Creativemindstutors Reviews 53

Emily and Maria are just phenomenal! They really care about the children and are always on hand to make learning enjoyable and fun.

We worked with Maria for a year and we really saw a difference in our sons learning, she ensured that our child was developing whilst still enjoying every session each week. Our 4 year old got into the schools we wanted him to and is thriving.

We saw his patience grow, his ability to articulate himself excel (he gave very one worded answers at the start) and his love for phonics and maths increase.

We recommend Maria because she was incredibly warm and patient with our son (even when he would say to her he couldn’t do it). The tailored programme helped not only get into the school we wanted but also be at the top of his class currently, thank you for all your help!

Maria and Helen are both amazing!!!
Helen provided fantastic teaching to my child in her 4+ prep. Each session was different, fun and interactive keeping her engaged throughout. All lessons were tailored to her, and relevant materials were provided after each class.

Additionally, my child really enjoyed meeting Maria during a mock assessment, she was very professional and caring at the same time. After the mock assessment Maria highlighted the areas where my child excelled and the areas that needed more focus. The day after I had an email with all that information written in detail with the steps to follow in order to improve in what was needed.

Beyond grateful to CMT for helping my child in her assessments (next year she is starting at our top choice school) and for teaching her a curriculum that goes beyond any nursery curriculum.

My child has developed a love for learning that goes beyond any assessment preparation and I will recommend CMT to any parent.

Maria and creative minds have been friendly and approachable.
It has made navigating the 4+ process easy and been reassuring for parents.
Sessions are of a suitable length and consistent with the same tutor. It ensured Emily and my daughter built a relationship to bring the best out in her. Emily was engaging, communicative to the parents with feedback and additional resources. My daughter was able to build her confidence and familiarise herself with potential assessment materials so she could approach the process well prepared and having tried a variety of activities. It also allowed her to develop her language skills and she was appropriately challenged. Emily was alway so great at praising her efforts and my daughter enjoyed her sessions which is testament to the tutoring relationship. She would always wait for her sessions to share achievements and drawings with Emily!
The tutors are knowledgable and always answered any questions with speedy replies. Maria has built a professional business based on a love of learning and curiosity for learning ensuring children achieve the best of their potential.
It helped to bridge the gap between home learning and provided much needed support to the process.
It also allowed our daughter to receive an offer from the school applied for!

We joined Maria with 5 months preparation time before the 4+ assessments and she came recommended through another parent.

Maria created a wonderful teacher-student relationship with my daughter who looked forward to her weekly lessons. Maria creates enjoyable lesson plans. Maria worked closely with us, providing us with daily communication and feedback loops. She sent us ample home learning which was structured. She sent us monthly curriculums which she tailored to my daughter and her progress. The curriculum guided us as to what resources to purchase monthly and also had suggestions for lovely books to read together.

The process can feel overwhelming for parents and Maria helps to break this down and takes away the pressure and stress on the parents.

She is enthusiastic, encouraging and really helped us to secure all 4 places at the schools we wanted. My daughter has made exceptional progress in all areas of the curriculum and we could not have done this without the support and guidance we received from Maria.

My daughter has now developed a love for learning which is a joy to see and it is something we will now continue at home to support her. After completing her assessments she now asks to read, write, draw and do maths as she enjoys it!

Thank you Maria, what you provide is unique and wonderful! I would highly recommend Maria if you are applying for 4+ assessments at the top academically selective schools.

I found Maria at Creative Minds at a point of complete panic — with only one month left before my son’s second-round 4+ assessments and the tutoring company we had been using suddenly closing down. I felt completely stranded and overwhelmed at the thought of having to manage everything myself in such a short space of time.
From the very first conversation, Maria was kind, calm and reassuring. She quickly put a clear plan of action in place and I signed up to her one-month success programme, which was tailored specifically to the schools my son was sitting second round for. Having this structure was invaluable. Instead of panic-Googling and wasting hours searching for resources, everything was sent to me week by week, with a clear daily plan covering all the different areas of the assessment.
Maria supported me throughout with regular calls, guiding me on how best to help my son and answering every question I had along the way. She always made me feel comfortable and confident, and I knew that if anything needed adjusting, she would adapt the plan immediately. When my son needed extra support in certain areas, Maria provided targeted resources, and I was able to update her on his progress so she could fine-tune things further.
It was genuinely a pleasure working with her. Despite only having four weeks and very little time to get to know my son, he passed all of his second-round assessments — which I think is an incredible achievement and a real reflection of Maria’s skill and dedication.
We are already planning ahead for when my daughter reaches exam stage, as I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Maria again. Thank you so much, Maria — I’m really looking forward to working with you in the future.

