About us
About Aspire
Tutoring and admissions guidance for ambitious students in the UK, the US and internationally. Every tutor is appointed in person and held to a single standard.
Most of our students finish at A or A* in the subjects we teach them
The average student gains two or more grade boundaries with us
Our students hold offers from Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE and the Ivy League
Applicants we accept as tutors after a five-stage selection process
These figures cover students who completed a full programme with us. There is more detail in our FAQs.
Our story
Why Aspire exists
The difference between a good education and an exceptional one usually comes down to one or two teachers. Finding them is normally left to chance. Aspire was founded in 2025 so that it is not.
We begin with the standard and work back from it. The people who teach and advise here are experts in their subjects first, they are chosen slowly and in person, and they are held to that standard for as long as they work with us.
No two students arrive with the same brief. One needs a subject opened up. Another needs the confidence to speak first in a room. We build around the student in front of us rather than around a programme we already own, and the right plan is often not the largest one.
The work itself is conducted properly: expectations set clearly at the outset, and discretion taken as read. It is also warm, because there is no reason a professional relationship should be a cold one. A family should feel looked after rather than processed.
Results are the floor of this work rather than the ceiling. Our tutors are still curious about their own subjects, and that turns out to be contagious. A student who finishes able to reproduce an essay plan and little else has been served badly, whatever the grade. We would rather they left reading past the set list and arguing with the argument in front of them. Our Insights and Resources are written in the same spirit and cost nothing to read.
We hold ourselves to one measure. Whether a student reaches the ambition they arrived with, and cares more about the subject at the end than they did at the start.
The teacher is the service
Nothing we could build matters more than the person sitting opposite your child. Every other part of the service exists to protect that hour.
The family is part of the work
We work with parents rather than around them. You should hear from us before you think to ask, and you should never be guessing about how it is going.
Honesty before reassurance
If a target is out of reach, or another route would serve a student better, we say so at the outset. We would rather lose the work than charge for a plan we do not believe in.
Founder & Director
Dr Hamish Roberts
Hamish founded Aspire in 2025, after a PhD in History at Oxford and seven years helping students win places at the most competitive universities in the world.
He interviews every tutor himself and sets the standard they work to. He also still teaches, which keeps him honest about what he asks of everyone else.
- PhD in History, University of Oxford
- Seven years guiding students into leading universities
- Specialist in UK and US university admissions
Oxford · Cambridge · Ivy League · LSE · St Andrews · UCL and other leading institutions
Our tutors
How we choose who teaches with Aspire
A degree gets an applicant through the door and no further. What settles it is how someone teaches when a student is stuck or has stopped trying, and no CV will tell us that. So we test it.
Every tutor teaching with Aspire has come through the five stages below.
Academic screening
We look for real depth in a subject, usually to master's or doctoral level. Many of our tutors are Oxford or Cambridge graduates and the rest come from the Russell Group and its equivalents abroad. We check every qualification and degree class at source rather than taking a CV at its word.
Subject interview
Hamish or a senior member of the team interviews every applicant, in person or live online. We push at the edges of a subject to see how deep the knowledge really goes, and whether someone enjoys being questioned about it. The good ones always do.
Teaching assessment
Applicants then teach a live session to a brief, and the brief includes a hard moment: a student who has misread the basics, or one who has given up. How a tutor handles that tells us more than the rest of the process put together.
References and background checks
We take up professional references and complete enhanced background checks before a tutor meets a single student. There are no exceptions and no provisional starts while the paperwork catches up.
Induction and review
New tutors are briefed on how we work with students and with families, then reviewed on feedback and results through their first placements. A tutor who does not hold the standard does not stay on our books.
Deep in one subject
Our tutors teach only the subjects they know best, in the sciences, the humanities and the quantitative subjects. Between them they cover school entry through to degree level.
A record behind them
Every tutor arrives with results already to their name, in competitive admissions or in raising grades across the main GCSE, A-Level and IB boards.
More than tutors
The team has years of admissions and consulting work behind it, so the advice a student gets rests on what actually moves an application forward.
Enthusiasm that carries
Our tutors bring current thinking in their field into sessions instead of teaching only to the exam. Students notice. It is often what turns a required subject into a chosen one.
Held to our principles
Every tutor works to the same standards on preparation and on straight talking with families. What you get should not depend on which tutor you are matched with.
Matched by a person
Someone who has spoken to your family makes the match, and weighs personality and working style as well as subject. If it is not right, we change it. That conversation should take one email.
Safeguarding
Your child's safety comes before everything else
Most of our students are under eighteen. The duties that come with that are not negotiable, and we would rather set them out here than leave you to find them in the small print.
- Enhanced background checks. Every tutor holds a current enhanced DBS certificate, or the closest equivalent where they live. We check it ourselves before they meet a student.
- Verified identity and qualifications. We check photo ID and original degree certificates against the universities that issued them.
- Professional references. We require at least two professional references before an appointment is confirmed, one of them from a previous teaching or tutoring role.
- No unvetted substitutes. If your tutor is unavailable, we will not send a replacement who has not been through the same checks.
- Sessions you can see. Online sessions can be recorded on request, and you are welcome to sit in on any session at any time, without telling us first.
- A clear route to raise a concern. Anything at all, however small, goes straight to the Director and gets an answer the same day.
Our full safeguarding and child protection policy is available to any parent on request. Email info@aspireeducationservices.com and we will send it over.
Start with a conversation
Book a 30-minute consultation to talk through your child's goals. There is no obligation, and you will get an honest view of what would help most.
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