Research and results
Running the 8 Steps alongside maths tutoring in partner schools, and measuring the impact on marks and mindset.
In Craig’s words
The boy who wasn’t good enough at maths
I still remember the Christmas I didn’t get a present.
That year there was nothing for me under the tree, because my maths results hadn’t been good enough. I was a child, and the lesson I took from it was simple and wrong: love has to be earned, and if you aren’t good at maths, you haven’t earned it.
My childhood was, at times, painful and unkind. I grew up a people pleaser, always looking for the thing that would finally make me enough. So I tried everything. I learned a musical instrument. I learned to cook. I played sport. Over time, I became genuinely good at all of them.
What I didn’t understand then was that I hadn’t been born good at any of those things. Every song, every recipe and every match was built through practice, mistakes and trying again. Without knowing it, I was already living a growth mindset. It took me years to see that the same was true of maths, and of the beliefs I carried about myself.
I went on to study chemistry and applied mathematics at university, and that degree took me further than I ever imagined: all the way to China. I spent my first year there teaching English, then five years in international schools, teaching the American AP and Cambridge curricula to students preparing to study in America and England.
Different countries, different languages, different syllabuses, and yet I kept hearing the same sentence: “I’m just not a maths person.” Every time, I recognised the child saying it. I had been that child.
When I came home to South Africa, I began my own journey in education, tutoring one learner at a time and then writing this book. The climb wasn’t a straight one. Along the way I faced deeply personal challenges that tested me in every part of my life, and I leaned on the very steps in this book to keep going: noticing the voice that said I couldn’t, setting small goals, picturing the finish and celebrating each page.
8 Steps to Maths Success brings together the two things that have shaped me most: a love of teaching maths, and a deep interest in mindset and spirituality, in how the beliefs we hold about ourselves can either limit us or set us free. When we let go of those limiting beliefs and act with intention, we begin to create the kind of success we once thought was meant for other people.
If you have ever felt that you weren’t good enough, I want you to know this: your worth was never measured by a test score. Ability grows. You can grow. And every step counts.
Craig Cameron