‘Maths was my way out’
Former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman has always been passionate about encouraging children to learn to love maths. With her online learning tool The Maths Factor, she is doing just that.
From a very young age, I’ve known that education opens doors. I was brought up in north Wales by a single mum, who had to work very hard to keep us afloat. I loved learning and I was always naturally gifted in maths. I knew that had to be my way out. My dream was to be a pilot, so I wanted to study engineering at university. There were always going to be barriers to this. I was female, went to a comprehensive and was on free school meals. The chances of me getting into Cambridge were one in a million, but ironically I never did the numbers on it! When I was accepted, I remember thinking that my whole world was about to change.
I arrived at Cambridge in 1978 on the back foot as I hadn’t had the same level of education as others. Still, I loved it and was proud to get my degree.
People say I was made for showbusiness, but I didn’t go looking for fame. My mother saw the job advert for Countdown and, without me knowing, applied for me, forging my signature. It goes without saying I’m very glad she did. Working on Countdown was one of the happiest times of my life.
I’ve since got my private pilot’s licence and hosted brilliant shows such as the Pride Of Britain Awards. But my passion is for maths education. I wanted to set up a website to help kids learn to love maths and, after Countdown, I had time to do it.
I launched The Maths Factor in 2010 and the response has been amazing. Teachers and parents get in touch all the time to thank us, and I’m sent pictures of children engrossed in our activities. We have a 30-day challenge in which children do a bit of maths every day. At the beginning and end of it we ask: ‘Out of 10, how much do you like maths?’ and ‘How good are you at maths?’ The scores go from twos and threes before they start with us at The Maths Factor to eights and nines. Seeing children’s confidence growing is what it’s about for me.
Soon, we’ll cater for older children, and adults wanting a refresher. In lockdown, we made the site free so parents could use it to help home-school their children. We wanted to help during a challenging time. It’s moving to think that, as schools reopen, thousands of children who used our site will return better at maths; they’ll have a sense of self-belief.
My own children have a great work ethic. My daughter, Katie, followed in my footsteps and is a research scientist at Cambridge. She’s also been helping BBC Bitesize with its physics materials. Katie has the same passion for teaching and learning as I do.
I put my heart and soul into The Maths Factor because
I know that education is such a powerful tool. I’ve come a long way since my childhood, and it’s education that has got me here. I’m determined to pass that on.
• themathsfactor.com
Education is such a powerful tool