Sarah Ogilvie

Former primary teacher and maths lead, now author

www.so-nimble-books.com

Booking enquiry

Book types

Educational

Details

I'm a former primary teacher and maths lead, and worked in schools for 15 years. I am now a gardener and new author.

Following an in-depth study into Growth Mindsets, I led a change in my last school where children sat in mixed groups (no more top, middle and bottom tables!) and could choose for themselves the level of difficulty of their independent tasks. The enthusiasm for this learning style was overwhelmingly positive for all children. My specialism is maths and I have led many whole school INSETs and staff meetings on various areas of the subject. I have also taken countless whole school assemblies and, of course, taught hundreds of lessons in schools!

Currently, I can offer a maths workshop to years 5 and 6 (or summer term Year 4s), based on 101 where children will take part in different maths activities, all tied in with the maths problem in 101. We will read the story, talk about how Carl solved the difficult problem then in pairs, children can have a try at similar problems and make a poster to teach others how to understand some properly tricky maths.

101 is written in rhyming verse, and I am currently developing a second workshop on rhymes. Children will have the opportunity to collaborate in writing an extension to 101, keeping the rhythm and rhyme patterns consistent with the original story.

I live in North Kent and am willing to travel within Kent, to South and East London and East Sussex. I can also work in and around the Southampton area and the Peterborough area.

Books by Sarah Ogilvie

'101' is my first published book and two more in the set are awaiting illustration. '101' is a loose interpretation of the true story of the young Carl Gauss who produced a beautiful solution to a complex maths problem within seconds. I used the story of Carl many times when I taught maths, and children always loved the fact that someone their age could perform such a feat. They loved it even more once they discovered that this level of maths was also well within their reach! The real story happened over 200 years ago in Germany; 101 has been transported to the South London classrooms where I taught for many years. The language and diversity of the pupils in the book represent those pupils in my own classes. Written in rhyming verse, 101 has been described as 'a cross curricular gem' by a home-school magazine.

9781068773402

On author's website

101

'Pupils streamed in, a touch too lively, The weekend beckoned, today was Friday.' In a desperate attempt to keep his pupils occupied for an hour, frazzled teacher Mr B sets a particularly challenging maths task. As Carl and his friends settle down to work, Mr B settles down for a well-earned rest. But soon, frustration in the class begins to bubble over, until Carl has a brainwave....

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Photos

Keywords

MATHS