From battling the Taliban to brain-training a two-year-old

IN A world where children are now picking up GCSEs at primary school, parents are deploying ever more outlandish tactics to help their children get ahead of the curve.

From computer lessons for twoyear-olds, through to advanced mathematics for toddlers, so-called “tiger mothers” will try almost any preschool class which promises to transform progeny into protégé.

But now two veterans of the Afghanistan war believe they have perfected the magic formula – one which promises to unlock a child’s genius.

Oliver Holcroft and

Rufus Gordon-Dean, ex-Army officers who between them spent 700 days battling the Taliban in Helmand Province, are at the forefront of one of London’s fastest t growing trends.

The pair of former public schoolboys have set up their own preschool company, offering physical, brain-stimulating classes to children between the ages of two and six. After founding Tarka London in 2015, they are the talk of the west London schools circuit, with hundreds of mothers rushing to sign up their children.

Tarka has proved so popular that the pair have hired 10 new staff within 12 months just to keep up with their ballooning client list, among which are some of the capital’s most high-profile celebrities.

They include Anya Hindmarch, the fashion designer, and Sienna Miller, whose daughter attended regular classes until recently when the actress returned to Los Angeles.

Tarka’s founders are no strangers to fame either: Rufus is a close friend of the Duke of Cambridge following their time at Sandhurst together, while Oliver is the brother of Edward Holcroft, the actor. Inspired by the Scandinavian approach to primary education, which places exercise and co-ordination above classroom, blackboardled learning, the pair have devised their programme carefully alonghealth and paediatric side experts. The secret they say, is simple.

“Our system is sorely lacking in didactic teaching – that is, teaching them basic, practical skills,” says Oliver, as the pair prepare for a class at St Francis of Assisi, a church in one of Notting Hill’s most upmarket neighbourhoods.

“Here in the UK, 90 per cent of money spent on our children’s education is invested between the ages of six and 22, and yet 90 per cent of the human brain develops between birth and the age of six.

“It’s a completely skewed approach. Children’s brains are so malleable at to their success,