Maths Recovery

Founder members of the Mathematics Recovery Council UK and Ireland

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 five more conferences since our inauguration - Manchester in 2006, Limerick in 2008, 2009 and 2012, Leeds in 2010 - and the next is planned for 2015 in Glasgow. Our subcommittees are currently working to develop support for teachers using Maths Recovery and to keep our international links.

In 2014 Mathematics Recovery Council UK and Ireland was registered as a charity (1158077) and is governed by a board of trustees.

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.

Penny Munn

The Mathematics Recovery Programme has lost a distinguished and valued colleague in Dr Penny Munn, who died of cancer on 1st June 2011. Penny Munn was Reader in Education at the University of Strathclyde and course director of the Postgraduate Certificate: Maths Recovery. She hosted the first UK and Ireland conference in the delightful setting of Ross Priory on the shores of Loch Lomond and was elected inaugural chair of the Mathematics Recovery Council. Throughout her life Penny gave of her time and talents to all she came in contact with. She leaves us with a tremendous legacy of her research papers and publications but most of all of how she was such a positive influence on teachers and students both at home and abroad. We will miss such a warm, kindly and thoughtful friend.You can read Penny's obituary here (word)

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

Dr 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 was seconded to the position of National Coordinator of MATA, the Maths Recovery intervention project of the Department of Education & Science in Ireland. This involved 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.

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 and currently sits on the Executive Committee of the Maths Recovery Council UK and Ireland.

Charlotte Madine

Charlotte is an independent education consultant. She has been a Senior Adviser for the National Strategies where she led programmes of work delivered nationally through Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts. Previously she was Mathematics Regional Adviser in the North West of England where she worked with Local Authorities and teachers to improve teaching and learning in mathematics. Charlotte has been an Advisory Teacher and then a Numeracy Consultant for Knowsley MBC and has extensive experience of teaching children from ages 5 to 11 years. Charlotte has written and edited for publishers on mathematics. She was a contributing author to ‘Teaching Number in the Classroom’ Sage Publications 2014. She worked in collaboration with John Moores University, developing BAFTA nominated CD Roms for mathematics Bubble Reef and Knowsley Woods, winner of Best Multimedia Product, Liverpool Design Awards 2000 and runner up in EMMA Awards 1999. She has a Certificate in the Advanced Study of Education (Mathematics Recovery) from the University of Liverpool and a NPQH. Charlotte is a Maths Recovery Consultant and currently Chair 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. As a Maths Recovery Consultant and an accredited trainer, Jill currently advises and trains teachers and teaching assistants in schools across the borough of Wigan. She is an active member of the Maths Recovery Council and is serving Treasurer on the Executive Committee

Joan McCarthy

Joan is a Maths Recovery 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.

Chris Porter

Chris is a Maths Recovery Consultant working across the UK and Ireland. She is an active member of the Maths Recovery Council organising the conferences and serving on the Executive Committee. Chris has presented at conferences in the UK, Ireland and the USA. She has visited Australia to work with Robert Wright, Jim Martland and Ann Stafford and contributed to ‘Teaching Number in the Classroom’ Sage Publications 2014. Chris has extensive experience as a classroom teacher working with 5-11 year olds. Over the past 10 years she has worked as an Advisory Teacher for Manchester and a Numeracy Consultant for Salford working with schools and teachers to improve teaching and learning of mathematics. She has been training Maths Recovery teachers since 1999 initially in the North West and more recently in Ireland. Chris has an M.Ed. from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Dr 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.

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 and continued her work with Mathematics Recovery which involved her training ever more teachers in all sectors of education. She retired from Maths Recovery in 2010.

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 trained Maths Recovery Teachers and supported class teachers with active numeracy approaches. She led a team of MR teachers who were training class teachers in using Maths Recovery techniques. Mhairi is currently a head teacher in Humbie, East Lothian.