My career began as a high school mathematics teacher and from quite early on I was interested in the process of how people learn mathematics. I enjoyed the challenge of working with pupils who found learning mathematics difficult and it was through experimenting with ways of teaching that I realized the importance of good resources. At that time there were none that suited my needs and so I began writing my own. Soon after this I teamed up with Kathy Catley who had began writing resources for New Zealand secondary pupils. During the next few years we completed the series for the secondary school in New Zealand and later wrote a very successful series for ages 11 to 16 in Britain. This was followed by a series for low achievers in Britain.

During this time I was also involved in setting up a learning support service at Christchurch Polytechnic. I became further interested in how people learn, their differing learning styles and the barriers to learning. Again I was able to experiment with ways of teaching mathematics. I had 3 children of my own at primary school at the time and became aware that primary teachers had a huge workload coming to grips with many new curriculum areas all in the space of a few years. I had a firm conviction that mathematics could be learned and enjoyed by all pupils regardless of their ability and that good resources played a vital part in this.

My hope is that the resources that we have created make both pupils’ and teachers’ experiences of learning and teaching mathematics enjoyable and rewarding. We are always keen to receive feedback both positive and negative so that we can improve any further resources.

During my years of teaching as both a mathematics teacher in secondary schools and a primary teacher in Britain and New Zealand I have become aware of the varied ways in which students learn. In my mathematics teaching I strove to provide students with learning environments and resources that would enhance their learning. I was always cognisant of the diversity of abilities and mathematical understanding of the students in my class.

Teacher workload is a constant concern for those in the education sector and finding resources that promote clear mathematical thinking and problem solving skills can be very time consuming. My aim in writing for the Numeracy Project is to assist teachers by providing them with a range of activities that can be used in a variety of different contexts of their choosing.

Students will be able to engage in activities that use real life information presented in diverse ways aimed at their level of understanding. In my experience primary age pupils who are confident in their mathematical knowledge are better prepared to transition into secondary education ready to face new challenges in mathematics at this level.

As a mother of four children and a mathematics and science teacher, I have an obvious interest in and knowledge of the teaching of mathematics in our schools. This, along with my experience in writing teaching resources meant I was in an ideal position to co-author mathematics text books and at the same time address one or two concerns about mathematics in our schools.

One major concern is the huge workload faced by all teachers, both primary and secondary. On top of this, mathematics teachers often had to spend a lot of time searching through resources to make sure the whole curriculum was covered. Using our text books this will no longer happen as the books cover all aspects of the National Curriculum, including possible assessment tasks.

We have in particular tried to make our books user friendly for teachers. They are clearly set out, have a wide coverage of ideas and have comprehensive teacher support material, such as blackline masters, sets of mentals and homework book.

And for the students we have written books that are enjoyable, have a variety of activities and are relevant to their stage of life, while still providing the necessary mathematics skills.

Every child deserves the best possible teaching. Every teacher deserves the best possible resources to aid their teaching. When I was teaching, the maths text books were inadequate and much time and effort was spent by individual teachers writing and duplicating resources for their classes. This was the impetus for me to write maths text books.

The teacher who uses my books can spend less time in sourcing resources and more time on more important things. The student who uses my books has a concise text to refer to, not only at the time of learning a particular topic, but also when revising material throughout the year.