Why I decided to apply for a Mathematics Teacher Training Scholarship
After working 30 years in financial institutions in the City of London, developing software, I was looking for a new challenge.
My son, a maths teacher, suggested that I should think about teaching maths and told me about how rewarding and personally fulfilling teaching was for him. I had coached my son through his GCSEs and A-Levels so he knew I had a passion for Maths. He pointed me to the Maths Scholarships website. This sparked my interest even more, in particular seeing videos of people who had been in a similar position to me: In their testimonials Lisa Chalmers and Bobby Seagull described their rich experience in industry and how the Maths Scholarship helped them develop their teaching skills.
Working through the materials the Maths Scholarships has on their website I came across information on professional bodies that help trainees and teachers with their career development. Two immediately caught my eye: Mathematics Education Innovation (MEI) and STEM Learning.
MEI has a vision that every student who could benefit from studying Further Mathematics should be able to do so. Having done Further Maths, many years ago, with an inspirational maths teacher, I immediately related to this goal. MEI provide support and resources to teachers to develop their skills to enable them to teach Further Maths, something I would love to do.
Having worked in the technology industry since 1986 and been involved in hiring staff throughout my career, I have always been amazed at the lack of diversity of candidates applying for roles in technology. Working in technology is a creative (you make something from nothing) and exciting industry yet there continues to be a shortage of talent and diversity. I hope, with my experience in industry, that I can help young people from all backgrounds see what opportunities there are if they were to study STEM subjects. The STEM professional body provides a wealth of materials that I look forward to using in my lessons. STEM also work closely with industry – for example there’s an excellent initiative called Code with Google which enables students to learn computer science and write software.
In addition to the professional bodies, having a scholarship, provides a scholar with opportunity to meet and collaborate with likeminded people – people who love maths and want to pass that love for the subject on to their pupils.
By Robert Manning