As a tutor over the last five years, Nick has devised a way of teaching excellent mental arithmetic to children from 5 to 16 years of age, as well as candidate officers for the British Army and other adults who may have struggled with maths at school.

The method involves pure logic, simple clarity and a conviction that maths is too abstract to be memorised- which is why most pupils struggle with the subject at school. All practice is done by playing games, and the pupil learns how very little there is to understand about maths. Your child is not required to memorise abstract facts: they not only learn the facts, but they learn how to think for themselves and how to be confident that the answer they give must be the right one.

It is very easy to catch up in maths, but you have to completely rethink the way you approach the subject. There is a reason why 9-year olds occasionally sit GCSE maths (exams for 16 year olds), and it's not just due to pushy parents or 'genius'. Maths is all about logic and patterns: if you see the patterns and understand the logic then you see how the same few things keep appearing over and over again.

Nick's very simple (and enjoyable) method has helped people diagnosed as dyscalculic and children who were simply falling behind at school. The method has now been written up as a book, complete with the games for parents to be able to help their own children; Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann is handling negotiations with publishers.