‘We are very selective with our tutors; they cannot be good, they have to be excellent.’
Read Thomas Harley’s full profile on Spears500.com
Kate Bock
- Focus: University admissions support
- Position: Founder and executive director
- Firm: Archer Franklin Education
Kate Bock is the founder and executive director of Archer Franklin Education, which she says is much more than a simple education consultancy firm.
Bock does not merely advise families on how to get into elite universities in the UK and the US, but also helps students ‘grow into who they want to become’, she tells Spear’s, acting as the single point of contact between families and a network of strategic partners that can help them on their educational journey.
Read Kate Bock’s full profile on Spears500.com
Christopher Rim
- Focus: Ivy League preparation
- Position: Founder and CEO
- Firm: Command Education
Based in New York and offering remote services wherever they are needed, Christopher Rim’s Command Education is one of the premier organisations in the US for finding the right university for a child and making sure they are offered a place.
With an encyclopaedic knowledge of the requirements of top US universities and the characteristics of elite schools, Rim and his team match up prospective applicants with the courses that would be the best fit for them and offer tutoring and coaching services to help them achieve their objectives.
Read Christopher Rim’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best education and tutoring specialists: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on the Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
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