Maths Circle Australia Pty Ltd - serving schools, families and tutors in Australia and New Zealand - is the sister company to Maths Circle Ltd based in the UK.I make regular trips (6 or 7 per year) to Australia to meet other educators, run training, speak at events, showcase our platforms at exhibitions and to visit client schools.

2013-2020TT Rock Stars transitioned from paper-only thing in my school to a SAAS platform at the end of 2013. Shoutout to Alex Blanc and Gareth Axford who brought it to life.As I bootstrapped the fledgling business, I went from solopreneur at my kitchen table (2014-16) to an employer of 2 and company director, with an actual office. Thank you Bedford Free School for providing the free space all that time.It was a classic small company structure, with the three of us doing a bit of everything.At the start of 2018, my wonderful wife joined the company, which immediately took us to another level. Rented offices, an in-house legal capacity and someone with business experience!2020-2022By the start of 2020, we'd become a team of 9 and then the pandemic arrived. Like everyone else, we just got on with it. Edtech in general went off like a rocket and we're proud of the free access we were able to give throughout all lockdowns, across the world.It was a bit wild at times but the team was sensational, despite things going on in their personal lives, and we managed to pull some off amazing partnerships with BBC Bitesize and Guinness World Records. We even filmed a series of celebrity v child times-table-offs around the UK, which was broadcast on BT Sport!2022-2024We formed a senior management team with the recruitment of Helen Newies and Alex Ford at the end of 2022, spurring a change in my activities - from being a combo of customer services, finance, data security, admin, product design, HR, tech support and training - towards growth, vision and strategy. PresentThe team is now up to 20 so we're getting quite a hussle on with a series of fresh projects collectively known as Mission Summit.Despite having 1.5M+ weekly users, my focus is on generating more maths smiles from more learners through research, innovation and partnerships.

I supported Department for Education, schools, academy chains and the maths teaching sector as a whole by...* Following school visits in Shanghai and starting a revolution in maths teaching in England in the early 2010s (with a curriculum that inspired Mathematics Mastery and heads of maths around the country, not to mention approaches such as minimally different questions - variation theory by another name - and training to teachers to adopt kick-ass classroom strategies for modelling maths, asking questions and behaviour management) I spent a few years on and off advising policy makers at the DfE on matters relating to teaching maths for mastery; for example by reviewing the Shanghai teacher exchange and shortlisting primary maths textbooks with Tim Oates and Debbi Morgan. * Delivering Head of Maths CPD and Teach Like a Champion training* Speaking at conferences and leadership residentials* Coaching SLT to address low-level disruption in their schoolsMy work on a mastery approach to teaching maths is nationally recognised as is the impact that Times Tables Rock Stars is having on primary- and secondary-age pupils in the UK.

The best teaching and SLT job I could have had. Some day when I go back to teaching, I hope I can match the same joy I felt at KSA.In 2009, when we started KSA, I *was* the maths department, in charge of everything from writing assessments to pre-teaching at 7.15am. I was also responsible for maths outcomes and joy factor, both of which I could tell were not where our pupils deserved after year one.Using the summer break to reflect, I realised where the gaps were:* My teacher radar was allowing low-level disruption* My maths modelling, in particular my example selection was weak* Whole-class questioning lacked skill* The curriculum moved pupils on WAY too quickly* I didn't address pupils' basic numeracy, thinking they'd pick them up by osmosisAs September 2010 arrived, I'd written a completely different curriculum (that ended up really resonating with hundreds of Heads of Maths around the country) and by October Times Tables Rock Stars was born.With a host of other changes, strong leadership from Max Haimendorf and big strides in my classroom delivery (after devouring Teach Like A Champion), outcomes picked up and maths confidence rose. Year on year, we did things better and by the time 2015 came around, the hard graft of every pupil in our first cohort yielded sensational GCSE results (7th in the country), only to be exceeded by the following yeargroup in 2016 (1st in the country!)I made the sad choice to leave to move back to Bedford and be closer to my ageing father. As heartbreaking as it was, it turned out to be the right decision as my dad died little more than a year later.Take the chance to visit KSA, or better still, work there!

This is where I did the Teach First programme. Many happy memories working with great colleagues and pupils.