Meet our speakers

Our speakers are practising educators — the same qualified tutors behind Foundry Tuition — who step into schools to deliver talks, assemblies and careers sessions grounded in real academic and professional experience.

Max

BA Theology (Durham) · MSc Marketing · Fluent Spanish · TEFL

Max founded Foundry Pathways to bring the depth behind Foundry Tuition into schools. Educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, before reading Theology at Durham and completing a postgraduate degree in Marketing, he speaks directly and warmly with students about study and revision skills, essay technique and university entrance — including Oxbridge. As the founder of the group, he leads talks on aspiration, mindset and navigating competitive applications, and with his TEFL qualification he also delivers English-as-a-foreign-language sessions tailored to international cohorts. Max's assemblies are SEN-aware and adapt easily to the room in front of him.

Sam

Co-founder of Foundry Education · BSc Chemistry, Durham · Magdalen College School, Oxford

Sam delivers STEM-focused talks on what it's really like to study science at university, and on building a strong application for science and engineering courses, including interview preparation. He read Chemistry at Durham and attended Magdalen College School in Oxford, and he speaks with exam-room and lab-floor familiarity about the resilience and curiosity that help students go further in STEM.

Shannon

BSc Geography, Swansea · PGCE, Oxford (Keble) · Part-time Master's, Oxford (Linacre) · QTS

Shannon brings real classroom authority to assemblies and student talks on study skills, revision techniques and navigating university applications — including Oxbridge. A practising QTS teacher who trained at Oxford University, she connects especially well with SEN learners and students managing additional needs, having supported hundreds across AP, EHCP and ASD settings. Her sessions on effective learning, resilience and applying to competitive courses are grounded in current classroom practice and land well with students from Year 7 through to sixth form.

Jess

BSc Neuroscience (Nottingham, 1st in cohort) · Graduate Entry Medicine, KCL

Jess was educated at Wimbledon High School and King's College School Wimbledon, where she completed the International Baccalaureate. She went on to study Neuroscience at the University of Nottingham, graduating with the highest academic ranking in her cohort. She is now in her third year of Graduate Entry Medicine at King's College London's Portsmouth campus. Jess offers tutoring in GCSE Sciences, as well as A Level and IB Biology and Psychology. Having successfully secured four Graduate Entry Medicine interviews, she also offers medical school admissions support, including UCAT preparation and interview preparation for both panel and MMI formats.

Tom

MSc International History, LSE · BA History (First Class Hons), Durham University

I'm currently studying my master's degree in international history at LSE, after graduating from Durham University with first class honours in history. People often ask what I specialise in - my personal interests lie in global colonial encounters in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - but the reality is far wider-ranging. From political culture in Japan since the 17th century, to my dissertation on segregation and blues music in 1920s America - I have knowledge and experience on a plethora of topics. Most importantly, I believe knowledge of a range and breadth of historical periods and places is an essential element of cultural understanding, and going beyond the syllabus to conceptualise a given topic is key to success. Besides history, I enjoy working across the humanities, especially English literature and Geography, and am always interested in how one can combine knowledge across any particular topic or time period. I believe in a concept-focused approach to knowledge retention - nobody can simply digest and internalise information alone. Facts, figures and material need to be delivered in light of their wider contexts to be well understood, and my tutoring model focuses on positioning historical information in relation to broader themes. It is also essential to understand the relationship between primary materials and secondary analysis, and to be able to evaluate both types of evidence to arrive at a conclusion. Above all, the information must be fun and relatable - how can we link elements of a historic period and the present day? I've tutored several students Cambridge Pre-U (A-level equivalent), achieving them D2s/D3s. I specialise in Essay style and argument, as well as the integration of relevant historiography. I'd be happy to teach anyone at either GCSE or A-level who has a passion for the essay-based humanities and a willingness to learn!