The JK Educate Team

KATIE KRAIS

CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR

Katie has an excellent understanding of the information parents need to have to make an informed judgement about the ability of their children and how to move them forward and get the best education available. Her passion for this process and the importance of finding the right school for every child formed part of Katie’s motivation for setting up JK Educate with Lorrae, to help families successfully navigate their educational journeys.

Katie has twenty years’ experience teaching in primary schools in London as well as being a published author. She has been year group leader, assessment co-ordinator, teacher governor and a member of school senior management teams, as a SENCO and Inclusion Co-ordinator. These experiences help her guide the JK team to provide the support that families need.

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TANIA VIRDIE

SCHOOLS, TEACHING AND LEARNING AND MONITORING

Tania brings extensive experience of primary education to her role, having taught for over 25 years as a class teacher, Assistant Head and Deputy Head Teacher in outstanding primary schools in Norfolk, London and Cheshire.

As Head of Schools, Teaching and Learning, Tania is responsible for assessments – meeting with clients, giving individual feedback and writing detailed reports that outline specific targets to help children meet their potential. She also discusses possible schools that parents may like to consider, for students sitting an entrance exam and for occasional places. Liaising closely with schools, Tania ensures that the JK team, tutors and parents have the most up to date resource and exam information available, enabling students to achieve the very best possible outcomes.

Tania leads the JK Monitoring Team weekly meetings and is responsible for the setting and monitoring of high academic standards, tracking pupil progress through regular meeting with tutors, analysing work samples, reading monthly Student Progress Reviews and advising with the recent introduction of Curriculum Reviews.

Music is Tania’s passion, and she is a skilled pianist, a keen songwriter and a member of a local community choir. She loves both attending and performing in concerts as well as regular trips to the theatre.

JACKIE LEWIS

MONITORING, TEACHING AND LEARNING

Jackie has over 20 years of experience in primary education. She has taught throughout the Foundation Stage, KS1 and KS2, has managed each of these areas and been a member of the senior management team within the schools in which she has worked. She has also had various lead roles including English Subject Leader, Assessment Coordinator and IT Subject Leader. In addition, Jackie has developed school assessment systems and a range of intervention and educational programmes to support pupils, such as Gifted and Talented and those with SEN.

Jackie has worked as an Educational Consultant and tutor with JK Educate since early 2017. Her primary role in the company is to provide training and support for tutors, to help them feel valued and confident as part of the JK team. Through her monitoring and tracking of students, she ensures that tutoring provision is consistently of a high quality, enabling pupils to reach their full potential. As well as this, Jackie provides school entrance interview preparation, and has developed company training, monitoring and tracking systems, programmes of study across the key stages, and assessments for EYFS and KS1 students. As a tutor, Jackie has successfully supported pupils in gaining places at top schools including the London Grammar Schools, Highgate, Belmont, Channing, City of London, Kensington Prep, Tonbridge and The London 11+ Consortium.

In her free time, Jackie enjoys trips to the countryside or coast, and long walks. She also loves a good book, film or documentary.

Yasmin Maddocks

Recruitment Coordinator

Yasmin has worked in primary education for over 25 years as a class teacher, Assistant Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher, SENCo and Headteacher working in schools in North West London and Surrey. After years of holding these involved and varied positions Yasmin brings her extensive knowledge to the JK Educate team as our Recruitment and Training Coordinator.

Yasmin holds a National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), the National Award for SEN Co-ordination (NASENCo) and works as a SENCO and senior leader in two primary schools as the Inclusion Leader alongside her work at JK Educate.

Yasmin is passionate about improving life chances for children and believes that education is not only about outcomes but about helping create highly skilled and life-ready young people. She greatly values building trusting relationships with families, children and colleagues to achieve their goals.

Originally from Hampstead Garden Suburb, in North West London, Yasmin now lives in Surrey and is a busy mum of two young children, a dog, cat and two rabbits! In her free time she enjoys daily swimming, time with her family and travel whenever the opportunity allows.

