Staff Feature - Marvellous Maths with Stephanie Edwards, Claremont School

Please Introduce yourself.
My name is Stephanie Edmunds and I am the Deputy Head Academic and Head of Maths at Claremont School. I have worked at Claremont for 16 years and have also taught Girls’ Games, Biology and I have been Head of IT. 

How did your career in Teaching start?  

I attended the University of London, Goldsmiths’ College and gained a degree in Biology and Maths. After university, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 12 years. I was involved in the data management aspect of clinical trials and led many worldwide projects. It is often exciting to see medicines that I have worked on, on the shelves in the pharmacy. I had always been interested in education and teaching, so when our site was closed down and we were made redundant, I re-trained as a secondary school Maths teacher. I did my training at a local comprehensive school and was lucky to be offered the position of Head of IT very early in my teaching career. 

Why do you think Maths is important, not only as a school subject, but in everyday day life? 

Obviously Maths plays a key feature in everyday life as we are surrounded by the use of Maths in many forms – e.g. when we go shopping,  planning  a holiday, deciding on a mortgage, catching a train, cooking, taking medicines, making medicine, even when we decorate a room. Decisions in life are so often based on numerical information; to make the best choices, we need to be numerate. These are the obvious areas, but life is built around Maths and its applications for example, the study of genetics and the use of statistics in research. Mathematical theories are at the centre of the natural world in which we exist and in practical terms, Maths provides us with those problem-solving skills that we need to use in other subjects as well as in everyday life. 

In the classroom, Maths is a perfect subject where children learn to take risks and can appreciate that it does not matter if you make mistakes. They appreciate that it is possible to learn from your mistakes quickly and in a controlled environment. It gives young people the exposure to problem solving, and these are important skills in a society where people are scared to make mistakes. Some people like numbers, others like geometry and linking Maths and Art – think of Leonardo de Vinci. I try to incorporate creativity into our Maths topics. 

We hear you have a passion for sports, what are your personal highlights?  

I love sport and being outside. I was never the most co-ordinated child and never particularly fast at running, but I was good at cross country and middle-distance running. This led to me running long distance races (10 miles or half marathons). At university, I became captain of the cross country and athletics club and we were very successful. I am not an outstanding runner, but I’ll give anything a go. I also played hockey and women’s football at university. After university, I learned to play rugby at Richmond Rugby club and then later moved to Blackheath. I was lucky to be part of the sport in the relatively early days, playing full-back or on the wing.  This was a great sport and I met many wonderful people and played at some top grounds. I was lucky to have played for both Kent and Sussex at county level and have been exposed to the trial process for the national squad.  I was extremely fit at the time of the trials and my speed was really good, but I just couldn’t run, I felt a bit ill and heavy. The coaches knew me and kept giving me the opportunity to prove myself, but it just didn’t happen – a week later, I found out that I was pregnant! After moving to Hastings, I was lucky enough to find a club and played at scrum half.  

Running has always been the way that I relax, and it is where I can sort out my thoughts and clear my head, but with a young family I struggled to keep up with it.  After several years in the wilderness and being motivated by the success of my three daughters, I have now come back to running thanks to Parkrun, which I do every Saturday. I have also done a half marathon and quite a few 10k races this year.  My aim for this year was to put myself out of my comfort zone which is something we are always telling the children at school to do. I also enjoy skiing and cycling.  

Could you tell us more about the Maths Baking Session you run at Claremont School?  

Well – this initially started because a member of my form was quite shy but had a passion for baking, so in order to help her with her confidence, I suggested that she baked and brought it into school. Then everybody else in the class wanted to do it, so we created a weekly rota. My Maths classes saw this and then wanted to do the same. So Maths baking was born. The pupils make the rotas and every week somebody brings in their baking and we get an array of baked goods – cookies, brownies, pavlovas, cupcakes, rocky roads etc. It isn’t very good for my waistline, but there are some good bakers at school. The children use those mathematical skills to measure out their ingredients etc. 

What is your favourite number and why? 

I love the number 9 as to me it represents much of the beauty and magic of Maths – the patterns that it creates, the 9 times table reproduces the number 9. It’s a square number. I like the fact that it is 1 less than 10.  My birthday is the 9th November – November was the Ninth month of the ancient Roman calendar. I played number 9 in rugby. Beethoven composed 9 symphonies. 

Who is favourite Mathematician and why? 

I admire many but those that immediately pop into my head are Blaise Pascal, just because I was always drawn to Pascal’s triangle as a youngster and Fibonacci due to the Fibonacci sequence which again illustrates the beauty of Maths in nature and science. The fact that you can derive the Fibonacci sequence from the shallows of Pascal’s triangle cannot just be a coincidence! 

What is the most rewarding part of your job? 

Gosh, there are so many. I love the children and their excitement and how keen they are to do their best. We are lucky to get to see children from their infant years through to the age of 13 at the Prep School. The honesty of the children, their enquiring minds and their support of one another fills each day with something new and wondrous which is sometimes difficult to put into words. In Maths, my aim is to remove the fear of the subject from those that struggle and for those able pupils, to allow them to explore how far they can go with a concept or a problem. I want them to see that there is no lid on learning and that they can be responsible for the direction in which it takes them. My colleagues are wonderful, and I love the honest discussions that we can have and the good humour that exists within our staffing body.