About us
Built by pupils, for pupils.
A tutoring company from Newton Mearns, Glasgow, set up to make SQA tutoring affordable for every family in Scotland.
Our story
It started with one pupil and a pen.
Joshua Adams grew up in Kilmarnock and went to school in East Renfrewshire. He was still a pupil there when his teachers asked him to help a National 5 English pupil who had fallen behind his class.
Josh quickly saw the problem was not how clever the pupil was. He just did not learn well from pages of notes. So Josh showed him a method of his own, picture study, and they used it to learn the Macbeth quotes he needed. At the prelim, that pupil got one of the best marks in the class, and his teacher asked Josh to show the whole class how he did it.
That was the start of JADAMSTUTOR. The first family to pay for sessions took a chance on a pupil teaching pupils. Their friends followed. The company was set up in November 2025, when Josh was 17, and 88 pupils and 13 tutors later it is still built the same way. Josh now runs it alongside his studies at the University of Glasgow.
Josh’s method
Picture study
Instead of copying out screeds of notes, you draw them.
- Take a sentence you need to learn.
- Turn each part into a quick drawing: a person walking, a number, an arrow to a tree.
- Talk about something else for ten minutes.
- Look at the drawings and say the sentences back. Most pupils remember them all.
Built by pupils, for pupils
Why pupils teach pupils.
Our tutors have sat the same SQA exams recently. They remember what was hard, what the markers wanted, and which ways of learning actually worked.
It works both ways. Young people get paid work teaching what they know, and pupils get good tutoring at a price families can afford.
In the press
Hear the story from Josh.
“I know what it’s like to be a pupil, because I am a pupil.”
Josh on the Focus on Founders podcast, March 2026: starting a YouTube channel at eight, walking out of his first job, tutoring at school, and building JADAMSTUTOR and JADAMSACADEMY.
The mission
Unlock every pupil’s potential.
JADAMSTUTOR exists to unlock academic potential through personalised, high-quality tutoring that builds confidence and delivers results across Scottish qualifications.
Personal
Every session is tailored to one pupil’s needs, pace and course.
Affordable
Priced as low as we can, so quality support is open to the many, not the privileged few.
Scottish
National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher only. We know the SQA courses inside out.
Our sister organisation
JADAMSACADEMY
Every young person in Scotland deserves access to quality education, regardless of their postcode or their parents’ bank balance.
JADAMSACADEMY is a community interest company, also founded by Joshua Adams, giving completely free tutoring to young people who need it most, whatever their background. Its first sessions began on 20 February 2026 at CentreStage in Kilmarnock. Every pupil who comes gets at least one meal, Five Questions gives free clothing, and local businesses donate food and stationery. Sessions are free group tuition for National 5 and Higher, and around 50 pupils came through the doors in the 2026 exam season. The aim is simple: free tuition in every town in Scotland.
“I grew up in Kilmarnock and went to school in East Renfrewshire. Same country. Same exams. Two completely different starting lines.”
JADAMSACADEMY CIC is a separate company, registered in Scotland, company number SC874896.
Join the pupils already with us.
Affordable one-to-one tutoring for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher.