A FORMER maths teacher has created a learning resource which has been taken up by around 100 schools in Scotland, less than a year after its launch.
And Chris McKenna, who developed the product under the Count On Us Education training consultancy he launched in August, believes it has global growth potential.
The Numeracy BluePrints product captures many of the most commonly-used maths resources on a single dry-wipe board.
Around 9,000 of the products are already widely use in Scotland, with the firm having secured contracts with nine Scottish local authorities – including Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire, Angus, and North, East and South Ayrshire. Projects have already lined up for next year which will see the firm begin working with even more Scottish councils, including Inverclyde, Dumfries & Galloway, Stirling, West Lothian, South Lanarkshire and Aberdeen City.
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Mr McKenna, who was a secondary school maths teacher at Kyle Academy in South Ayrshire for 12 years, where he rose to become head of department, said his breakthrough deal ame in August, when after presenting to two schools in Ayr – Forehill Primary School and Ayr Grammar Primary School – a combined 700 boards were ordered.
After than an initial order, worth £4,000, a major deal was then secured with East Dunbartonshire Council, which was the first to adopt the product on authority-wide basis. The firm has gone on to generate £75,000 of sales in its first year of trading, which it is hoped will increase to £90,000 in year two.
Mr McKenna said the teaching resources built into the product offers strategies for helping children understand maths, as opposed to just remembering and learning rules. And he sees the potential for the product to be taken up elsewhere in the UK and, ultimately, overseas.
Mr McKenna said: “Maths is a universal language. Although there are a few titles on the resource that I have got, like English text, that is quickly transferable into any language. You could take the words off it and it would still be a great tool, whether it is in Germany, Iceland, Sweden or China. It has always been in the back of my mind that this would work worldwide.”
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He added, though, that his immediate priority is to build the brand in Scotland. Noting that Twitter has been his most helpful tool for getting the word out there, he said: “Eventually it will get there, it will just take a bit of time.”
Mr McKenna set up his training and management consultancy following a secondment as a numeracy development officer. He said his time in the role, which saw him responsible for delivering numeracy training to schools around South Ayrshire, suggested to him there would be strong demand for the Numeracy BluePrints product.
Mr McKenna, who had long harboured an ambition to run his own business, said part of the reason for starting the business was to inspire teachers and influence more children.
He said: “When you are in teaching a class, you can maybe influence 30 kids, but if you are in charge of teacher training, or providing CPD – continuing professional development – then you are maybe starting to affect thousands of kids, because your training is then going to be implemented by lots of schools and lots of teachers.”
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Mr McKenna, who resigned from teaching in April last year, added: “I was motivated by training to provide a positive experience for all kids across Scotland, by getting teachers more motivated about teaching maths. A lot of primary school teachers can have a lack of confidence, and it is down to a lack of support and training out there. I am trying to get them to enjoy their maths more, understand how you teach it more so they will enjoy teaching it and the kids will enjoy learning it more.
Counting On Us Education is currently based in Dundonald, at the West Coast Accelerator, the business incubator founded by Sir Tom Hunter.
Mr McKenna said the support provided by the accelerator –in areas such as marketing and website development and basic IT support – has been invaluable in getting his business up and running.
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