In a momentous online ceremony, broadcast from the Natural History Museum in London and presented by Stephen Fry, Jamie Frost was declared the Global Teacher Prize’s international COVID Hero. For his internationally acclaimed Maths tuition website, DrFrostMaths, local Kingston teacher, Dr Frost, became one of the Global Teacher Prize’s Top Ten Finalists. In an exclusive student interview with Dr Frost, I learnt about his remarkable journey and exceptional achievements.
Dr Frost described his motivation to start teaching as stemming from his PhD at Oxford. ‘I got considerably involved in teaching both at my college (Worcester College) and within the department [...]. I had two visiting students from Princeton I was particularly fond of, and they specially invited me to their ‘Leaver’s Dinner’ with the master of Worcester College. When the master went around the table asking each American visiting student what they would miss most about Oxford, one of them cited their tutorials with me! I subsequently asked Tiffin School if I could have a week’s work experience there.’ When he began teaching at Tiffin, Dr Frost started DrFrostMaths as a teaching blog, reflecting on his lessons and to share his lessons resources. ‘I soon dropped the blog and concentrated on organising the lesson resources. In 2016 I applied for some funding from the Mayor For London’s office to start the online interactive component of the platform, where teachers could set work online to students and monitor their progress. This was initially motivated by the need to better support our less able students at Tiffin.’