Katrina igniting students' enthusiasm for maths

“I would love to fill the Millennium Forum with children and do fun maths with them!”

These are the inspiring words of Eglinton’s Broadbridge Primary School teacher Katrina Bradley (née Gormley), who has recently been elected as a member of the prestigious UK Young Academy.

“Ultimately that is my goal in life. I want to be the Joe Wicks of maths,” laughed Katrina.

Originally from Foyle Springs in the city, Katrina explained UK Young Academy gathered people under the age of 40 it believed were emerging leaders.

Katrina Bradley with fellow UK Young Academy member, Dr David Hester, Senior lecturer, School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen's University, Belfast.

“Really it is people who Young Academy anticipates will go on to make a bigger contribution to their specific area of study,” said Katrina.

“Ireland has recently launched its Young Academy and I am hoping to get involved with it as well.

“My Young Academy journey centres on my work promoting mathematics in primary school and trying to ignite enthusiasm in students for the subject. That is my mantra. I want to make maths popular and remove the anxiety a lot of children experience around mathematics.

“I launched my business in 2021, as a response to the lockdown of schools. It is called Numerasee. The majority of my sessions and everything about Numerasee is about giving the children resources, giving them hands-on experiences and not jumping to the abstract too quickly. This is a concept that has been around for years, It is not something I developed,” acknowledged Katrina.

Katrina argued that, post-covid, it was crucial for teachers to take a step back and consider everything children have been through in the past two years.

“I don’t think we should be pushing them on and pushing them on. We should not be afraid to take a step back and see where the gaps are in their learning,” she said.

“Very often we chug along and we have an expectation of where children should be when, in actual fact, we should be looking at the child and saying, ‘What are they getting and what are they not getting?’ and taking it from there. However, this is not always easy to do. That is why I launched Numerasee, which I call a ‘maths movement’.

“Last year I took part in the AwakenHub, a female founders community across the whole of Ireland. There are a few local women involved, including Claire McGee and Mary McKenna. It ran an accelerator programme in which I was lucky to participate.

“They have been really amazing mentors. It was actually Mary who encouraged me to go for the UK Young Academy. I would never have thought of it in a million years. The majority of those accepted to join are academics. They are all affiliated to a university and conducting research and lecturing and then I came along,” smiled Katrina.

Katrina said she was “enthused” by the response of the other Young Academy members to her experience.

“I am on the ground so to speak. I am working where the difference needs to be made. They were so interested in my opinions and experience, especially post-covid.

“We had a two-day induction in London and to say I was nervous was an understatement. However, coming away, I felt I was part of the discussion. I had plenty to say and people wanted to listen. There are 67 members of the UK Young Academy, with three of those from Northern Ireland, two lecturers from Queen’s University, Belfast and me.

“I know we are going to collaborate when it comes to STEM subjects in schools, trying to level up the representation of girls in STEM, and trying to level up in terms of jobs in mathematics.

"I am by no stretch a Carol Vorderman man. I am absolutely not a maths genius and I will never claim to be but I just love teaching children maths and love the penny drop moments and that is what is so special. I am the biggest nerd ever,” said Katrina.

A former pupil of St Cecilia’s College, Katrina did an A' Level in maths but went on to study music at degree and masters level.

A peripatetic music teacher for the Western Education and Library Board for a number of years, Katrina said she felt drawn to the classroom as she was turning 30.

“I went back and did PGCE in Ulster University, Coleraine. I loved that and was awarded the top student award. I got the same buzz from teaching maths as I had with teaching music so that was lovely.”

The daughter of Jim and Charlotte Gormley, Katrina has been asked by Mayor Sandra Duffy to host an educational event in the Guildhall in May for National Numeracy Day.

She is also really keen that Numerasee be recognised as a Derry company.

“I am currently working on a prototype for a maths teaching resource, which will be a physical product to be sold. I am currently involved in mentoring and tuition with parents, and with children.

“Down the line, I would love to have an app where children would have a physical resource complemented by an app, in that they would submit information to an app and it would be progressive.

“I am also absolutely delighted with Wednesday’s announcement that I have been shortlisted for the Consumer Services StartUp of the Year category at the NI Start Up Awards.”