Videos

I'm passionate about maths; I love my subject, but I know it's not socially acceptable to say that. In fact, when I tell people I'm a maths teacher, they often run in the opposite direction but, in school, I can be as enthusiastic as I want to be. I'm able to convey that enthusiasm to the students, to allow them to become confident and creative in their approach to the subject. I did a PGCE (postgraduate certificate in education), where I had the opportunity to develop my teaching style and to learn about new activities that I could try with the children. Not everyone on my PGCE had a maths degree; there were people like accountants and engineers who wanted to train as maths teachers.

I love maths and I love being able to be enthusiastic about it; in fact, I'm paid to be enthusiastic about it, every day, and to convey that enthusiasm to the students, to watch them become confident and creative in the way they use mathematics. I enjoy seeing children who've come into my class, telling me they're no good at maths, leave it five years later, feeling proud of themselves because they've got the grade they wanted.

I try to make maths fun in my class by using a range of approaches. We have investigations, puzzles, games; we do displays, so the children can see their work on the wall, and we have different technologies that allow the maths to become more accessible to everyone. Maths is a wonderful subject and it's great to teach.