I thought I would use this section to give you a little insight into who I am and why I wanted to run my programme ‘Be prepared for Maths GCSE’.  I have been teaching in secondary schools for 16 years now across all ages and abilities.

Being a maths teacher, I think there is an expectation that I have always been really good at maths, that I was a natural and found maths easy.  This is definitely not the case! 

When I was at school age, I found maths quite challenging, and it was with the help of a great tutor (and my parents) who encouraged me to work hard and get the basics in place that I realised maths wasn’t as difficult as I had originally thought. I went from bottom set in year 7 and worked my way up to set 2 by year 10. 

I then decided to study A-level maths before finally completing my degree in Maths and Drama.  Whilst I was at university, I completed a module on Maths in education and I caught the bug.  I loved sharing my knowledge with others that were struggling to understand and helping them reach that light bulb moment, just like my tutor had done for me.  Straight out of university I decided that teaching was what I wanted to do.

I have learnt during my time as both a classroom teacher and a private tutor that early intervention is key.  Maths is a building blocks subject – we need certain key topics to be really secure foundations in order to build upon them, without these key topics GCSE maths can become so much more complex than it needs to be.  

I have spent a lot of my career really focused on key stage 3 maths – getting it right at this level really means people can flourish later on.  I have taken my knowledge and passion for explaining maths and designed a programme to help your child thrive in mathematics – not just survive it.