Read Write Thrive

I am so thankful for the time Tara spent working with my son. Not just for the improvement showed in his maths, but for the confidence gained through realising that he is not broken, just learns differently from others. Tara's understanding, patience, care and kindness were what he needed most, the maths strategies were just a bonus. I cannot recommend Tara highly enough.

My daughter worked with Tara over a period of approximately two years and during this time made great gains - not only in her literacy skills, but also her self-confidence, thanks to Tara's patient and supportive approach. We highly recommend Mindspark - Tara is very genuine in her connection with students and designs her sessions to be fun as well as educational.

I’m not sure what I would have done without Tara! Our journey started in 2020 when my daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. We did see another tutor initially, but it wasn’t until we started seeing Tara that I realised what a difference evidence-based literacy instruction could make. So when I saw my son struggle through Prep I didn’t hesitate in booking him in to see Tara. When we began, he was having difficulty sounding out 3 letter words, now after 2 years with Tara he is reading and spelling so confidently and accurately and thriving at school. In this time as he caught up with his peers in reading, Tara focus turned to maths and writing, finding and filling the gaps in his learning. Both of my children have loved seeing Tara each week, she has been patient, kind and fun, but also firm when needed to ensure we get the most out of each session.

Tara has instilled in my daughter a love of learning. I was referred to Tara when I became aware that my daughter had become so scared of making a mistake, that she was spending significant time at school hiding what she didn't know. As a result, she had really shut herself off from learning anything. Tara took the time to rebuild my daughter's confidence in learning in a fun way that I could never have replicated. Not only has Tara had a marked impact on my daughter's marks at school, more importantly, she has had a marked impact on her confidence to take a risk in school and out (even dealing with friend issues), to participate in class and to have a mindset of I can" instead of "I can't". Tara's advice has been invaluable and I am so very grateful to my work colleague that referred me to her."

Very happy with the progress my son made using the program. His grades improved along with his confidence. Highly recommend.

After 2 years of struggling and worrying about our daughter and her learning difficulties, we finally found Read.Write.Thrive. There was an instant feeling of relief after our first session. Tara understood our daughter, her specific needs and where she could help. She also provided guidance and support for us as parents. Instead of trawling through Pinterest and the internet for resources, Tara tailored an evidence based solution that worked for our daughter. We knew we had to adjust our schedule and find time to do the work but already after 9 months we have seen our daughter excel in both reading and spelling. This is now just part of our daily routine and our daughter looks forward to her weekly session and it has reignited her confidence in the classroom. Highly recommend this business to anyone who is concerned about their child's learning.

Tara Johnston has changed our son's life! After 2 years of weekly tutoring, he is now able to read at the same level as his peers. Tara has been kind, patient, and encouraging and her evidence based program (including for us to work on at home), has helped us to decode" the difficult language that is English! To see our son now take a book to read for pleasure or to try to learn something is such a great joy. We couldn't recommend Tara Johnston highly enough!"

I am so grateful that we found Tara. My ten year old son has high functioning autism and is very intelligent, but has always struggled with reading and spelling. We’ve been to many standard phonics and speech therapy programs, but it didn’t make a difference and I was starting to worry that his reading would really hold him back from achieving his potential. Within five months of working with Tara, his reading age has gone up two years and I know he will continue to improve. Tara actually teaches all the rules of the English language - there are so many more than I thought! This is what my son had been needing, someone to teach him the fundamental structure of the language not assume he could work it all out intuitively. He recently said to me ‘well why didn’t they just teach it like that in the first place?’She is patient and empowers him so he comes away from every session. feeling proud of his unique brain and his progress. I can’t recommend Tara highly enough.

I cannot recommend Tara enough! She has been so great in supporting and guiding my son with his literacy skills. He has improved dramatically in his reading, writing and spelling in less than a year with Tara's help. She has been fantastic.

Tara is amazing and I have already recommended her to many families! Thank you so much for all your help over that past 2+ years.