LEANNE DALAH

TRAINING AND SECONDARY MONITORING

Leanne draws on her extensive experience as a teacher and coach in her role at JK. She worked as a languages teacher for 20 years in a multicultural secondary school and was also responsible for leading their Professional Mentoring Programme. Within this role, she established and facilitated an induction training programme, coached Trainee and Newly Qualified Teachers, quality-assured staff mentoring, and developed and wrote evaluations and reports. Leanne also provides training in schools, creating and delivering workshops on effective communication and wellbeing. She is a Tavistock qualified Executive Coach, working with blue chip clients across myriad industries from financial services to education.

As Secondary Lead at JK Educate and a member of the training and monitoring team, Leanne leads the training of new tutors and monitors secondary provision to ensure the best possible service is offered to all parties involved. She has set up monitoring and tracking systems for secondary students, so that the appropriate intervention and support can be provided.

Leanne has a love of languages and speaks Italian, Spanish and French. She enjoys a good pun, her family, friends, meeting new people, travelling, reading, and injecting fun and humour into all she does.

SASHA MARTONE

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Sasha provides a crucial point of contact for both clients and tutors. One of Sasha’s key tasks is carefully matching students to the best tutors for them, by working closely with Lorrae and Katie and using their in-depth knowledge and recommendations. Once the ideal match is achieved, Sasha liaises with the client and tutor to set up the tutoring arrangements and goes on to manage any future changes to tutoring schedules and requirements.

Sasha has joined the JK team with 6 years’ experience working in and managing private nurseries. Sasha has a Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies and a BA in Child and Youth Studies, and has always had a passion for the early years. For the last two years she has worked as a High Level TA in Reception and covered classes up to Year 6 in a North London school. Outside work, Sasha lives a busy and family orientated life, enjoys music and has an interest in cinematography. She also likes to travel and explore new places.

SUSANNAH JOSEPH

CLIENT SUPPORT

Susannah joined the JK team in November 2016 as an assessment administrator, working with children on a one to one basis. She is now a member of the client support team. She works hard to ensure that communication between tutors and parents runs smoothly.  To achieve this she supports the other members of the JK team with all the administration tasks relating to tutor matching and trial lessons.  She sends out contracts to both tutors and clients and also ensures that all trial lessons are followed up with both the parents and tutors. In addition she overseas the assessment diary and tracks all assessments and feedback reports.

Susannah is married with two grown up children, and enjoys everything London has to offer, especially the theatre, concerts and restaurants.

TOM VY TO

UK AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATOR

Tom joined the JK team in May 2022. His main role is overseeing the logistics of our international clients’ online platform use and generally supporting our international clientele. He also provides online training support for all our clients and tutors.

Tom has lived and worked in China for three years teaching English to a wide range of students. He holds a BA in English Literature as well as an MA in Corruption and Governance from the University of Sussex. Tom is a keen reader and an even keener footballer. He supports Arsenal FC, but says there is little joy to be had there at the moment!

RUBY HOLMES

SENIOR EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Ruby joined the team in 2018 as an assessment administrator. She now works closely with the training and monitoring team, supporting them with a variety of tasks, from ensuring student progress reviews are received promptly, to gathering and recording monitoring information. One of Ruby’s key responsibilities is to ensure our tutors have access to JK’s most up to date resources, which are constantly being reviewed by the senior team.

Before joining the JK team, Ruby worked in an education setting, both Primary and Secondary. She has also spent time in Thailand and the Philippines volunteering as an English teacher. In her spare time, she likes to travel and spend time with her son.

TUNDE TINUBU

ACCOUNTS

Tunde joined the JK team in December 2018 to provide accounts support, allowing other members of the team to dedicate even more time to improving JK’s client service.

He combines his time at JK with his role of Bursar at a private college in West London, where he also tutors in Accounting and Business.

Tunde is married with two daughters and he can certainly empathise with the anxieties experienced by parents as their child strives to climb the ‘educational ladder’. In his spare time Tunde tries, often despairingly, to defeat the computer at chess and to utilise his latent DIY skills.

JACOB CONWAY

SENIOR TUTOR AND HEAD OF MATHS

Jacob is a qualified maths teacher and has lots of experience teaching in the classroom and tutoring one to one across all levels from primary and 11+ through to A Level. Jacob marks and produces reports for the JK maths mock exams. Jacob also works with the training and monitoring team, supporting new JK tutors and introducing them to the JK online tutoring platform.

Outside of teaching, Jacob loves to keep fit playing football, cycling and running.