I am Brian Cairnie, I am a qualified secondary school Mathematics teacher with almost 40 years teaching experience. I am visually impaired so I cannot drive therefore my current students travel to me or have lessons online. Having had a very negative experience of Maths at school, I am committed to give students a positive learning experience to help boost their Maths skills as well as their confidence.

I qualified as a secondary school Mathematics teacher in 1989 and taught students up to age 18. I then moved into Further Education, teaching Maths and IT to post 16 students all of whom had a visual impairment. After leaving full time teaching, I ran my own training company for about 25 years. During this time, I worked as a part-time tutor. I have been teaching GCSE and IGCSE Maths as well as 13+ Common Entrance and 11+ Maths, Reasoning and English.

I have a fairly relaxed style of teaching, I think this makes it easier to put students at ease, especially those students who find Maths very daunting. My experience of maths at school was pretty negative and I left without any major qualifications. I had been convinced by my maths teacher that I wasn't very bright and her favourite expression was 'This is simple, are you stupid'? After working for 10 years or so, I returned to education to train as a computer programmer and whilst at college, I took an O Level in maths, and passed without problem, largely due to having an amazing teacher. I realised then that a teacher can have a massive impact on a student, both a good and a negative effect.