Milton Keynes · Online · One-to-one
Anyone can become a maths expert.
I strongly believe that, given patient and personalised teaching, anyone can. My job is to keep breaking a concept down until it is genuinely easy to see — and then to show you how to use it somewhere you have never seen it before.
The approach
Principles, not procedures
Most maths teaching hands you a procedure and asks you to repeat it. That works right up until the question is phrased differently — and then it collapses. I teach the principle underneath, and then we go looking for the edges of it.
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Break it down until it is obvious
If something has not landed, the explanation was not small enough yet. I will keep decomposing a concept — patiently, without any suggestion that you should already have got it — until it is genuinely clear.
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Start with the real question, then vary it
We usually begin with a problem from your actual course. Then we change it. What if this number were negative? What if the constraint were removed? What if I mixed it with the topic you did six weeks ago? Variation is where understanding gets tested.
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Apply it somewhere new
The goal is that you can meet a question you have never seen and still know what to reach for. That is the same skill that makes maths useful outside the exam hall — which is where I spent my career using it.
What I teach
Three ways to work together
One-to-one tuition
KS3, GCSE, A level, Further Maths — and adults returning to maths for work or study. In person around Milton Keynes, or online anywhere.
The Mathematical Executive
An eight-week group course for ages 11–16. University-level ideas — linear programming, the Poisson distribution, regression — taught through business simulations rather than worksheets.
Oxbridge admissions
TMUA, STEP and interview preparation for Oxford and Cambridge maths applicants — from someone who sat on the other side of that process.
A worked example
What “vary the problem” actually looks like
Suppose the textbook asks you to solve x² − 5x + 6 = 0.
Most students learn to factorise, get x = 2 and x = 3,
and move on. Here is what we would do instead.
- VaryChange the 6 to a 7. Why does factorising suddenly stop working, and what does that tell you about the discriminant?
- ReverseI give you the roots. You build the equation. Now build a different one with the same roots.
- GeneraliseFor which values of
cdoesx² − 5x + c = 0have two real roots? One? None? - MixNow the same equation is the path of a ball. Where does it land, and when was it highest?
- BreakA student writes
x = 2orx = −3. Find their mistake without solving it yourself.
From the maths news
Mathematics is having an extraordinary year
Part of loving maths is knowing that it is alive. I keep a short, plain-English feed of what is actually happening in the subject — and why it might matter to someone learning it.
Fermat’s Last Theorem has been checked by machine, end to end
Anthropic’s Claude produced the first complete, computer-verified proof in the Lean proof assistant — 13 million lines of Lean and around 29,500 intermediate theorems, reviewed by Kevin Buzzard at Imperial College London, whose community project began the effort in 2024.
Common questions
Before you get in touch
Do you teach in person in Milton Keynes?
Yes. I teach face to face across Milton Keynes and the surrounding villages, and online for anyone further afield. Online sessions use a shared whiteboard, and in my experience they work just as well — often better, because everything we write is saved and sent to you afterwards.
What levels do you teach?
Key Stage 3, GCSE and IGCSE, A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics, and university admissions preparation. I also work with adults — people returning to study, retraining, or needing quantitative maths for work.
My child is doing fine but is bored. Can you help?
That is one of my favourite briefs. Boredom in maths is almost always a sign that a student is being asked to repeat procedures they already understand. The fix is harder and more interesting problems, not more of the same ones — which is exactly what The Mathematical Executive was built for.
Has the Oxford MAT really been scrapped?
Yes. From the 2026 admissions round, Oxford no longer runs the Mathematics Admissions Test; all applicants to Maths, Computer Science and their joint courses sit the TMUA instead. A lot of preparation material still on the internet is out of date. Here is what actually changed.
How do we start?
A free 20-minute call, with no obligation. We talk about where things currently stand, what is getting in the way, and whether I am the right person to help. If I am not, I will say so.
Let’s find out where the sticking point is.
There usually is one, and it is usually further back than people expect. That is good news — it means it can be fixed.