Meet Our Accredited Consultants

We have a team of Accredited Consultants based across the UK, please read about each individual below:

Susie Abrahams

Susie taught for 15 years in an outstanding inner-city London primary school, where she was Deputy Head for 8 years. As a class teacher, prior to becoming Deputy Head, Susie was a leading teacher for the Local Authority so has had much experience giving training to staff from other schools as well as her own. As Deputy Head Susie taught children with SEN in maths throughout KS1 & 2 using the Numicon approach. She was also responsible for the implementation of Numicon throughout FS and KS1. Susie has recently moved to the Glasgow area and is currently doing supply teaching.

Sarah Anderson

Sarah discovered Numicon 10 years ago whilst working as a peripatetic support teacher for pupils with Down Syndrome in the mainstream classroom.  Having specialised in Mathematics at University as part of her teaching degree, Sarah was keen to find out how she could best support these pupils in particular and was thrilled to learn about Numicon in the DownsEd newsletter.  After using it successfully for a number of years, and sharing her enthusiasm with others, she is now an accredited trainer and shares her passion and enjoyment of maths with a wider audience.

After teaching across the year groups in infant schools, Sarah worked in a variety of special schools and for her LA Learning Support Service.  She currently uses Numicon in her local primary school, and within her role as a private Maths tutor.  She loves to see pupils enjoying maths, and feels they learn best this way.  Using Numicon also provides her with an excellent insight into her pupils' understanding of maths as they describe what they are seeing and doing and as they undertake tasks.  "When using Numicon you can see immediately what children know or are having problems with and can adjust your teaching accordingly.  I just love it :)"

Pearl Barnes MA

Pearl is an Independent Consultant specialising in mathematics and other learning difficulties. She has extensive teaching experience, spanning 20 years, of both Mainstream Primary and Specialist SEN settings for all key stages.
 
Pearl is specialised in the areas of Mathematical Difficulties and Complex-Specific Learning Difficulties. She is particularly interested in the hidden barriers to learning which impact upon learning and achievement.  Her MA specialised in Specific Learning Difficulties and early identification and intervention and Multidisciplinary Working. She has also completed further post-graduate qualifications in Early Mathematical Development and Assessment. She is an accredited assessor through the British Psychological Society. 

Pearl has a number of published works within ‘British Journal of Special Education (BJSE)’, ‘Special ‘and ‘Equals’ relating to mathematical difficulties and the overlap with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and specific language difficulties. She has also been a keynote speaker for a number of national conferences relating to her area of expertise within Special Educational Needs.

Sara Bishop B.ED Hons

Sara has taught throughout the Primary age range, from Reception to Year 7 and has many years experience as a classroom teacher, subject leader, leading teacher for mathematics and as a Local Authority School Improvement Adviser.

As part of the Primary Strategy Team in Warwickshire, with responsibility for SEN, Sara came into contact with Numicon when working with Warwickshire’s Learning and Behaviour Support Service. As a result of this she became an advocate of its use to support the teaching and learning of both SEN and mainstream pupils, in order to develop their mathematical understanding.

Whilst working for the Local Authority, Sara gained a BTEC Professional Award in Education and Children’s Service Development and also achieved accreditation as a Local Consultant for Improvement for ‘Overcoming barriers in mathematics’. Sara is a very experienced trainer, having delivered professional development for teachers, mathematics subject leaders, and leadership teams.

Since 2009 she has been working in partnership with the University of Northampton to lead and support the professional development of teachers undertaking the Masters Level ‘Mathematics Specialist Teacher Programme’.
She now works as an independent School Improvement Consultant and maintains her interest in mathematics. She is passionate about the Numicon approach and is keen to promote its use to support and enhance the learning of children, of all abilities in the Primary age range.

Ornella Bushell

Ornella has over twenty-five years teaching experience, particularly at Primary and Nursery level.  During that time she held a variety of management posts, and has also had experience as a tutor in Maths.

Ornella is committed to improving the confidence, skills and ability levels of children of all ages, backgrounds and progress in mathematics, in as fun and engaging a manner as possible.

Chris Edmonds

Chris has been the Headteacher of three primary schools in Warwickshire; two in rural locations, the third in an urban area of relatively high socio-economic deprivation.

