Fake it till you make it... in Summertime, and the living is easy... 2015

You may, or may not (depending on whether you knew me last September or were paying an appropriate level of attention to my every word ;-) ) remember my mantra once I was working in a school.

You see, maths has always been my nemesis. I left secondary school without a maths qualification. But, working in schools requires a maths qualification. Luckily, in 1994 I took a basic maths course and came out of it with a distinction which looks good on the cv, even if it isn’t an o level. So I was able to get a job in a school. But I couldn’t let on that maths made me quiver, gave me palpitations, cold sweats and mental blackouts. I couldn’t admit that I have been known to hand a pile of cash to a cashier, in the hope that they would count it.

So, in the year leading up to my applications for TA positions I studied Year Six maths, I did past Year Six sats tests. In my interview for the job I did between September and March I had to sit a Year Six sats test and got 98%.

So, I started my school career throwing myself into anything maths oriented - my mum one said that when I’ve decided to do something I put on the blinkers and keep going until I’ve got there! I joined the maths curriculum group and sat in classes learning with the kids but pretending I knew what we were doing. Everyone was conned (convinced), my teacher once said “It’s so nice to have a TA that understands maths for once!”

But, was I faking it or was I making it??

Once I started at the new school at the end of March, probably because of my lack of maths o level or GCSE, I was given Year One maths and the TA I share students with was given Year Five maths. Within a couple of weeks the year five teacher asked if we could swap roles after she saw me doing maths.

Faking it or making it??

Today I saw my timetable for next school year (starting in September). I’m going to be doing maths interventions for key stage two! That will be one of my main roles!

Faking it?! HELL NO! I’M MAKING IT BABY!!