Founder members and advisers to the Maths Recovery Council
The Maths Recovery Council (UK and Ireland) was conceived at the very first UK Maths Recovery Conference, held at Ross Priory on loch Lomond in September 2003. At the end of that conference a steering group to set up the Council was formed, and met regularly in Cumbria, over the following months. The Maths Recovery Council was inaugurated in March 2005, thanks to the support and hard work of all our founder members. We have held two more conferences since our inauguration - one in Manchester in 2006 and one in Limerick in 2008 - and the next is planned for 2010. Our subcommittees are currently working to develop support for teachers using Maths Recovery, to keep our international links, and to set up regional networks.
Robert J. Wright and Jim Martland
Dr Robert J Wright, Southern Cross University, NSW, Australia and Jim Martland, Director of the Mathematics Recovery Programme (UK) Ltd still manage to talk about assessment and teaching in early numeracy at the beautiful but very cold Swallow Falls in North Wales prior to the Manchester Conference. Dr Wright is the originator of the MR programme and Jim Martland was responsible for introducing the work to the UK and Canada.
Noreen O'Loughlin
Noreen lectures in Mathematics Education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland. She is heavily involved in the provision of in-career development courses at primary level in the area of learning difficulties in mathematics. Noreen has presented at conferences nationally and internationally in the area of primary mathematics. She is also involved in several international mathematics education research projects. Noreen is currently seconded to the position of National Coordinator of MATA, the Maths Recovery intervention project of the Department of Education & Science in Ireland. This involves rolling out Maths Recovery to approximately 350 schools during the period of the strategy. She is also the general editor of a series of Mathemagic an Irish primary maths textbook series.
Carole Cannon
In 2001 Jim Martland trained teachers in Mathematics Recovery assessment and teaching. In September of that year Carole Cannon, a primary Support for Learning teacher, was the first person in Edinburgh to be awarded with the Mathematics Recovery Certificate of Accreditation. In 2002 the City of Edinburgh appointed her as the Development Officer for Mathematics Recovery. She retired from teaching in August 2007 but is continuing her work with Mathematics Recovery which involves her training ever more teachers in all sectors of education.
Charlotte Madine
Charlotte is a Regional Adviser for the National Strategies for Primary Mathematics in the North West of England where she works with Local Authorities and teachers to improve teaching and learning in mathematics. She has been an advisory teacher and then a numeracy consultant for Knowsley Council and has extensive experience of teaching children from ages 5 to 11 years. She has contributed to many mathematics publications including Teaching Number in the Classroom in addition to BAFTA nominated interactive CD-ROMs for mathematics with John Moores University, Liverpool. She has a Certificate in the Advanced Study of Education (Mathematics Recovery) from the University of Liverpool and a NPQH. She has been teaching maths recovery teachers since 2000 and is a Maths Recovery Consultant, currently secretary to the Executive Committee of the Maths Recovery Council UK and Ireland.
Jill Piotrowski
Jill has worked in both mainstream and special schools in Bolton and Wigan Local Authorities for over 25 years. She became a Maths Recovery Teacher in 2000 and implemented the programme across 4 Key Stages in a school for pupils with severe learning difficulties. In 2006, Jill joined the Learning Support Service for Wigan LA and both trains and teaches across the borough. She is also involved in Talking Maths Training.
Joan McCarthy
Joan is a Numeracy Consultant formally from Wigan Education Authority,UK where she advised on the teaching of Mathematics for the Learning Support Services and ran training courses in Maths Recovery. Joan has been closely involved with the Mathematics Recovery Programme since its introduction to the UK in 1996 and has worked closely with Jim Martland, Professor Robert J. Wright and Ann K. Stafford, becoming a MR trainer in 1998 and a NNS consultant in 2002. Joan has presented at Maths Recovery conferences in the USA and in Manchester, UK and has visited Australia with other UK Numeracy Consultants to work with Professor R J Wright, Ann K. Stafford, Jim Martland and Garry Stanger to contribute to the Maths Recovery book ‘Teaching Number in the Classroom’. She is an experienced primary school practitioner who previously worked in an advisory capacity to raise standards in mathematics in Leigh Education Action Zone (1999 – 2004) during which time she developed and designed many resources for students. Joan holds a Certificate and Diploma in the Advanced Study of Education (Maths Recovery) from the University of Liverpool, England.
Julia Sheridan
Julia has extensive experience of classroom teaching of children from age 5 to 11 years. She was both an Advisory Teacher with responsibility for Mathematics and a Numeracy Consultant for Sefton Children, Schools and Families Service in the North West of England. She has contributed to National Numeracy working parties and mathematics publications. She has worked with Jim Martland, Professor Robert Wright and Ann Stafford and has presented at local, regional and international conferences. She has a Master’s Degree (Education) and a Certificate in the Advanced Study of Education (Maths Recovery) from Liverpool University. She has been training Maths Recovery Teachers since 1999, initially in the North West of England and more recently in Ireland. She is now an Independent Maths Recovery Consultant.
Mhairi Stratton
Mhairi graduated from Edinburgh University with a B.ED (Hons) degree in 2000. In 2001 she trained as a Maths Recovery Teacher and has since applied Maths Recovery to individual, small group and whole class lessons. Mhairi trains Maths Recovery Teachers and supports class teachers with active numeracy approaches. Mhairi is currently a class teacher in Humbie, East Lothian. She has recently begun leading a team of MR teachers who are training class teachers in using Maths Recovery techniques.
Penny Munn
Penny Munn is Reader in Education at the University of Strathclyde and course director of the Postgraduate Certificate: Maths Recovery.
Contact details
Department of Childhood and Primary Education, University of Strathclyde, G13 1PP
Telephone: +44 (0) 141 9503746
E-mail: penelope.munn@strath.ac.uk
website: http://www.strath.ac.uk/cps/courses/mathsrecovery/
Selected publications
Munn, P. & Reason, R (2007). Arithmetical difficulties: Developmental and Instructional Perspectives. Extended editorial. Educational and Child Psychology 24(2)
Munn, P. (2005) The Learning Teacher. In B. Wright et al (Eds) Teaching Number in the Classroom with 4-8 year olds. Sage
Munn, P. & Ellis, S. (2005). Interactions between School Systems and Reading Recovery Programmes – Evidence from Northern Ireland. Curriculum Journal. 16(3) 341-362
Munn, P. (2003). Maths Recovery – an Introduction. Primary Mathematics, 7 (3) 12-14
Ruth Willey
Ruth is an experienced educational psychologist, who has worked in three local authorities, and previously taught in a secondary school. Currently she is a Senior Educational Psychologist with Cumbria. She has a special interest in numeracy, and contributes to Cumbria's ongoing Mathematics Recovery programme, through the training of teaching staff and involvement in projects to use the approach more widely in schools.
Sharon Davidson
Sharon graduated from Liverpool University after attending Liverpool Hope University College in 1997 with a B.Ed (Hons) degree. She worked as a Primary Teacher in Knowsley for eight years working across KS 1 and 2 before joining Knowsley’s Primary Strategy team as a Numeracy Consultant in September 2005. She trained as a Maths Recovery teacher in 2005-06. Sharon currently represents Knowsley LA on the Maths Recovery Council.