Chris has always tried to stay close to the ‘chalk face’ and chose to take a year out of Headship to work with the National Primary Strategy team training teachers and support staff in the use of IT to support teaching and learning in English and  Mathematics. She has also worked with Warwick University on the PGCE and B.Ed. courses.

Chris has been a Local Authority Link Inspector within Warwickshire’s School Effectiveness Team and, before the advent of SIPs, an External Adviser for seven years, supporting school improvement in more than twenty schools across four LEAs.  Chris is a qualified SIAS inspector, and has undertaken inspections of Church Aided and Controlled schools.  Chris has trained as a Local Leader of Education and acted as a professional coach and mentor to headteachers and senior managers.

Since leaving Headship in 2010, Chris has worked for the National College and the Board of Education for Coventry Diocese.  As Lead Associate for the National College on the Maximising Progress Project, she supported sixty seven schools (mostly rural), in four local authorities to explore the potential of cluster working to raise standards and enhance leadership capacity. Chris co-wrote the materials, and facilitated the Primary Teams professional development programme for headteachers, senior teachers, governors and school business managers.  Chris has also written and delivered training modules, in conjunction with colleagues from the RC Archdiocese of Birmingham, for the National College’s Moving On, Moving Up and Moving Forwards courses.

Chris is currently the Diocesan Deputy Director – School Effectiveness. Her work for the Coventry DBE includes coordinating and advising on Succession Planning and managing the Post Graduate Certificate in Church School Leadership, a Masters Level course for leaders or aspirant leaders, of Church of England schools.  Chris also coordinates governor training and development, and has been a governor herself, for over twenty years, in six different schools. 

Helen Farmery  BA PGCE

Helen Farmery is a Teacher Leader for the Every Child Counts Programme and a primary maths consultant for the London Borough of Barnet. She oversees the professional development of specialist maths teachers who are teaching one-to-one numeracy to our lowest achieving 7 year olds. She has 10 years experience as a classroom teacher and as maths subject leader in an outstanding inner-London school, during which time she ensured that Numicon became an integral part of maths learning across all the primary stages. Her regular use of Numicon as a quality first teaching resource, as part of wave three provision with the Every Child Counts programme and to support her own daughter who has Down Syndrome has given her valuable first-hand experience in using Numicon.

Helen is an experienced trainer and is available in the London area

Liz Gibbs


Liz Gibbs is a part time Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 learning and teaching adviser for Suffolk. She began her teaching career in 1984 and has taught in a variety of schools from rural primaries to large town schools until she joined the advisory service in 2001.
 
In early 2005 Liz left full time work in Suffolk to join the National Strategies as a National Whiteboard Network Director and ICT Adviser.  She has since rejoined the advisory service in Suffolk on a part time basis.  Liz also works as an occasional lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, a mathematics consultant with BEAM and more recently has joined Numicon as an accredited trainer. 

Rebecca Hamburger

Beca qualified in 1993 after which she spent many years teaching at KS1 and KS2. She quickly became mathematics subject leader at her school and later, was responsible for implementing the Primary National Strategy. Subsequently she was a leading maths teacher, delivering CPD at Authority level. For many years she was a teacher tutor responsible for mentoring trainees at the Institute of Education.

For the past five years she has worked as a Local Authority Mathematics Consultant with particular focus on raising standards through programmes of CPD centred on mathematical pedagogy and school improvement. During this time Beca was also a KS1 Moderator for the QCDA.

She is passionate about increasing children's enjoyment of mathematics and developing creative approaches to teaching.

Anne Henderson

Anne is eminent in the world of SpLD (dyslexia) and maths and is affiliated to the Dyslexia Unit at university College Wales, Bangor. Anne now lectures globally and provides INSET on how to teach maths to those with Special Educational Needs. She is a BEAM Maths Consultant. Her books include: Maths for the Dyslexic, A Practical Guide (2002) and Working with Dyscalculia (2004).

Elizabeth Hinchliffe


Elizabeth has worked in Maths Education for over thirty years working in all stages from Nursery to Adult Education and Initial Teacher Training. She has worked as a Maths consultant in both primary and secondary sectors and her most recent role was as a Teacher Leader for Every Child Counts. At present she is an Acting Deputy Head in a three site Primary School as well as working for Every Child Counts.

