The FunKey story started in earnest in Maggie’s first ever class. As a new teacher in a primary school in Bristol, she discovered six-year-olds who were already scared of maths. Maggie was horrified as she thinks playing around with numbers can be a lot of fun, and six is far too young to write yourself off as rubbish at maths. Besides, no-one should ever do that!

So Maggie quickly started experimenting with ideas to lift the fear and stop the tears. This involved inventing a whole host of games and other fun activities. 

With the new approach, the children started to relax in maths lessons, and then to thrive. Since then, Maggie has never really stopped trying to find fun-loving ways to engage children in maths.

With charitable funding and support from Jesse Norman MP and then Nesta’s Maths Mission, the ideas have gradually grown into something that can benefit children in every school.