Dotmaths Ltd (From York Press)

Dotmaths Ltd

10:43am Tuesday 14th July 2009 in Search

A NEW initiative which aims to show state school pupils that Oxbridge is not too posh to be possible is pitching for The Press Business Awards.

Maths tutor Matthew Handy, himself a Cambridge graduate, launched his not-for-profit venture, called the Don’t Skateboard programme, when he recognised that Dotmaths Ltd, his York-based maths tutoring business, dealt largely with pupils whose parents could afford it.

Now he has entered both the Best Link with Higher Education and New Business Of The Year categories.

The £8,000 Don’t Skateboard programme was funded partly by Dotmaths, private donations, Key Fund Yorkshire and York St John University, but mostly through grants awarded by UnLtd, the fund for social enterprises.

The programme meant Mr Handy, a teacher for the past 17 years, was able to take eight sixth-formers to Cambridge for a five-day residential course to prove that the “dreaming spires” can become a reality.

As well as tours of the colleges, libraries and museums, the students dined at a formal hall at Trinity College, went punting on the River Cam and attended a debate at the Union Society.

They also sampled the delights of Heffers bookshop, where they were given £30 each to buy books from a selection of about 250,000.

Meanwhile, the participants are being given individual support and guidance as they prepare their applications to university to be submitted later this year; they are being offered academic support to help them get the best grades; and they have access to a free academic and social networking website, www.dotmaths.com, where they can offer or receive further advice and support from each others and teachers.

Mr Handy, who teaches A-level maths as well as lecturing in maths, economics and business studies to undergraduates on a fee-paying basis, is concerned that able state-school students might be daunted by a perception of Oxford and Cambridge as lofty universities beyond their expectations.

“I want them to make properly informed choices,” he said.

So where does the name Don’t Skateboard derive from?

It comes from an American school in the 1950s, which rather than publish dozens of edicts for its new school rules, decided on only one: don’t skateboard in the hallways.

“If you understood the reasons for that, then you understood the need to be thoughtful in every sense,” said Mr Handy.