Mark Curtis

About

• Mark has been a Maths Content Creator for Save My Exams since September 2022. Prior to this, he had nine successful years as a secondary school teacher, specialising in A Level Further Maths.

• In his role as Assistant Head of Maths, he helped to professionally develop a team of 25 Maths teachers, which included running teacher workshops on new topics like Group Theory and providing detailed lesson observations and feedback.

• As the Key Stage 5 Coordinator, he introduced a new spiralling curriculum to the Sixth Form, in which he designed and implemented a system of 7 interlinking schemes of work that spanned AS, A Level and Further Maths, across Pure Maths, Statistics and Mechanics. He has also managed transitions between different exam boards, as well as the move from modular to linear A Levels.

• Mark enjoyed running extension classes for students interested in studying Maths at university, in which they looked at the Oxford MAT papers and the very demanding Cambridge STEP I, II and III papers.

• Before working in secondary education, Mark taught in higher education alongside doing his PhD, in particular as a College Lecturer in Applied Maths, College Tutor of Differential Equations and a Department Tutor of Mathematical Geoscience.

• Mark has always been keen on outreach projects. He used to work on a Saturday enrichment programme for primary school pupils and on a Maths Bridging Project for pupils whose schools did not offer Further Maths. He also gave 1-1 support to teachers setting up a new free Sixth Form college.

• Outside of work, Mark enjoys being out in the wilderness, in particular hiking and kayaking. He has canoed across parts of Canada and spent 8 years as a voluntary kayak instructor and expedition coordinator for the Scouts. When not outdoors, he enjoys learning languages and playing the piano.

Published work or mentions

• Mark has three published academic papers in peer-reviewed journals:

  • B. J. Walker, M. P. Curtis, K. Ishimoto, E. A. Gaffney, "A regularlised slender-body theory of non-uniform filaments", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2020.

  • M. P. Curtis, E. A. Gaffney, “Three-sphere swimmer in a nonlinear, viscoelastic medium”, Physical Review E., 2013, APS.

  • M. P. Curtis, J. C. Kirkman-Brown, T. J. Connolly, E. A. Gaffney, “Modelling a tethered mammalian sperm cell undergoing hyperactivation”, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2012, Elsevier.

• Mark has also presented his work at the San Diego Convention Center, California, for the Division of Fluid Dynamics in 2012.

• Mark has written over 1000 original A-Level questions across 5 student workbooks covering both Maths and Further Maths, as well as over 150 original tests and exams and over 200 original homework sheets.

Education

• Mark graduated twice from the University of Oxford: once in 2009 with a First in Mathematics (receiving the Junior Mathematical Prize), then again in 2013 with a PhD (DPhil) in Mathematics. In that time, he was awarded four academic scholarships.

• Mark completed his PGCE in Secondary Education at the University of Buckingham.

Expertise

• Mark has taught Key Stage 3, GCSE, IGCSE, A Level, International A Level and Pre-U in Maths and Further Maths.

• His area of expertise is A Level and International A Level Further Maths (all modules).

• His favourite lesson to teach is Integration with Trigonometric Substitutions, as it is the point when pupils see two big topics, Trigonometry and Calculus, start to properly cross over.

Top revision quote for students

“I’d rather you focus on one really hard question than do 20 questions you’re comfortable with!”