About Me

Geoff Tennant: Brief Biography

Geoff Tennant grew up in South East London. After a gap year spent on short-term missionary service in Indonesia, he gained a first class degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and went on to the University of Warwick to train as a secondary mathematics teacher.

He then taught in comprehensive schools in Berkshire and London before becoming a PhD student at the Institute of Education, University of London, where he explored the idea that children experience the mathematics classroom differently according to gender, ethnicity and social class. He spent 12 years working in initial teacher training at the Universities of Leicester and Reading, including setting up, managing and teaching on 6 month full-time subject knowledge courses for candidates for mathematics teaching needing first to improve their subject knowledge. He was also instrumental in setting up local mathematical association branches at both Universities, with 3 well attended Saturday meetings a year aimed at both primary and secondary teachers wishing to engage with mathematics. Whilst working in Reading he was privileged to be involved with a project working with mathematics and science teachers in Jamaica, and visited for a total of 8 weeks over 3 years, working both with teachers and children looking to bring mathematics to life.

From September 2012 to April 2017 he worked with the Institute for Educational Development, East Africa, Aga Khan University, based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His main role was head of teaching programmes, primarily responsible for the managing of the Master of Education programme, attracting teachers, teacher trainers, headteachers, Government officials and other education professionals from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and beyond. During his time he oversaw the change from a 2-year to a 1-year model, working both at broad policy and implementation levels. Whilst in Africa he has worked with teachers in mathematics at Masters level and also run workshops for primary teachers.

For some years Geoff had been feeling that, after an extended period away from the classroom, he wished to reconnect with his roots. For 3 years he worked in a UK secondary school with main responsibility teaching across the secondary age (11-18) and attainment range.  In addition he helped with the school choir as singer, pianist, organist and conductor, was on the rota for whole school assemblies, and was the school Union representative, interested primarily in the communication and representation aspects of the role.

Whilst in Dar es Salaam Geoff started to support the Kampala Christian Orphanage based in Wobulenzi, Luwero District, Central Uganda. He was extremely privileged to be able to visit for three weeks in August 2019, and came away feeling strongly that he wished to return to Africa. He is currently teaching at Acacia International School, Kampala, please see blog posts about this, in brief, really appreciating the Christian ethos of the school, including starting lessons in prayer. He is worshipping at St Stephen’s Church of Uganda fellowship in Kisugu, Kampala and maintains a YouTube channel “A minute a day to pray“, with daily uploads of videos with a brief Bible reading and prayer, all within a minute.