Our method
Every tutor at StepUp uses the same method — one rooted in special-education practice and in research on how people learn — and it is built for every student, not only those who struggle.
It was built by co-founder Kevin Li from his years as a special educator, where one truth becomes obvious: the techniques that let a child who learns differently succeed are the same ones that let any child go further. None of this is remedial — it is simply good teaching, made explicit and applied to every lesson.
Inside a lesson
The student sees what the session will do, and watches it get there.
A few minutes on what stuck last time, so we start where they actually are.
We show it, do it together, then step back. They leave able to do it alone.
Every session pulls back something from weeks ago, before it is quietly forgotten.
The student tells us what they did, in their own words — the fastest test of whether it stuck.
By design
Kevin built the method on a handful of teaching fundamentals that research shows help every learner. They are designed into each lesson, so they are there whoever is teaching.
These are the practices that let a strong student go further and give a student who needs more structure a genuine way in. It is why our tutors reach a wider range of learners than a subject expert working alone — not by being specialists themselves, but by teaching to a method a specialist designed.
After every lesson
After every session, you get a short written note — what we covered, what went well, and one thing to try at home. Not a monthly report, not on request. Every time.
Note one · Year 9 Mathematics
Today: solving linear equations with brackets — expanding first, then isolating.
Went well: Marcus caught his own bracket error twice without me saying anything, which is new. Two weeks ago he’d have waited for me to spot it.
At home: questions 3 and 4 on the sheet in his folder — ten minutes, no more. If the second one stalls him, leave it and we’ll do it Thursday.
Note two · Year 11 English
Today: paragraph structure for the Paper 2 essay — point, evidence, analysis, in that order.
Went well: her analysis is genuinely strong. The ideas were never the problem; it’s getting them in an order a marker can follow.
At home: nothing to write. Just read the two model paragraphs I’ve put in the shared folder.
Every student gets one of these after every session, whatever they are paying for.
When a child needs more
Some students need more than good teaching applied well — a diagnosis, an assessment report, or a difficulty that is not shifting. That is designed by Kevin himself, not handed to a tutor to work out.
He reads the report and builds the lesson around it — the specific scaffolding, accommodations and techniques the child’s profile calls for, whether that is executive-function support, working-memory strategies, or a multisensory route into a subject — then either briefs and supervises the tutor, or teaches the student himself. This is Plus Specialist.
If your child has had an educational psychologist’s assessment, bring it. Kevin will read it with you, free — half an hour on what it actually means for how they should be taught, whether or not you decide to work with us.
Send us the reportTwo more things
Plus gets your family a one-page profile of how your child learns — revised each term, every version kept. A tutor who has never met your child should be able to read it and teach them well the next day.
Call, message or drop in whenever you need to, on any plan, at no cost. You pay for the teaching and documentation — never the conversation.
Every family starts with a conversation, and it costs nothing. Tell us what has already been tried, what is not working, and what you are worried about. We’ll tell you honestly whether we are the right people — and if we are not, who might be.