We enlisted Maria’s expertise in preparing our little one for the 4+ assessments. The 4+ process can be daunting for parents as there isn’t very clear information on what will be assessed at some of the top schools. And when there are hundreds of applicants for a handful of places, sending your little one unprepared seems foolish. Maria’s emerald curriculum filled that need for us. It covered all 7 areas of the EYFS curriculum in both breadth and depth. A lot of parents think doing structured learning with a 3 year old is unfair to the child. But in reality the emerald curriculum was a lot of fun! It helped us to identify areas in which our child needed to work a bit more and built up the little one’s confidence beautifully! We did the 3-month course but of course if I could I would have also chosen the full 12 month program as I have seen how much my child advanced in just these 3 months. Maria is super responsive and was always just a message away for any questions. In the end, having guidance from someone who knows how the process works and is able to feedback when your child needs more proficiency in something is invaluable. We received offers from 4 of the 5 schools we applied to and are very thankful to Maria for all her support. Highly recommended her if you’re considering 4+ prep.

Maria is a great tutor who plans her lessons well to meet the required output. The home learning was structured and covered various topics to suit the curriculum. She is committed to providing children with the relevant tools and is dedicated to seeing the children progress. Thank you for all your time and effort throughout our time with you.

We had a fantastic experience with Maria. From the outset, she was extremely organised—sending a list of items to prepare in advance and arriving fully equipped with all her own materials. This level of preparation immediately gave us confidence in her approach.

Our son was genuinely excited to meet her in person. He was so engaged from the start that he didn’t even notice when my husband and I quietly stepped out of the room. This created a setting that closely mirrored a real assessment centre, which reassured us that he would be able to approach the actual assessment day feeling calm and confident.

After the mock session, our son was full of energy and spoke positively about the experience. Maria took the time to give us detailed, honest, and thoughtful feedback. She highlighted the areas where our son excelled, showing us how much progress has been made during our months of preparation, and also clearly identified areas that still need focus. This balanced insight has been invaluable—it not only helps us tailor our efforts going forward, but also reinforces that the work we’ve done so far is laying a strong foundation, not just for assessments, but for school readiness overall.

I highly recommend Maria’s mock assessments. They are realistic, well-structured, and incredibly useful in identifying both strengths and areas for development. We are already considering booking another session!

Maria is fantastic. She is committed, adaptive, patient, clear and highly experienced at what she does. We obtained a place from our target school and Maria's support was invaluable. Would ABSOLUTELY recommend.

Both my sons have now had Maria teaching and prepping for competitive prep school exams and I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have found such a patient and extraordinary tutor.

My second son loved and looked forward to his lessons with Maria so much and her help has been so valuable for us in securing the only spot available at our preferred school after going through an assessment with several other children. Her teaching methods are sound and very relatable to the children. She recognised areas of strengths and areas of development and aimed to keep the lessons relevant to both my sons’ individual interests.

We look forward to doing more workshops with Maria in the future, it has been an absolute pleasure and again can’t thank her enough for the care and effort put into her lessons.

Maria provided fantastic tuition to my son in his 4+ prep. Each session was different and fun, keeping him engaged and interested throughout. He especially enjoyed meeting Maria during his mock assessment – it really helped him feel more confident. We’re so grateful for all the support! My son got into all the schools we applied for. Thanks again!

Structured sessions, tailored to each child with helpful materials shared before and after the class. Instructor is quite engaging and is able to navigate changing preferences of the child while ensuring content is covered

Maria helped us with preparing our daughter for the 4+ assessment at SHHS. She is a summer baby and not in a nursery that formally prepares kids for the 4+. She comes to every lesson prepared but also flexible with content to suit the mood of our 3 year old. She is very patient and encouraging. The exercises she shares after the lessons are also useful to continue progress. All in all we are very happy especially after we got the offer from the school.

