Sonja Bartholomew, Teacher of Maths & Extended Essay Coordinator

A wonderful trait of Halcyon culture is the number of cyclists - both staff and students - who travel to school from all corners of London. Perhaps, though, there is no one more iconic than our IB DP & MYP Mathematics teacher, Sonja Bartholomew, who cycles rain or shine and often shows new staff members the ropes.

Sonja's voyage into teaching began with the intention of working in special education. She studied economics at Lancaster University, where she helped run a community-based charity for people with severe learning disabilities. She says, "I had a really positive experience with special education, but after moving into teaching, I never managed to come back around to doing it."

Since then, Sonja has taught Mathematics across England and Switzerland before shifting into the International Baccalaureate Curriculum, a road that eventually led to Halcyon. She says: "I believe in the inquiry-based approach to teaching. It's not about learning for an exam; it's about putting maths into context and applying it to the real world."

Over the course of Sonja's career, she has developed skills in both technology and leadership, stepping into numerous lead roles across both year groups and subject programmes, such as PSHE, the Diploma Programme, and the Grade 12 extended essay.

Sonja says the benefit of teaching maths at Halcyon under the framework of the IB is that it can be personal to students' lives and reshape their observations of the world around them. "Maths is a language and communication tool. It describes patterns which are tangible and everyday. I've always taught in this way. I've never been passionate about textbook-style teaching, although it is necessary in the DP."

Sonja believes in the beauty of mathematics, both in the depth and purity of high-level calculus and in the joy of understanding patterns and contextualising them in a current political or social context.

What I really enjoy about teaching is when I can see that lightbulb moment in the students; when they get excited about understanding a landscape which was previously abstract and complicated. It's the enthusiasm and buzz of understanding mathematics that ranges from competitions to extended essays and classroom discussions.

For any maths teacher, a key challenge is to build a comfortable and inclusive environment for all learners. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that more than half of British girls do not feel confident learning maths. Sonja says part of building a more inclusive environment is changing the language around Mathematics.

"There is a language of anxiety that surrounds maths. I had a student who would walk into every class and say: 'we can't do this', or 'we did this last year', or 'we don't get this'. In the end, I refused them the ability to say 'can't'."

"A key is to provide context to problem-solving so that students can grapple with the why." Sonja remembers an occasion of asking the class whether they liked maths: "I put my hand up and nobody else did." She laughs: "People don't like maths when they feel they can't do it. So, it is about presenting it in a way where everyone has a sense of success."

But the choice of language isn't limited to the classroom; it extends into the broader culture of education. Maths Anxiety is a subject Sonja, along with fellow members of Halcyon's Maths department, tackled during a staff workshop to gain insights into how to foster a more inclusive and supportive culture around mathematics.

"I don't want to hear teachers say that they can't do maths or that it's unimportant. I don't want teachers to say students are stressed with maths - when people say that they are stressed, it's not always because of maths anxiety. I love when people say they enjoy learning mathematics outside of the subject, such as Lindsey in our English department."

"It's when they show a genuine interest in it. Mathematics isn't exclusive to the few kids who do high-level maths; it's for everybody."

When Sonja isn’t crunching the numbers or spending time with her family, she’s either out in nature, outdoor swimming in the local serpentine Lido, or singing in the choir. And let’s not forget her latest foray into modelling for Halcyon’s recent tube campaign!