About Me
About Me
Penny Ross
A fully qualified teacher of Mathematics.
I used to teach in secondary schools and found that, although I loved teaching and interacting with high school students, there just wasn’t enough time to spend with students who struggled to grasp a concept.
‘I get it now’ is my favourite phrase and makes my day.
Why we do certain things in maths was also omitted from the curriculum. I find that learning ‘why’ something is done is crucial to enhancing understanding and retention. Maths is much more fun if you know what the point of it is.
I’d be rich if I had a pound for every time i’d heard the words; “what do I need to know that for? It’s pointless” or “I’m never going to need maths anyway when I leave school”.
The truth is that there are no interesting jobs that don’t require a decent maths grade at GCSE level
I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was at school so I drifted in and out of a lot of jobs. I’ve been a nurse, an insurance clerk, a marketing executive, joiner, painter and decorator, just to name a few! I fully understand what’s needed to follow different careers.
About Lessons
Lessons
I usually teach sitting across my kitchen table from students.
I have bookshelves full of maths books and drawers full of maths equipment, not to mention a lot of props on shelves and in my kitchen cupboards!
Lessons last for an hour, which doesn’t seem long, but experience has taught me that with a one-to-one lesson, at each individual student’s pace, we can often cover what schools take up to ten lessons to teach. The difference is that there’s no chance of it being too fast or too slow or of feeling left behind.
The pace, content and level of difficulty are exclusively decided by each student.
Pets
Pets
I have a dog (Marble, border collie). I have the ability to shut Marble out of the teaching area if any students are scared of dogs.