If you want someone who is experienced with what will be asked at the 4+ assessments, who can tailor material for your child’s learning capabilities and your target school, you need to come to Maria and her team. We’ve always been told our little one has high potential but Maria allowed us to fully tap into that potential when it mattered.
Maria held our sessions on zoom and was able to build an instant connection and rapport with our child. There was no issue with the sessions being on zoom and our daughter looked forward to the sessions, often asking when she could have her next Maria class!
Maria would provide packs that helped us easily go through the key material that needed to be covered. The packs were always tailored for areas that our daughter needed to focus on and easy to download and print.
Whilst our original purpose for contacting Maria was for 4+ prep, she has honestly unlocked a love for learning that our daughter never would have had if she hadn’t helped teach our daughter, and even coach us how to teach her.
Maria was so instrumental in helping us focus in on the skills that were needed to ensure 4+ success and we were able to secure our target school for our little one. We will be forever grateful for all of Maria’s support, guidance and coaching. Thank you so much Maria

Great experience dealing with Maria to help our daughter prepare for 7+. Maria is a kind and compassionate teacher. She helped practice the reading, math and reasoning questions, as well as prepare for the essay part of the exam. Very easy to deal with and organize the lessons. Responsive to any requests. We recommend as a tutor.

Maria is simply outstanding. She truly sees each child—recognizing their strengths, challenges, and potential. She cares deeply for each child, pushes for excellence, and gives us her best. If you're willing to match her dedication, the results will speak for themselves. Her feedback is honest and constructive, never sugar-coated, and always geared toward real progress. As a mother herself, she understands both the academic and emotional sides of learning, as well as learning that happens outside of the classroom. Maria’s work ethic is unmatched, and with consistent preparation along with her dedicated guidance, we approached our assessments with confidence and achieved excellent results. We feel incredibly lucky to have Maria on this journey with us.

I just wanted to take a moment to share our experience with Maria, who has been an absolute lifesaver for my daughter over the past year as she prepared for her 4+ assessment. From the very first session, it was clear that Maria knew her stuff—her depth of knowledge was impressive, and her ability to explain concepts in a way that made them easy to grasp was truly remarkable.

What really stood out to us, though, was her patience. My daughter often had questions that would make most adults sigh, but Maria handled each one with kindness and understanding. It was so lovely to see my daughter build such a strong rapport with her. Even though the sessions were online, it felt like they were right there in the same room, sharing ideas and laughs.

We are beyond thrilled that my daughter got accepted into her first-choice school! We were so happy with this result that we decided to skip some of the other assessments. Honestly, Maria played a huge role in this success, and we can’t thank her enough.

We'll definitely miss our Saturday morning sessions with her. She’s truly a hidden gem in the tutoring world, and I can't recommend her highly enough to anyone looking for a dedicated and talented tutor. Thank you, Maria, for everything! You truly made light of such a daunting experience!

Maria's dedication and very methodical approach helped our daughter to progress rapidly, and show visible improvement in writing, speaking, adding new skills as we went along. She created a very trustworthy relationship, is very approachable and patient in her communications. Her use of story telling, practical exercises and follow through homework created a platform to build through for the next session, despite all being on video. And she made our daughter happy throughout. The quality of the tutor made it possible, we are convinced of that at the end of the process no matter what doubts we may have had at the beginning. It adds real tangible value to us as parents.

I came to know about Creative mind tutors from a friend who highly recommended Maria to help us with preparing our son for his 4+ assessment. Maria’s lessons were engaging and my son always looked forward to them. Her resources and guidance were fantastic and we enjoyed working through the homework material provided every week too. Maria was great at providing me with information on how to prepare specifically for the schools we were interested in targeting. She was always prompt at responding to my messages, queries and I would often share my son’s progress with her during the week and get her feedback. Overall, I would highly recommend Maria if you’re looking to get information and prepare your child for the 4+ assessment! We have been very fortunate to have secured our first choice for our son with Maria’s help.