How useful is the Maths Scholar scheme to you? How has it helped?

Fractals Maths Meme

This scholarship scheme is a blessing to anyone who has ever dreamt of teaching Maths. The funds I will be shortly receiving through the scheme are obviously very helpful as they will allow me to fund my initial teacher-training course without getting into debt. This is a wonderful incentive, but the scheme is, in fact, helpful in a much broader sense.

This scholarship offers a lot more than just financial support. What I personally find most useful is the fact that I am part of a great community of like-minded teachers, in which ideas can be shared. In my opinion, this is priceless.

By following the Maths Scholar Facebook page, I often come across many articles on a variety of topics that give me a chance to think about new issues and fresh perspectives. It makes the job of finding interesting content a lot easier. This is especially helpful in my training year when I have to juggle between lesson planning, studying and completing SCITT and University tasks. In all honesty it’s hard to find time to do additional research.

Another helpful aspect is the immense pool of resources the scheme gives access to. At this stage, I am still to realise the full benefits since I haven’t done any teaching yet. But I can see how being able to access online resources will become incredibly helpful in a couple of weeks time when I start planning and delivering lessons. Needless to say, this will continue to be helpful during my NQT year and even further into my career.

Last but not least, I feel the scheme is also helpful in a less practical way. My SCITT providers, my mentor and the NQT’s in the department often mention how hard the training year is, so I think that being a scholar will help me stay positive when things get tough. It will serve as a helpful reminder that somebody else (other than myself) thinks that I can become a great teacher and it will therefore be a fantastic incentive to always try my hardest.

To sum up, I feel that the scholarship scheme has been and will continue to be of great value to me because it allows me to be part of a community that gives the support I need to help establish myself as a teacher.

- By Barbara Pellegrino