Talks

About me

I am the maths curriculum designer for the government’s education arm’s length body Oak National Academy, overseeing the design and development of a new, fully resourced open licensed maths curriculum for 5-16 year olds funded by the department for education, and aiding the development of the first government funded forward facing AI tool, aila. I previously worked for seven years as the maths specialist and course leader for the secondary PGCE at the University of Huddersfield. I am a former teacher, head of faculty and assistant headteacher, and I have authored 5 mathematics books including the best selling internationally published subject knowledge book 'Yes, But Why? Teaching for Understanding in Mathematics'. I am also a trustee for Axiom Maths after serving as Editor-in-Chief at the Mathematical Association for several years, and have recently graduated with a PhD studying the intended and enacted primary mathematics curriculum (looking at how government initiatives are designed and subsequently how they play out in the classroom).

Recent talks

The past, present and future of resourcing the curriculum

As part of annual MEI national conference, I delivered a keynote discussing the evolution of educational resources, tracing from traditional textbooks to modern-day digital curriculum packages, and where we might go from here.

Getting curriculum packages right

As part of the UK/US Transforming Mathematics symposium organised by the Gates Foundation at the US Embassy I spoke to delegates about the complexity of authoring public resources for mathematics to be used at scale.

Making abstract maths make sense

For MathsMeet at Maynooth University I spoke to delegates about the importance of coupling procedural mathematics with conceptual understanding. We looked at strategies to enable students to make sense of abstract maths.

Areas of specialism:

Curriculum design

Developing subject knowledge (all phases, especially non-specialists & ECTs)

Strategies for developing conceptual understanding in maths (all phases)

Task design and asking better questions

Student motivation and classroom culture (secondary, FE)

Developing departmental strategy (secondary)

Representations and the Concrete Pictorial Abstract model

Implementing a mastery approach to teaching maths

Problem solving

Textbook research

Geometry Snacks (exploring multiple approaches to geometry problems)

Mathematical etymology