Services for Schools

“Mirjam worked with small intervention groups at Little Lever School throughout the 2017-18 academic year.

Through her enthusiasm and in depth subject knowledge she was able to boost the confidence of those students who really struggle with Maths whilst also really pushing those who were passionate to continue their Maths education at post-16 level.

This was evident in the work that she did with a small number of Year 11 pupils who took the Advanced Level Award.”

Mr M. Isherwood, Head of Maths Little Lever School.

Services for pupils in schools

Gifted & talented students

They sound like the ideal pupil to have but they are not. They learn so quick and retain material so well they get bored.

Most schools have gifted & talented policies but fail the really gifted student.

They have to wait till the rest of the class have mastered the topic before they are shown anything else and they learn to work slowly to combat boredom.

When these pupils get challenged at their own level they start to love maths again and become our future problem solvers.

For these pupils I can provide a weekly on site or weekly online lesson and provide them with the material to go progress at their own higher speed, without hindering the rest of the class or taking too much preparation time of their teacher.

Dyscalculia & dyspraxia

These learning disabilities occur across all levels of maths. Dyscalculia generally shows in pupils as the inability to use negative numbers, reverse operations and reverse procedures. They have no feeling for numbers and need to have taught procedures to answer any maths questions. Once they have been shown the procedure they happily remember them and answer the questions correctly.

Dyspraxia is harder to combat. They have a feeling for numbers but can’t write down the working out. A pupil who is dyspraxic would typically react to a maths question as follows: ‘ Would you do…..’ and then there is a pause. 2 minutes later they shout: ’the answer is 5 isn’t it’ and most likely they are correct.

Consistent pointing out what steps they follow and modelling working out gets them to overcome their difficulties. I tend to have these pupils individually or in the smaller groups.

Students falling behind

There are pupils who are falling behind the progress they should have made based on the level they were when they left primary school. These pupils are very hard to serve in a classroom with 25 pupils or more. They tend to have issues far better suited to a small group.

I teach pupils in groups of 4 or 5 and pull them up to the level where they should be.

Unwell students in hospital or home

Some students unfortunately get ill and are not able to get to school due to illness or hospital stay.

I can support these pupils with on-site or online lessons to help them continue to learn and not get a gap in their maths development.

Services to support staff

Teambuilding and Intervision for maths teams

As a management consultant I supported many managers and their teams. I also lead teams to success on their project and can combine these skills with my knowledge of maths education to get the Maths team to become a winning team.

The way to get to these winning teams are very much depending on the starting situation. Therefore, these services start with a talk with the team and their members to come up with a plan to implement change.

Long term cover and job sharing

It is very hard to get good cover for long term illness and to maintain staff nowadays.

I am available to cover e.g. stress related illness or job share with one of the members of staff who want to teach part time to give them a break from the stresses of full time teaching or to care for their family.

This will be invoiced on an hourly basis and will work out far more cost effective and high level of achievement for students than cover teachers through an agency.

Maths on the mat sessions

I have made a maths mat and have developed fun lessons where pupils move around and are inside the Maths and can see it happen in front of them. I can come in for a day and teach different classes at different levels during the day. Staff can tell me which topics they want me to teach.

Great topics for Maths on the Mat teaching are e.g. coordinates, charts and graphs, gradient of a line and transformation of functions.

De-stress day

I am a fully qualified massage therapist and could set up my massage chair in a little room and provide staff with a massage just before they break up before the holidays to start their break relaxed.

If needed I know other therapist who can help me out and provide massages to all staff (not just maths teachers).