Director:- English Tutor

Holly Stone

Holly is an outstanding English teacher with fifteen years’ experience. She has a degree in Creative Writing and Drama Production (which she happily uses to direct a musical at her school every year!) and a Master’s degree in English. Teaching was always a career she had in the back of her mind, throughout her entire life, and after trying a couple of other things, she found that she couldn’t resist it anymore. Her favourite place to be is in the classroom, which is why she has spent the last ten years training new English teachers in partnership with both Sussex University and Brighton University, helping them to see the joy that there is to find in teaching.Holly thinks that teaching English is one of the most rewarding things a person can do: watching that moment when a student finally understands that semi-colons actually aren’t scary, or seeing someone really push themselves to develop their analysis of a complicated text still gives her goosebumps. When we read books, plays and poetry, it gives us a better understanding of the human condition. It gives us valuable and essential insight into other cultures and how other people live their lives; it enables a critical understanding of the world around us – something that is surely vital. When not in the classroom, Holly can mostly be found working her way through her To Be Read Pile – it keeps growing and is frankly out of control - at the theatre or hunkered down in a corner of Haven (her husband’s restaurant) writing.

Director:- Maths Tutor

Chris Regan

Chris has ten years of experience teaching maths. Before that, he worked in the world of business, which allows him to give his students real-world insight into that perennially asked question: ‘But sir, when am I ever going to need maths?’. He is an inspirational teacher who loves the classroom and the rewards it brings: watching his enthusiasm for the subject reflected in the students he teaches is one of his favourite parts of the job. Chris has also been exam marking for five years, something that he finds allows him to fully prepare students for the expectations exam boards have. He has also recently begun lecturing for the Open University on their maths undergraduate degree programme. In the last year, Chris has completed an MSc in Mathematics, allowing for his teaching to the top end of A Level and undergraduate to develop further.

Chris thinks that teaching maths and helping students understand it is vital for understanding the world: it allows you to access imaginary worlds, worlds in four, five or infinite dimensions. Maths allows us to understand and predict patterns in nature; it allows scientists to develop some of the most incredible things; computers wouldn’t exist without maths. Without an understanding of maths, the modern world has we know it wouldn’t exist.

When not in the classroom, Chris can be found watching very fast cars race round a track (or F1, to the connoisseurs), he runs – something he finds challenging and therapeutic – and he enjoys spending time with his wife and young daughter.

KS2, 3 and 11Plus Tutor

Sophie Coggins

Sophie is an experienced and excellent teacher with 9 years of classroom teaching under her belt. During that time, she has become a skilled practitioner, working her way up to having significant responsibility in the English department at the secondary school where she works. Sophie’s particular specialism is working with special needs or low ability students who struggle to engage with English at a higher level. She has an uncanny ability to not only get these students to progress, but to get them to understand the importance of English as a subject, and education as a whole.

Sophie’s way into teaching was with a KS2/3 English Education degree at the University of Brighton. Because of this, she is superb at teaching the KS2/3 transition years. While Sophie chose to teach in a secondary school, she has kept up her knowledge and expertise in Primary teaching by taking groups of Year 9 students to local primary schools for workshops with younger students. Sophie is adept at teaching English up to A Level and maths to KS2/3 level.

Maths Tutor

Danny Long

Aspiration Tuition are proud to introduce Danny Long: our newest maths teacher. Danny comes to us with a wealth of experience in teaching KS3 and KS4 maths, and currently holds the position of Head of House at a local secondary school. Danny is a wonderful teacher, whose aim is to instil a genuine love to learning and mathematics in his students. Danny thinks that empowering students and  building their confidence is the best approach to ensure students progress. 

Danny has both a Business Management degree and PGCE teaching qualification from Sussex University. When he's not teaching, he can be found enjoying time with his wife and two children or watching Formula One racing.

Maths Tutor

Tatiana Hammond

​Tatiana has over 15 years of tutoring experience, having first encountered the joy of helping another face light up with understanding at the tender age of 15, and never letting go. Though she has tutored and coached Chemistry, Physics, French, English, and Improvisation, her centre of expertise is Mathematics. With a BSc in Pure Mathematics from a liberal arts college near Philadelphia, Tatiana is infamous for drawing unexpected connections between seemingly disparate disciplines, a skill she uses to inspire curiosity and creativity in her pupils. (And yes, Mathematics is a creative subject, too, thank you very much!) After her undergraduate studies, Tatiana obtained a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics Education from the University of Brighton. She went on to teach GCSE and A-level Mathematics and Statistics for seven years. Itching to see what the wider world of work could teach her, she next completed an MSc in Data Science, where she also occasionally tutored her classmates in shared modules of Probability, Regression Modelling, and Artificial Neural Networks. She is currently a Data Analyst for an Energy Broker, but continues to tutor to share that joy of learning. When not at work, she can be found battling bindweed in her garden, writing songs in Open G (hi, guitar nerds), doing yoga on the roof, watching puerile cartoons with her husband, or woefully attempting parcour. Her guilty pleasure is biohacking podcasts.

Physics Tutor

Darrell Hamilton

Darrell is a passionate teacher of Physics with considerable experience and a drive to help others understand and enjoy the subject. He has 23 years of experience as a teacher in English secondary schools, most of which have been in grammar schools, and he has served as Head of Physics and Head of Science for most of his career.

He has written three textbooks and also provides professional development to other teachers. Darrell possesses considerable breadth of experience in supporting students to succeed at GCSE and A Level. Understanding the misconceptions that arise and the challenges students face, as well as having marked examinations over many years, allows him to be highly effective in his approach, as he is able to choose the right method based on individual needs.

He began teaching in 1993 and has taught in mixed comprehensives, boys' independent, girls', and boys' grammar schools (all 11-18). He has taught AQA GCSE and AQA, OCR, and Edexcel A Level. Darrell believes that everyone can succeed with the right support and encouragement, and his students' success is a testament to this. He also has extensive online teaching and tutoring experience.