We started Clearmark because we'd seen what good teaching can do.

Our story

We've been friends for over twenty years. We grew up together in Merseyside — same primary school, same secondary school, same sixth form. We played together for the same junior football team from the age of nine, learning what it meant to work hard, show up for each other, and not let your teammates down. Clearmark isn't just our business. It's our life.

After sixth form, our paths went in completely different directions — but we kept the same belief that education changes lives and that opportunities are worth fighting for.

Jack went into teaching. He trained at Liverpool John Moores, got his PGCE, and spent years working in schools most people don't hear about — pupil referral units, SEMH settings, alternative provision on the Wirral. He became Head of English at a school he helped build from the ground up, working alongside Ofsted inspectors and watching students who'd been written off by the system start believing in themselves again.

One of those students had been permanently excluded. He'd given up on education entirely. Under Jack's teaching, he achieved a Grade 7 in English Literature. That result still matters to us — because it proved something we'd always believed: that the right teacher, with the right approach, can change everything.

Jack went on to teach at the Royal Grammar School Guildford in Qatar — one of the most prestigious British international schools in the world — and continued tutoring UK students online throughout.

Connor's route was different, and it started with failure. He didn't get the A-Level results he needed, and when all his mates went off to university, he was left behind. He knows what it feels like to sit in a classroom and think you're not good enough — because he's been there. A tutor helped him resit his exams and pass. He went on to university, graduated with a First, then completed a Masters in Business and Entrepreneurship with Distinction. That experience — from feeling like a failure to proving everyone wrong — is the reason he's here. Connor is living proof that the right support at the right time can change the entire direction of a young person's life. He brings that belief into every part of how Clearmark runs: the systems, the communication with parents, the way we track progress and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

What brought us back together was a problem we both kept seeing — from different angles, but the same problem.

Parents across the Wirral and Liverpool were spending good money on tutors with no teaching qualifications, no published results, and no accountability. Agencies were hiding their pricing and matching students with whoever happened to be available. And families whose children needed more than just exam prep — students dealing with anxiety, low confidence, or difficult school experiences — were being told to choose between academic results and pastoral support, as though you can't have both.

We'd both seen enough to know that was wrong. Jack had spent his entire career proving it in the classroom. Connor had lived it as a student.

So we built Clearmark Tutoring — with qualified teachers, not unvetted freelancers; published pricing, because you deserve to know what you're paying; and a personalised learning plan for every single student.

At its core, this is about something simple. Two friends who grew up together, who believe that hard work, consistency, and showing up when it counts are how you build real confidence in young people. We're two local lads who didn't turn our backs on each other, and we won't turn our backs on your child.

That's the standard we hold ourselves to.