As we celebrate the accreditation of our second exam centre, right in the heart of Nottingham, there's plenty to be proud of. Approved by AQA and Pearson Edexcel, the centre gives home-educated learners, GCSE resit students, adult learners and local schools somewhere local, secure and welcoming to sit their exams.

Behind that milestone is someone many Nottingham families haven't met yet: Dide Ala, Bauhaus Education's Exams Officer. Every exam that takes place there depends on him getting the detail right, from JCQ compliance to the calm, reassuring presence he brings to students on the day.

We sat down with Dide to find out more about him, what brought him to Nottingham, and why helping students matters so much to him personally.

From Nigeria to Nottingham

It was Dide's own education that first brought him to the UK. He completed a degree in civil engineering in Nigeria before moving here in 2022 to study for a Masters in Construction Project Management at the University of Portsmouth.

Engineering, though, didn't turn out to be where his heart lay. Teaching did. Alongside his studies, Dide had already taught music, maths and science, and when he met the Bauhaus Education team in 2024, something clicked.

“I love to teach, I love to share knowledge and see young people grow,” Dide says. “It's a win-win for me.”

Filling the gaps

Ask Dide what he loves about tutoring and he comes back to one idea again and again: knowledge gaps and how to close them. At Bauhaus, every new student starts with a baseline assessment, allowing tutors to see exactly what a young person knows, what they don't, and what just needs a refresh.

“Especially in a subject like maths, it's a step,” Dide explains. “If you don't know something at a particular stage, you won't understand the next thing, because you build on it. That's how we identify the gaps, and then we bridge them.”

“I've been at the bottom of the class”

For Dide, this work is personal. Ask him what motivates him and his answer doesn't come from a textbook.

“What motivates me is seeing the satisfaction the young people get,” he says. “I've been in their shoes. My grades were not the best, especially during my GCSE years. I've been at the bottom of the class before, and I understand how that feels.”

It wasn't down to a lack of ability, he's quick to point out, but the reality that a traditional classroom simply doesn't work for everyone.

“Some people do well in the traditional classroom. They understand everything. Some students do well outside of it. Everyone is different and may learn in different ways.”

The turning point for Dide came when his parents found him a private tutor, a teacher from his own school who was able to work with him one to one, outside the classroom.

“He could see where the knowledge gaps really were, and he could fix them. It wasn't just, you come, I give you classwork, you do homework, that's it. He showed me how to go about things, and he taught me how to learn in a way that suited me.”

That relationship changed everything, Dide says, not just his grades, but his confidence too. And remarkably, it's a relationship that has lasted: he and his old tutor are still in touch today.

“With a personal tutor who is really interested in your growth, they can see everything one to one, clearly. In a classroom, a teacher doesn't always have the luxury of time to work with one student individually. That one-to-one relationship changed everything for me.”

It's an experience he now draws on with every student he works with in Nottingham, whatever their starting point.

“When they get the results they need, it gives me a sense of accomplishment,” he says. “We set a goal, we got it, and there's a better relationship between us.”

A centre built to open doors

That same drive is what makes Nottingham's new accreditation feel personal to Dide, not just professional.

“We know that arranging exams can feel daunting, particularly for learners outside mainstream education,” he says. “Some students have been studying independently for months or even years, yet still face the practical challenge of finding a suitable place to take their exams. Our centre gives them a professional, welcoming and properly accredited option in Nottingham. Whether someone is learning with Bauhaus or simply needs a place to sit one paper, we can now support them.”

It was a year-long process to get there, with every detail, from premises to procedures, checked against JCQ requirements before AQA and Edexcel gave their approval.

Life in Nottingham

Dide is loving life in Nottingham. He lives in Radford, and there's nothing he likes better than exploring the city on foot.

“It's a really big city,” he laughs. “I try to walk around, see how it really is.”

Football and the gym both feature regularly - football with friends, casual rather than competitive - because, as Dide puts it, Bauhaus comes first.

Music, though, is where he really comes alive. A pianist and guitarist, Dide plays regularly at his church and creates content for his social media, having taught music in the past alongside his academic tutoring. Whether it's a chord progression or a tricky equation, it's the same thing that lights him up: the joy of sharing what he knows, and watching it click for someone else.

“There's nothing quite like it,” he says. “Watching someone understand something for the first time, whether it's music or maths, it's the same feeling.”

Adding value

Ask Dide where he sees himself heading, and career guidance is on the horizon, learning from CEO Tutu Alaka as he builds his experience. But his underlying ambition is simple, and it sums up everything he's told us.

“My priority is to add value to people's lives in whatever way I can,” he says. “I've been stuck myself, so many times, in different things. I would really love to show people that there is a way through.”

It's exactly that outlook, shaped by his own journey from struggling student to trusted tutor, that Nottingham families will now find at Bauhaus Education's newly accredited centre on Station Road.