Elizabeth also has extensive experience with Teaching Assistant Training; managing the HLTA Maths and Science programme for the south East and running training. She taught on the Foundation Degree for support staff at Roehampton University and written and delivered 5 day maths subject and pedagogy training for Primary Teaching Assistants.

She was introduced to Numicon through the Numbers Count programme, soon realising the potential of Numicon to support children’s cognition and mathematical understanding. She has recently delivered the Numicon Intervention Training in a school to their  Teaching Assistants which resulted in very successful mathematics achievements by the pupils.

Denyse Irwin


Denyse has considerable experience of working across the Primary age range as a teacher, subject leader, Inclusion Manager and Deputy Head. In addition to her freelance work she has worked for a number of Local Authorities as a Maths Consultant, and an education action zone where she worked with Shirley Clarke and the IoE researching into effective feedback and marking. Currently Denyse is the Teacher Leader for Every Child Counts in the South East London Consortium, where she has developed assessment strategies and had extensive experience personalising students learning. She has developed and delivered bespoke training for both teachers and teaching assistants with focus on; developing maths subject knowledge, problem solving, developing numbers skills and calculation strategies, effective intervention provision, and NQT induction. She has also supported schools to develop parental involvement in maths learning.

Andrew Jeffrey


Andrew has been described as a 'Maths Evangelist'. He is passionate about the learning of mathematics, and believes that it is possible to have fun while getting to grips with even the most complex of mathematical ideas. He first met the Numicon team at the BETT show in London, and was very keen to be associated with an organisation which, in his words, 'just made sense of numbers for so many children'. Andrew was a teacher for twenty years, so is fully acquainted with the demands of the primary classroom. He now works for BEAM, as well as being an independent primary maths consultant and conference speaker, and is also well-known for his alter-ego as the Maths Magician!

Jane Lockwood

 
Jane is a freelance primary mathematics consultant. Jane’s interest in Numicon began when she led a case study in her LA on multi-sensory approaches to mathematics, which is reported on the Numicon website. Because of the overwhelmingly positive response to Numicon, Jane is keen to help others understand the rationale and make best use of the materials.  Jane is committed to high quality professional learning for practitioners, which is rooted in practical ideas, dialogic approaches, and based on what is known about how children learn mathematics.

As well as leading professional development for Numicon, Jane currently works with children to support a school to raise attainment in mathematics. Over three years, the KS2 mathematics result for the percentage of children achieving level 4 and above has increased by 15%. Jane has been involved in the one-to-one tuition programme.

Following on from excellence in her own classroom, Jane became an Advisory Teacher for Mathematics and Assessment and then a Primary National Strategy Mathematics Consultant. Jane developed particular expertise in assessment for learning, led an action research project with Brunel University on nurturing mathematical promise and gained extensive experience in leading professional development. 

Sue Lowndes

Sue Lowndes is a lecturer on the PGCE and BA Teacher Education with QTS courses, a maths teacher and a maths consultant, she also co-authors a range of maths teaching materials.  After teaching in two large mixed ability 11-18 schools she began her consultancy work in 1995 alongside running a nursery school in Buckinghamshire. As well as her work with Numicon, Sue is the maths consultant for NACE, plans and delivers bespoke maths training for schools and LAs, and maths experience days for pupils in schools for KS1-KS4.

Presently Sue is the maths leader, working on the Mawhiba project, nurturing giftedness and creativity in mathematics, developing, writing and delivering the programme, working with and training teachers in Saudi Arabia. Sue is involved in the maths writers’ team developing materials and text books for the Advanced Supplementary Curriculum that is being used in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Sue has a desire to enable people of all ages to experience the joy of maths, reach their potential and develop self-confidence.

Cherri Moseley

Cherri is a primary teacher and independent primary mathematics consultant. She was a mathematics subject leader for 13 years before teaching part time to enable her to give more time to her writing and presenting. She feels she has the best of both worlds, with her teaching informing her writing and the research for her writing informing her teaching.

Cherri has written for a variety of educational publishers and trialed a wide variety of primary mathematics resources.  She first encountered Numicon when writing some case studies for the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, recognising its value in a variety of settings.

