Sarah Beard
Dyslexia Assessor and Dyslexia Specialist Tutor, Centre Director
Sarah is the founder and director of DITTAS. She is a Dyslexia Consultant with extensive experience teaching and assessing learners of all ages, having worked for over twenty-five years supporting dyslexic learners, including many years in a College of Further Education. Sarah also lectures locally and nationally on the subject of dyslexia and SpLD and has trained over 300 teachers to become Dyslexia Specialists in teaching and assessing students with SpLD (Dyslexia). She was a joint founder of the PAPAA course, a nationally recognised qualification in assessing Access Arrangements. Sarah offers assessments for all ages and tutors children aged 6-14. She regularly attends training events to supplement her Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and believes that you never stop learning.
Sarah has three dyslexic children of her own (all adults now), so she understands the struggle that parents have with getting their child’s needs recognised. She is passionate about helping dyslexic students and those who support them. When you call DITTAS, Sarah will always be the first person you speak to and is happy to answer any questions you may have.
Cathy
Dyslexia Assessor
APC – Assessor for all ages, including DSA, Workplace and Exam Access Arrangements
Cathy returned to teaching over fiteeen years ago as a result of seeing how learners with SpLDs often struggled to have their difficulties recognised.
She has now been assessing both children and adults for a number of years, including assessing for DSA, Workplace and Exam Access Arrangements. Cathy has conducted many assessments for dittas over a period of eight years and works from a business centre in Croydon.
Sharon
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
Sharon generally works with students in Key Stage 3 and upwards. She has worked in a large secondary school for many years and gained experience working with students with a wide range of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Her passion has always been literacy and reading and she enjoys nothing more than escaping into the pages of a book - this is where her interest in dyslexia and working with students with literacy difficulties stems from.
Sharon gained her dyslexia qualifications in 2013 and 2016 to allow her to fully develop her knowledge and skills. Tutoring allows her to really get to know a young person and work closely with them to make a positive difference to their confidence and their skills.
Tara
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor and Assessor
Tara has over 20 years of experience as a primary school teacher. She has held various roles from class teacher to head of school. Tara was inclusion lead for many years and it was in this role she found that she was supporting many children who had dyslexia along with their class teachers. She is now a full-time private dyslexia tutor and assessor for primary and secondary students.
Louise
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
Louise has over 15 years experience as a primary teacher and latterly, a SENCo in various local authorities. During this time, she saw the gap in need for effectively supporting pupils with dyslexia so trained to be specialist dyslexia teacher. She now works full-time as a private tutor for both primary and secondary pupils (leaving 1 day per week to be a SENCo at her local Playgroup). Specialist teaching gives Louise the ability to create a fun, interactive and personalised programme for pupils based on their interests, allowing learning to be assimilated in the best way possible for the pupil
Francesca
Speech and Language Therapist, Founder of Allied Health and Therapies Network
Francesca is a Speech and Language Therapist who offers Speech and Language Therapy and Speech and Language Assessments. She works in a number of london and Kent schools with children of all ages and has extensive experience in ASD
Iwona
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
Iwona is passionate about teaching dyslexic children and believes that they deserve an education that helps them grow in confidence and feel positive about themselves.
Her tailor-made lessons include numerous fun and interactive activities
Penny
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
Penny is a qualified dyslexia specialist and has over 16 years’ experience working
in education, where she delivers interventions daily to learners age 5 – 11 years
old.
She has been awarded her teaching practice certificate from PATOSS (the
Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific Learning
Difficulties) and she supports learners through online tutoring by creating an
individualised programme to meet their needs and interests.
Penny's aim and passion is to help build learners’ self-esteem and confidence, discover the way they learn best and enable them to reach their full potential.
Mary
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
Mary has over 20 years’ experience working as a specialist SpLD teacher in the private and
state schools’ sectors, supporting students aged 5 to 14 with both literacy and maths. She is
now working as a private tutor and believes that it is important to bolster students’
confidence and self-esteem. Her lessons are personalised for pupils to help them study in
the way best suited to their learning styles, and include interactive and fun activities.
Luthfa
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
Luthfa has over 13 years of expertise as a primary school teacher and SEND intervention lead in schools around East London. She has spent this time working directly with students of all learning abilities and categories, including those who have autism, down syndrome, physical, and sensory impairments. She now has knowledge of various disabilities and requirements, which enables her to provide individualised and pupil-centred plans. Luthfa works part-time as a private dyslexia tutor for primary and secondary students in addition to her job as an exam access arrangements assessor. She provides all her students with a multisensory, structured, cumulative, and phonically based programme.
English is Luthfa's area of expertise and focus, and as a former English Coordinator, Luthfa observed that students struggled with literacy as opposed to other subjects. To better comprehend and support her learners, she felt compelled to finish a Masters in Special and Inclusive Education and a Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma in Specific Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia).
Rosalind
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
I became interested in Specialist Dyslexia Teaching as I wanted to help the dyslexic children I came across in my lessons as a Modern Languages Teacher. I was surprised by the lack of specialised support available and therefore decided to retrain. I qualified as an SpLD (dyslexia) teacher in 2022 with Dyslexia Action having previously worked as Modern Languages Teacher in both primary and secondary schools since 2006. I have recently finished my Dyslexia Assessor training which allows me to have an even greater insight into dyslexia and how we can help as tutors. I am passionate about delivering mutisensory, fun and interactive lessons tailored uniquely to the profiles of my students to help them overcome their difficulties with reading and spelling. I enjoy using a range of teaching tools to motivate my students and ensure that they make fast progress towards achieving their targets.
Komal
Dyslexia Specialist Tutor
Komal is a fully qualified Specialist Tutor/Assessor with 20 years experience working in primary, secondary & FE settings. She worked in a secondary school as a SENCO before moving to privately tutoring & assessing students for Dyslexia.She has worked with students with a range of difficulties including Dyslexia, ADHD & Autism. Her qualification in child development is helpful in understanding the development needs of children. She also works as a Dyslexia tutor and access arrangements assessor at a FE college.