Maplecrest Living is my personal online learning practice, independently owned and operated by me as a Sole Trader in the United Kingdom. I built it because I believe every student deserves a tutor who genuinely knows them.
I started Maplecrest Living because I wanted to build something small, personal and rigorous — the kind of learning support I wish more students had access to. My philosophy is simple: children learn best when they feel safe, seen and stretched in equal measure. Every session I deliver is designed around that belief.
I don't run a franchise, an agency or a marketplace. There is no team behind me and no rotating pool of tutors. When a family works with Maplecrest Living, they work with me — the same tutor, week after week, holding the same steady standards and building a genuine relationship with the student. I think that consistency is one of the most underrated forces in a young person's education.
I care about grades. Of course I do — grades open doors. But I care even more about the student behind the grades. I want the young people I teach to leave every session feeling more capable, more curious and more confident than when they arrived. That means I don't rush through worksheets. I don't drill for the sake of drilling. I take the time to understand how each student thinks, where their instincts are strong and where they get stuck, and I plan every lesson around that picture.
Real development is rarely linear. Progress often looks like a wobble — a leap forward, a small dip, a quiet plateau, and then a breakthrough that seems to arrive out of nowhere. I've learned to recognise those rhythms and to reassure both the student and their family that the plateau is doing its work.
I keep my sessions calm, structured and focused. Every lesson has a clear objective, a clear activity and a clear check for understanding — but there's always room for the student to bring their own questions to the table. I use the whiteboard for modelling, the shared screen for working through examples together, and short low-stakes tasks to build fluency. I also make time to talk. Not about their maths mark or their essay grade, but about how the week is going, what's easy, what's hard, what they're proud of. Learning happens inside a person — not just on a page — and I want the whole person in the room.
When a student misunderstands something, I don't correct them and move on. I ask them where the thinking took them, what step felt uncertain, and what they'd try next time. That kind of reflective conversation is where independent learners are built.
So many of the students who come to me are quietly convinced they are "just bad" at a subject. My first job is almost always to gently dismantle that story. I do it by giving them small, achievable wins early — a topic reworked from the ground up, an exam question they crack after two attempts, a paragraph they wrote that suddenly makes sense. Confidence is a compound interest game. It builds slowly, and then all at once.
I write regularly to parents to celebrate those small wins, because I know how much a young person's confidence is shaped by how the adults around them talk about their learning. When a student hears their parent repeat something encouraging that their tutor said, something shifts.
I hold myself to a few quiet, non-negotiable values. Honesty — I will always tell a family the truth about what a student needs, even when the truth is inconvenient. Kindness — no child ever learns well while feeling small. Preparation — I plan every session in advance because a student's time deserves that respect. Safeguarding — I follow a clear Safeguarding Policy for every session and every conversation. And privacy — I hold personal data lightly and carefully, in line with UK GDPR.
I don't believe a tutor stops being a student. I read widely across pedagogy, cognitive science, exam board updates and specification changes. I keep close eyes on how each exam board frames marks and command words, because a small change in wording can meaningfully change how a student should approach a question. I refresh my safeguarding knowledge each year, keep up with digital-safety best practice for online learning, and revisit my own subject knowledge regularly. I ask myself the same question I ask my students: what did I get better at this month?
My hope for every student who works with me is not just that they pass their next assessment, but that they leave Maplecrest Living with better learning habits than they arrived with. The ability to plan a piece of work. The instinct to reread a question before answering. The courage to raise a hand and say "I don't understand this yet." Those skills outlast any exam.
If you're a parent reading this, thank you for taking the time to understand who will be teaching your child. I'd love the chance to meet you both. And if you're a student reading this — you're welcome here. I promise not to be scary, I promise to explain things properly, and I promise to be on your side.
— Laxmi Tamang
Founder, Maplecrest Living · Independent Sole Trader
