For wealthy families, choosing a school used to be a matter of tradition, with children following their parents to the same boarding house. Now, families now live across several countries and weigh British, American, Swiss and Gulf schools against one another,
The best education advisers featured in this year’s Spear’s Index have responded by offering a long-term strategy instead of a single admissions push. For instance, Tess Wilkinson of Henley & Partners recently took on a client aged 18 months, whose parents wanted a pathway mapped out from the start. Kate Bock describes Archer Franklin Education as a ‘child office service’, coordinating the tutors, coaches and psychologists around a child, while Ariana Azad of Figtree Learning says her firm will ‘follow them through the whole journey’ from 11-plus preparation to the first job.
[See also: Why Britain’s great schools are thriving in Dubai]
This year’s research reflects the increasing focus on the Middle East, specifically the United Arab Emirates, as demonstrated by the 2026 Spear’s Schools Index. Advisers have followed the demand, with BE Education’s Richard Cullum expanding into the UAE and HRB Education’s Thomas Harley now working in Dubai alongside London and Singapore. Residency planning is part of the conversation too, and Wilkinson says the right residency can open up admissions routes that would otherwise be closed.
Related
Technology is also the newest variable that advisers are having to consider. Alpha School, an AI-powered group in which software delivers much of the curriculum, has opened a new Manhattan private school this autumn. The advisers in this Index offer what software cannot, which is judgement about fit.
‘I know schools, I have relationships with them,’ says Christopher Green of Verdant Consultancy, while for Wilkinson there is ‘a right place for every child’.
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
Content from our partners
- Methodology
- The best education and tutoring specialists: some names to know
- The best education and tutoring specialists: the complete list
- Contact us
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
Edward Borton
- Focus: British schools consultancy
- Position: Managing director
- Firm: ESB Consulting
ESB Consulting co-founder Edward Borton provides bespoke educational advice and long-term mentoring around independent school admissions, aiming to enhance British and international families’ understanding of each stage of the selection process.
Providing insight into admissions, assessments, interviews and school culture – from early pre-school registration and reception entry through to 7+, 11+ and 13+ – Borton has a particular speciality in London’s most competitive day schools. He oversees ESB’s ‘school placement service’, which provides strategic school selection, admissions management and ongoing guidance, and its ’founder’s service’, which combines forward-looking educational planning with long-term strategic advisory support.
Read Edward Borton’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.
Contact us
- Click here to order a print copy of The Spear’s 500.
- To apply for inclusion in The Spear’s 500, complete our submission form.
- For further information about rankings, please email research@spearswms.com; we aim to respond to all queries within two working days.
- For commercial enquiries and questions relating to enhanced profiles, please contact: sales@spearswms.com
- To keep up to date with the Spear’s 500, subscribe to our magazine, newsletter and follow Spear’s on Linkedin and Instagram.
- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
