A former primary school teacher turned gardener has published the first in a series of books based on true stories from the classroom.
Sarah Ogilvie, 57, was spurred to write book ‘101’ following a conversation with a friend. It recounts the tale of a frazzled teacher setting his pupils a particularly challenging maths task and how it sparks a boy’s brainwave.
Sarah said: “We were walking along the street and my mate said she was useless at maths, which she isn’t.
“I recounted the story, I really love it and it is a true story. It involves a junior school child in the classroom and gives rise to a really good maths investigation.”
Sarah says when she got home she ‘bashed it out in four hours’ and then spent 10 months tweaking and editing the tale to create the book.
Illustrations were created by friend Helen Desai and 101, aimed at eight to 12-year-olds, was published just over a week ago.
Sarah said: “It’s taken on a life of its own,” and reveals books 2 and 3 in the series are already written – again featuring true stories but this time from her own classroom experiences.
She added: “The next two books are based on true stories from my classroom and all three books will have links with some of the illustrations and characters going from one book to another.
”The first two are about maths and the third has a different subject.
“They are all written in rhyming verse. I abhor bad rhymes, I write good rhymes.”
A fourth, very different book, is also in the making.
Sarah was a mathematics subject leader for much of her time as a primary teacher in London but says she “packed it in” after her 50th birthday.
She instead did some independent teaching while also training as a gardener.
The mum-of-two said: “The gardening really took off when covid hit, the business went nuts so I chucked in the teaching.”
In 2022 Sarah and husband Donal, who works in photographic sales, decided to leave Sydenham behind and made the move to Westgate.
Sarah said: “I started my business, Westgate Gardening, from scratch.
“I don’t miss the stress of teaching but I do miss certain aspects of it and still have a lot of friends in teaching.”
Following an in-depth study of Growth Mindsets, Sarah led a change in her last school which resulted in children being able to in mixed groups – no more top, middle and bottom tables- and choosing their own level of difficulty in maths tasks.
Now she is hoping to take her books into Thanet schools – and then further afield – to use for inset teacher training and Year 5 and 6 pupil demonstration sessions.
She said: “I have got a one hour inset offer so will be emailing schools, starting in Thanet as I feel I owe Thanet one. I love living here and Thanet has been good to me, the business has taken off, so I want to so I want to get the inset out to Thanet schools.”
“101”, written by Sarah Ogilvie and illustrated by Helen Desai, is available now from Amazon or find it via www.so-nimble-books.com
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