About Us

JOANNA STAIKOS

Director and Founder

Bachelor of Education, Primary

Diploma in Gifted Education

University Supervisor, ACU National (2006 – 2019)

Primary Teacher

Reading Recovery Specialist

Inspire. Inquire. Imagine.

Director and Founder, Joanna Staikos, established Learning Minds Tuition in 2011 (formerly known as Reading Bee). Joanna completed her Bachelor of Education Degree at the Australian Catholic University in 1993. She has a Diploma in Gifted Education and has been an accredited Reading Recovery Teacher for the past 15 years.

Joanna was also a University Supervisor (2006 – 2019) at ACU National. She is a passionate and dedicated primary teacher who strives for quality education to allow students to reach their full potential and achieve the best results they can. She has also tutored students for many years and has consistently made a difference in their learning and confidence.

A mother of two boys herself, she developed a passion for teaching them literacy and numeracy skills in preparation for kindergarten, in a fun, interactive environment. Her philosophy for all children is ‘to foster a love of learning’.

In her classes she continues ‘to foster a love of reading and writing through quality, explicit teaching and individualised attention, using only the best resources available’. It is also significant ‘to foster a love of maths through the exploration of mathematical concepts in everyday life’.

Her belief for children struggling to learn is: “If it appears a child is unable to learn then we have not yet found a way to teach them.” – Marie Clay

Joanna focuses on a child’s strengths and builds on what they already know. Confidence is a key factor.

At Learning Minds we specifically devise a program to meet your child’s learning needs to help them reach their potential, whether it’s extra help or enrichment for gifted and talented students.

Testimonials

  • “We have been thoroughly impressed with our experience at Learning Minds. We’ve noticed not only an improvement in our girls academic achievements but more importantly an improvement in their overall confidence levels.
    The tuition has helped my girls with lots of Maths and English skills, which will be invaluable for life. My girls have regained confidence in their mathematical abilities. They have also gained more strategies on how to study. You have provided my girls a non-judgemental environment enabling their capabilities to come to the fore. Your pleasant and professional manner have made it an enjoyable experience. We highly recommend your services. Your teachers are fantastic.”

  • “We have been so impressed with Joanna’s tuition of our Year 3 son over the past 10 months in both literacy and maths. Joanna has gone above and beyond to assess and then meet the needs of our child including ongoing communication with our son’s class teachers to ensure her support is maximised for our son. Our son had significant gaps in most learning areas when he started with Joanna and so we are thrilled to be seeing ongoing major improvements across all areas of his education as well as a big boost in his confidence. Our son loves attending his weekly tutoring sessions with Joanna which is also a testament to her engagement with him. We cannot thank Joanna enough for her support, patience and ability in ensuring our son’s needs are met and continually progressed.  We would not hesitate to recommend her tuition school to other parents.”

  • I wanted to email all holidays and kept forgetting! I wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU, Zachy
    had the most amazing maths report card!!! He did really well this term and his marks are soooo
    much better. He was top 3 in his maths class and his teacher has been saying that he is doing
    so well in class, more enthusiastic and participating in class (which was non existent before as
    he was not confident). His teacher says she has really noticed a difference and said “whatever
    you are doing with him….keep doing it!” This is a directly result of Zachy’s tuition with you, so we
    are so grateful. He actually enjoys maths now! Amazing! Thank you!

  • My son just loved attending his Reading Bee class each week with Joanna. He had fun and learnt so very much. I can see how much more confident his is in attempting to read and write and how keen he is to complete and concentrate on tasks when asked, and not just school work type tasks either! It has been such positive experience and my son is now feeling happy and ready to start big school!