About the Tutor

A decade of teaching.
A career built on evidence.

Open Horizons Learning Support was founded by Grant Crossman — a UAE-licensed tutor whose approach to learning is shaped by real classroom experience, postgraduate academic research, and a deep commitment to every student's long-term progress.

10+ Years Teaching Experience Maths · Science · English British, American & IB Curricula MEd — University of Birmingham Dubai RAKEZ Licensed · UAE
Grant Crossman
Founder & Lead Tutor
10+
Years in Education
3
Core Subjects
KS1–KS3
Primary & Lower Secondary
Online
Delivery Format
RAKEZ Licensed FZ-LLC
Federal Private Tutoring Permit Holder
Background

Built in classrooms.
Refined by research.

Grant Crossman brings over a decade of classroom teaching experience across British, American, and IB environments in the UAE — a professional background that shapes every aspect of how Open Horizons operates. Unlike tutors who move directly from school to private practice, Grant's teaching career spans the full range of international curricula, giving him an unusually clear picture of how different schools approach learning and where students commonly fall behind.

His core subjects — Mathematics, Science, and English — reflect both depth of expertise and the reality of where students most often need structured support. Sessions are not a repeat of what happens in school. They are diagnostic, targeted, and designed to address the root cause of a difficulty rather than its surface symptoms.

Grant is currently completing a Master of Education in Leadership at the University of Birmingham Dubai campus — postgraduate research that directly informs how he designs learning programmes, interprets student progress, and communicates with families. Continued academic development is not incidental to Open Horizons; it is central to it.

Philosophy
"Typical tutors repeat school material. Open Horizons diagnoses root learning gaps and rebuilds from the foundations up."
Postgraduate Research
MEd in Leadership — University of Birmingham Dubai. Currently enrolled.
Curricula Covered
British National Curriculum · IB PYP · Cambridge International · American Curriculum
Schools Served
NLCS Dubai · Brighton College Dubai · RGS Dubai · GEMS Cambridge Abu Dhabi · Repton Dubai · Nord Anglia Dubai
Evidence-Based Practice

The research that shapes every session

Open Horizons teaching is grounded in three well-established bodies of educational research. These are not marketing terms — they are the frameworks that directly inform how Grant plans, delivers, and adjusts instruction for each student.

01

Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction

Barak Rosenshine

A set of ten evidence-backed principles distilled from decades of classroom research, describing how expert teachers introduce content, check for understanding, and build student fluency. These principles guide the pace and structure of every tutoring session — from the amount of new material introduced at once to the use of frequent low-stakes checks throughout.

Applied in sessions as Structured review, guided practice, high success-rate tasks, and scaffolded independent work — adjusted to each student's current level of mastery.
02

Cognitive Load Theory

John Sweller

A theory of how the working memory processes and retains new information. When instruction is poorly designed — too much presented at once, unclear sequencing, no prior knowledge activated — students struggle not because they lack ability, but because the lesson itself is placing too much demand on their cognitive resources. Awareness of cognitive load shapes how content is broken down, sequenced, and explained.

Applied in sessions as Worked examples, stepwise reasoning, visual strategies, and careful management of the volume of new material introduced in any single session.
03

Hattie's Visible Learning

John Hattie

A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses covering what factors most reliably improve student outcomes. Hattie's research identifies the highest-impact teaching strategies — including formative feedback, teacher-student relationships, and metacognitive skill development — and separates them from popular practices that show little measurable effect.

Applied in sessions as Deliberate feedback loops, transparent learning goals, confidence tracking, and regular progress reviews communicated clearly to students and parents.
How It Works

Three principles.
One consistent approach.

Every student engagement follows the same structured methodology — regardless of subject, year group, or curriculum. The sequence is not arbitrary. It reflects what the research consistently shows about how learning actually sticks.

The result is a programme that is genuinely personalised — not just in tone, but in content, pacing, and the specific gaps being addressed.

01
Diagnostic Precision
Before any instruction begins, structured diagnostic assessment identifies conceptual gaps, procedural misunderstandings, and curriculum misalignments specific to each student. Teaching starts from the right place — not an assumed one.
02
Conceptual Clarity
Instruction prioritises understanding before procedure, reasoning before memorisation. In Mathematics and Science this means conceptual modelling and stepwise reasoning. In English it means writing structure, clarity, and analytical reading — not just surface corrections.
03
Personalised Growth
Progress is tracked against individual goals. Parents receive structured updates. Students are taught metacognitive strategies — retrieval practice, spaced repetition, exam planning — so that progress extends beyond the sessions themselves.
Professional Journey

Experience built across curricula

A teaching career shaped across multiple school systems, year groups, and learning contexts — giving Grant a perspective on student progress that extends well beyond a single curriculum or classroom.

Present
MEd in Leadership
University of Birmingham Dubai — postgraduate research informing evidence-based tutoring practice and programme design.
Current
Founder, Open Horizons Learning Support
RAKEZ-licensed FZ-LLC providing online tutoring in Maths, Science, and English to students across Dubai and Abu Dhabi international schools.
10+ Years
Classroom Teaching — UAE
Mathematics, Science, and English across British National Curriculum, IB PYP, Cambridge International, and American Curriculum schools.
Ongoing
Federal Private Tutoring Permit
UAE federally mandated tutoring permit — held alongside RAKEZ commercial licence. Ask about in-person availability →

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