Barbara Robinson

Barbara Robinson has taught in a wide variety of educational settings from Early Years 3+ to training University of York staff and students in IT skills.  Her teaching career also includes work with dyslexic children and Traveller Roma children at KS 1 and 2.  Current work is supply teaching at KS1/2 and event administration for the Dcsf National Strategies: Every Child Matters, SIPS, SEAL events, etc.

Initially trained as an Infant teacher, Barbara has always been committed to the use of multi-sensory approaches in Mathematics and has found the Numicon equipment the most exciting and effective that she has used.  She purchased her own set for use in schools over ten years ago and has sung its praises ever since!

Through the Numicon training she hopes that participants will experience for themselves the pleasure and power of making visual a wide range of abstract mathematical concepts and that this will then enhance children’s experiences, leading to solid progress and life long learning confidence in Maths.

Susan Saunders

Susan Saunders started her primary school career in Brighton and Hove in 1989 having graduated from the University of Brighton.  She was present at one of the first dissemination events run by Romey Tacon and Tony Wing and couldn’t wait to get her hands on the plastic stuff that didn’t even have the name of Numicon at that time.  After an agonising wait it finally became available and while working for the East Brighton Education Action Zone, Susan ensured that each school had kits in Foundation Stage right through to Year 3.  She has trained many teachers across Brighton and Hove in its use for teaching and learning mathematics and also worked with a speech and language colleague in the LA to produce a Wave 3 resource ‘Visual Models and Images supported by Signs and Symbols’ which uses both Numicon and Makaton to support children with speech and language needs.  However, she believes that if the activities designed to be used from Nursery through to Year 2 were used consistently there would be far less need to ‘intervene’ or ‘catch up’ later in children’s school careers.

Susan now works as an independent primary maths consultant and is an accredited Numicon consultant.

 

Juliet Tovey


Juliet has been teaching in primary schools for 19 years. She has been a Leading Teacher for Mathematics, a SENco and a Deputy Headteacher and is currently working as a Local Authority Primary Strategy Consultant. She has extensive experience of delivering training in Mathematics to a wide variety of audiences including whole school staff, subject leaders, NQTs, teaching assistants and parents. Her interest in Numicon developed following a project she ran with 6 schools, delivering Numicon as an intervention programme in Y3. The extremely positive results and feedback have led to her completing training for both Numicon and the Numicon Intervention Programme.

 

Rowan Waller


Rowan has over 25 years experience of teaching, subject leadership, consultancy and ITT gained across the primary phase.

Her special interest in the mathematics curriculum developed at an early stage in her career and since that time she has worked for the National Numeracy Strategy and as a numeracy consultant for several LEAs. Until recently she was Senior Maths Consultant and subject leader for the London Borough of Lewisham where she worked closely with teachers and TAs in meeting and exceeding school improvement targets.

She is committed to the principle of confidence building, especially in mental mathematics and the importance of creating a stimulating learning environment.

Kristen Wallis


Kristin is a Primary and Secondary school teacher from Iceland, teaching in Iceland from 1993-2004. She moved to England in 2004 and soon after that was introduced to Numicon! Kristin translated the Foundation Kit in 2005 and Firm Foundation Kit, Assessment tools, 1st Steps with Numicon in the Nursery and Home Kit in 2009/10, and began to organise Numicon courses in Iceland from 2006. Kristin also works closely with a distributor in Iceland to supply Numicon materials and provide training.

Kristin travels to Iceland to run the courses. She also encourages Icelandic schools/groups to visit England on educational/recreational trips.

Kristin's aim is to get Numicon into as many schools in Iceland as possible!

Val Willmott

Val has been teaching for 20 years and is currently the Head of Mathematics at non-selective preparatory school in West London. She has been heavily involved in teachers’ professional development for much of this time, providing INSET on many themes, including mathematical problem solving and investigations, ICT and maths, assessment for learning, mentoring and lesson observation.

Val believes Numicon is for everyone, including the most able, because it “brings numbers to life”, and that children of all mathematical abilities should be physically “doing” maths whenever possible.  She is committed to raising the quality of learning for all pupils, by giving their teachers the time to explore new ideas, to collaborate and innovate, and to share their successes during professional development sessions.