Every business has a story behind it, and LS Tuition began with a simple belief: that children deserve an approach to learning that recognises them as individuals. Since founding LS Tuition in 2020, Lydia Scaltsas has built a tuition service centred around high-quality teaching, genuine relationships and the understanding that confidence and wellbeing are just as important as academic progress.
We sat down with Lydia to talk about where the idea for LS Tuition came from, what she wanted to do differently, and how that original vision has shaped the business into what it is today.
What inspired you to step out of the traditional classroom and build the specialised educational framework here at LS Tuition?
I’ve always been fascinated by people and how we get the best out of them. In many ways, that started because I don’t think I had many people around me growing up who really knew how to get the best out of me.
I originally studied psychology because I wanted to understand people better and, by extension, myself. But along the way I realised I didn’t want to wait until adulthood to help people overcome ingrained belief systems from childhood. I wanted to work with children and help them develop differently from the foundation.
What I discovered as a teacher is that teaching is a deeply human job. Children achieve extraordinary things when they feel seen and valued not for their performance but for who they are. Academic success matters, of course it does, but for me it grows out of relationship first.
The challenge was that I increasingly found myself wanting to go deeper than the traditional classroom environment allowed. I wanted more time to understand each child as an individual. The reality was that I cared deeply about every child in my classroom, but when you’re responsible for thirty children at once, there are limits to how deeply you can know and support each individual; and a child will internalise your lack of attention as their not being worthy enough for it. I reached a stage where I knew I could make the greatest difference by designing an environment where the conditions allowed each child to know that they mattered deeply.
That’s why LS Tuition exists. We help children succeed academically, but we do that by caring about who they are as people first. Our role isn’t simply to improve literacy and numeracy. It’s to help children see what they are capable of becoming when they know that they matter.
Your approach pairs high academic rigour with deep psychological understanding. Why must a child’s intellect and emotional security develop together, rather than separately?
This is actually a really interesting question because we’re moving into a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. What’s fascinating is that the most advanced AI systems aren’t being trained to behave like machines. They’re being trained to replicate human connection, empathy and responsiveness, because that’s what people respond to. At our core, we are relational beings.
That’s why I don’t believe a child’s intellect and emotional security can be developed separately. Teaching is a deeply human job. Learning isn’t information being poured into a child’s head. It’s a collaboration between people.
Of course, one of our goals is intellectual rigour. We want children to become exceptional readers, writers, mathematicians and thinkers. But for that growth to be meaningful and lasting, the child has to be an active participant in the process. They have to care. They have to engage. They have to feel safe enough to take risks, make mistakes and persevere when something is difficult.
What motivates that engagement is relationship. Children learn best from adults they trust. They learn best when they feel understood, valued and emotionally secure. When a child knows that the person teaching them genuinely cares about them, they become far more willing to participate fully in their own learning.
So for me, intellect and emotional security are not two separate strands of development. One is dependent upon the other. Emotional security creates the conditions that allow intellectual growth to flourish. Without it, learning becomes performative. With it, it becomes transformative.
You believe that every child can access excellence when supported appropriately. How does your framework unlock that potential in a student who has completely lost their confidence?
Yes, that’s a very foundational pillar of what we do here because we believe that accessing excellence enables learner wellbeing.
I think the key thing to understand is that our frameworks have been designed specifically for the child. In the wider education system, there is necessarily a curriculum that sets out a standard and children are expected to work towards that standard. That’s not to say that barriers aren’t supported, but it would be impossible to design a curriculum that fits every child in the country.
What I discovered through years of working with children is that confidence is very rarely the root problem. Confidence is usually the symptom of a mismatch between the child and the conditions in which they’re being asked to learn.
So when a child comes to us having completely lost confidence, we don’t start by trying to make them more confident. We start by understanding exactly who they are, where they are, what they need, and how they learn best. Then we adapt the framework around the child rather than expecting the child to adapt to the framework.
The reason I feel so strongly about that is because human beings are built to learn. If learning isn’t taking place, that doesn’t mean the child is incapable. It usually means that something about the conditions of learning is not supporting them.
Our job is to identify those conditions and redesign them. We remove the dissonance between who a child is and what is being asked of them. We create an environment where they can experience success as themselves rather than as a version of themselves they feel pressured to become.
That’s where confidence comes from. The framework doesn’t demand that children be something they’re not. It meets them exactly where they are, validates who they are, and then helps them discover what they are capable of becoming.
You have specialised expertise in complex and trauma-informed learning. How does LS Tuition provide a safe, adaptive space for children who are navigating difficult life transitions?
The reason we are able to provide a safe and adaptive space is because we don’t start with the learning. We start with the child.
One of the key principles that underpins everything we do is the understanding that all behaviour is communication. When a child is struggling, particularly during a difficult life transition, the behaviour is rarely the problem. The behaviour is the message.
So instead of asking, “How do I stop this behaviour?” we’re asking, “What is this child trying to show me? What isn’t working for them? What need is not being met here?”
For me, trauma-informed practice isn’t about a qualification or a script. It’s about genuinely seeing the person in front of you and responding to them first.
If a child comes into my classroom dysregulated, distressed, anxious or upset, I am not going to prioritise a spelling test over that child. I’m not going to pretend that learning exists separately from what they’re experiencing as a human being. I know that they’re here to learn today, but they matter first.
That’s what creates safety. Children know that when they walk through our doors they are not valued because of their performance. They are valued because they are people.
The irony is that when children feel that level of safety and acceptance, the academics often flourish too. Not because we’ve lowered expectations, but because we’ve created the conditions that allow them to thrive.
School entrance examinations can cause immense family anxiety. How does your team prepare students to face these high-stakes tests with calm confidence rather than pressure?
Once again, this really comes back to considering the person before the content.
I think it’s important to be honest with children. The goal isn’t to shield them from challenge. The goal is to support them through it. I often think about it as holding a child’s hand while they’re walking a tightrope. We don’t remove the tightrope, but we make sure they don’t have to face it alone.
So when it comes to school entrance examinations, a huge part of what we do is exposure. We show children exactly what they’re going to face, exactly what is expected of them, and we practise those experiences together. The aim is that by the time they walk into the assessment room, they’ve already done it. It’s familiar. It’s no longer a big unknown.
That’s where confidence comes from. Not from telling children they’re brilliant, but from repeatedly showing them that they are capable. Through preparation, encouragement, practice and positive reinforcement, they begin to trust themselves.
We know that many children are capable of performing well in these assessments. The risk is that anxiety, unfamiliarity or pressure prevents that capability from being seen. Our role is to remove those barriers so that the assessment reflects who the child really is.
The same applies to families. Parents are often carrying a huge amount of uncertainty, so we place a strong emphasis on communication and partnership. We provide clear information, honest guidance and regular feedback because preparing for an entrance assessment shouldn’t feel like something families have to navigate alone.
Ultimately, our goal is not simply to prepare children for a test. It’s to help them walk into that room feeling calm, confident and secure in the knowledge that they’ve done the work, they’re prepared, and they’re ready to show the world what they’re capable of.
Looking for support for your child?
Every child’s learning journey is different, and finding the right support can make a real difference to both their progress and their confidence. At LS Tuition, our one-to-one tuition is shaped around the individual child, giving them the time, space and support they need to learn in a way that works for them. If you’d like to find out more about our approach, explore our tuition options or talk to us about how we could support your child, we’d love to hear from you.