Becoming A Maths Scholar Later In Life - By Peter Saacke

My journey to becoming a maths scholar is a little different from the other maths scholars I have met so far. 

I came to the UK from Germany aged 16, initially planning to stay only for a year to learn English. But I was lucky enough to have a maths teacher who, noticing how far I was behind other keen maths students at my school, helped me catch up outside of school hours in his free time. One year quickly became 5 years, with me doing A-Levels and a degree in Maths and Philosophy afterwards. I subsequently taught maths to economists at a German university whilst studying economics, only to switch to working to finance when I had come (finally) to the realisation that academia was not for me. That was 25 years ago, but more recently doing maths with my three children and tutoring A-Level maths via a charity called The Access Project reminded how much I enjoyed teaching maths. 
 
Since nobody had ever taught me how to teach maths when I taught at university (the view was that it was sufficient that you had the qualifications that suggested you could ‘do the maths’) I decided to pursue a PGCE in Maths to (finally) learn more about maths pedagogy. The this point I was blissfully unawares of the existence of the Mathematics Teacher Training Scholarships, but a friend of mine, who recently switched from Finance to teaching Physics told me how much he benefited from being a Physics scholar and suggested I find out more about the Maths scholarship. 
 
What attracted me to applying for the scholarship was not so much the increase in the bursary for student teachers, but rather the additional opportunity to improve my skills as a maths teacher. The first continuing professional development event organised by the IMA was certainly an excellent start: having been used to a rather dreary CPD events in my old world of Finance, I found myself buzzing with enthusiasm after the scholars’ kick-off event in Birmingham in September. More than anything, I felt we were shown what we should aspire to as developing maths teachers. We were also shown some tools that might help us get there and it was also great fun meeting other budding maths teachers from all over the country (and doing maths with them). More prosaically, membership of professional organisation such as the Royal Statistical Society, free access to Integral Maths and a free Desmos tutorial are also boons. 
 
So all I can say to anyone considering applying to become a maths scholar is: Whether you are fresh out of university or, like me, have made an extended detour en route to teaching, go for it! As another maths scholar recently put it succinctly: “If you love maths and want to inspire young people then it is the scheme for you.”  

By Peter Saacke

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