The Founder and Author
Karen McGuigan is an education consultant with a goal to improve the image and attainment levels in maths for everyone. She studied maths at a degree level as part of her Masters in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College and brings a wealth of real life experience to her work. Originally from Northern Ireland, she lives in Surrey, England with her partner, Mike, and three sons, Dexter, Lance and Cal. She set up The Maths Mum® in 2018 with the aim of ‘Helping parents help their children’. By educating parents on how the maths curriculum is taught in schools today, she enables them to understand the correct way to engage with their children’s maths learning. Inspired by her middle son Lance, who has Down syndrome, she began the development of the Maths For Life programme in 2019. Book 1 was self-published in August 2020 and the Maths For Life Community, a subscription based service providing resources to support the programme, was established in September 2020. Book 2 containing Level 2 was published in May 2021, Book 3 containing Level 3 was published in September 2022, and Book 4 containing (you guessed it…) Level 4 was published in September 2023. Level 5 content has been sketched out and will be written and published in 2024. Karen can be reached at learn@mathsforlife.com
Business Development and Administration Manager
Sue Hardy officially joined the team in January 2023 as the Business Development and Administration Manager. She sits on the customer side of the business connecting all the dots! Following an early career with the BBC, she became a SEN Teaching Assistant working in both a mainstream and specialist school. She knows what both staff and students need on the ground. A modern languages graduate, she also brings an expert understanding of the English language and loves correcting grammar. Sue can be reached at customer@mathsforlife.com
Creative Projects Manager
After 9 months of contracting with us, Sam Jordan joined the team permanently in June 2023 as the Creative Projects Manager. Sam does ‘stuff’ for Maths For Life. She is very creative and has a degree in animation. Following several years in marketing, communication and PR, Sam retrained as a teacher and has been teaching in a local primary school for several years. She was first introduced to Maths For Life as a user… when she was Lance’s year 5 teacher. She was so impressed she joined the company. Sam loves to learn and is quickly becoming an expert in all of our infrastructure tools. Her favourite phrase is ‘we need to automate this!’ and then she finds a way to do it. Sam can be reached at create@mathsforlife.com
Sales and Strategy Manager
Jos Smith is a recent addition to the team. She joined in November 2023 as Sales & Strategy Manager. She brings a wealth of corporate, charity and networking experience to the table. Her role is to help steer the growth of the business ensuring that processes and procedures are embedded and robust. Jos’s hands-on experience in the charitable sector has led to a collaboration with Oxfordshire County Council to instigate the first county-wide pilot of the Maths For Life Programme. This pilot currently sees over 300 children benefitting in Oxfordshire.
More personally, Jos is a parent of a young person with Down Syndrome, and one of the earliest adopters of the Maths For Life programme. Jos said, “I’m really proud to join Karen and her dedicated team. Having been on the journey from the beginning, it is inspiring to see the programme and team go from strength to strength.” Jos can be reached at connect@mathsforlife.com
Operations Admin Assistant
Following our team day in mid December, we started recruiting for an Operations Admin Assistant. We interviewed over the festive period and New Year and Suzie Pearson joined us on 16th January 2024. Suzie comes from a corporate background in the automotive industry and has been a self-employed Admin Assistant supporting several local small businesses.
Less than a week into the role and Suzie is already having a positive impact, streamlining processes and implementing operational improvements. We are looking forward to our next team day and moving forward with some of our key strategic projects for 2024. Suzie can be reached at operations@mathsforlife.com
Resources Manager
Amy Jones is the newest member of the team, joining in March 2024 as our Resources Manager. After gaining hands-on experience delivering the Maths For Life programme back in 2020/1, Amy is now over the moon to be creating accessible, engaging and fun resources for the Maths For Life community.
Amy has a varied background in arts education, SEN support and children’s mental health and has a love of all things creative – underpinned by a genuine passion for spreadsheets. Within all of Amy’s roles, she has enjoyed creating personalised resources for the children and young people that she’s worked with. Her mantra is, ‘If you can’t find it, make it!’ If you have an idea for a worksheet, send it Amy’s way and she’ll bring it to life. Amy can be reached at resources@mathsforlife.com
Graphic Designer
Dexter, Karen’s eldest son, uses Adobe Illustrator to create and supply graphics for the Maths For Life resources in spare time. His first graphics appeared in the General Weekly Workbooks and he is tasked with creating five graphics per month. He hopes to use his creations towards attaining a GCSE in Graphics (in the summer term of 2026!!)
The Maths For Life Ambassadors
Lance Pollard, star of the ‘The Maths Mum® and Lance talk Maths’ series and chief tester of all content.
Ella Steinhardt, star of the ‘Maths For Life Lessons with Ella & Lance’ series and head of quality control.
Lance and Ella have been best friends since they met when they were a couple of months old. They are an amazing double act who truly inspire a love of maths.
The Focus Group
To help prove the concept and guide the Maths For Life programme from the beginning, a focus group was established that included parents, teachers, teaching assistants and members of charities and support groups, as well as a selection of children with Down syndrome. Their input has been valued immensely and actioned at all stages. Members include:
Helen Shiers, parent and co-founder & fundraiser for charity PSDS
Marie Claire Lakin, parent and representative from charity 21&Co
Sarah Sutton, parent and former chair of charity Stepping Stones DS
Jos Smith, parent and representative from charity Down’s Syndrome Oxford
Nicola Enoch, parent and representative from charity Positive about Down syndrome
Lucy Clark and Julie Knight, Specialist Teachers at Inclusively Downs
Wendy Uttley, Down Syndrome Training & Support Service Ltd
Cecilie Mackinnon, Education Training Consultant, DownsAbility
Elizabeth Forster, parent and teacher (USA)
Alex Lyon, parent
Jenny Ward, teacher
Carolyn Margery, teaching assistant
Sarah Hodgson, parent
Alison Smith, parent and tutor
Zoe Binns, parent
Julia Steinhardt, parent
Louise Mackenzie, early years teacher and specialist teaching assistant
Small steps, big community
“I believe this is going to be life changing for so many children with Down syndrome.”