Bringing Maths to the masses
“Platforms like TikTok are where children are hanging out the most, so why would you not move to this ‘info-tainment’ space and bring education to where the students are?” asks Neil Trivedi, Head of Maths at MyEdSpace and a man who - with approaching three million followers on social media - is bringing Maths to the masses, in a way nobody else has.
It is, says Neil, the right thing to do for a variety of reasons.
“Having educational content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube gives students more freedom of information. Not only are they being entertained, but they’re also learning. I could go live and thousands of students would join – it’s wild,” he laughs.
The key to success is, in his opinion, all about authenticity.
“I think students can tell when you’re being inauthentic, they can see through anything that feels fake. I’ve always just tried to be myself, because by letting your personality shine through, you naturally attract an audience that connects with you. That’s how you create community. I’ve built slogans and sayings that students really latch onto, and always use quality content. That kind of familiarity sticks and helps them associate learning with something fun.”
The association between learning and fun is a far cry from how Neil initially thought of school as a child.
“I grew up in northwest London – between Queensbury and Burnt Oak. It was a pretty rough area and early on education wasn’t a priority for me. I was raised in a single-parent household where education was valued, especially by my mum. We didn’t have much money, but she saved every penny and every pound so that me and my sister could get extra tuition - but it took a while for that to sink in with me. My sister took it on board much earlier - she’s gone on to be a fantastic maths teacher too - but I spent most of my time out playing football and generally causing mischief.”
“I went to one of the lowest performing schools in Harrow at the time and I just about scraped the grades I needed to get into a better college where things changed. I was suddenly surrounded by people who cared about education. I also met teachers who unlocked something in me.”
“I think I always had a natural aptitude for maths - because it’s a lot of pattern recognition, which is something I am good at - but it took those teachers to believe in me and draw it out. Football is a good analogy, some players look like world-beaters at one club, but then they move elsewhere and they look hopeless. They have the same skill level, but they need the right environment and people around them in order to excel. That environment gave me the motivation I’d been missing. Eventually, I saw that education is one of the most effective ways to succeed.”
Having taken that lesson to heart, Neil ran with it with spectacular success.
“I sat my A-level Maths a year early and got two A*s and two As, before going on to UCL and graduating with First Class Honours in Maths.”
After graduating, Neil ventured into the world of corporate banking as part of a Social Mobility Scheme for underprivileged children. But, there was something missing, “I learned very early that this wasn’t the industry I wanted to go into. It felt like I was contributing to a system that only benefitted those at the top,” he explains before adding, “I also wasn’t using much of my maths.”
Hunting a sense of purpose Neil started working as a personal trainer. During this time his sister introduced Neil to the Headmaster in her old school, who suggested Neil put his maths skills and obvious aptitude for motivating people together by becoming a Maths teacher.
“It all started with my sister. She arranged a meeting with her former Headteacher at London Academy in Edgware, a guy called Paddy who I still speak to all the time. He suggested I use my maths education and desire to do some good in the world to help kids with their maths. For about a year, I juggled both tutoring and personal training, but it became clear I needed to make a decision which I wanted to focus on. Because of my own experience growing up, Paddy started to set me up with the kids who were struggling the most and I found I could help them turn it around.”
"Coming from a school that didn’t value education helped me understand how easy it is for students to be overlooked and how much influence one good teacher can have on somebody. And that was all the motivation I needed to go for my teaching qualification and actually teach for a living. I got my qualification, joined London Academy full-time and in almost no time Paddy had made me Head of A-level Maths. I was 22.”
Neil stayed for three years, becoming Head of Key Stage 5 Maths before moving on to Claremont High School in Kenton. However, after almost a decade in the classroom Neil began to want more.
“When I started teaching, I brought with me a strong sense of routine and a desire to build something meaningful. But, I was getting bored in the traditional school system. I felt like I was on a conveyor belt – each year, turning struggling students into strong ones, then starting all over again.”
Part of the problem was a sense that a traditional school environment would never allow Neil to reach everybody, and the people who would benefit most from quality teaching were the people it was proving impossible to reach...
“Traditional classrooms often revolve around the same 10 to 20% of students. If you’re not one of them, it’s easy to feel left out – afraid to ask questions, afraid to make mistakes,” he explains.
“Parents often don’t realise how many students aren’t being taught everything they need, and that’s where MyEdSpace comes in. We catch what others miss.”
Baked into the MyEdSpace approach is anonymity, Neil believes this is why we can reach every student - including those he feared he was previously missing.
“The MyEdSpace environment encourages engagement in a way most classrooms can’t. Because everything is anonymous, students can engage without fear of judgment. When you start to do that, you realise others are making the same mistakes as you – that you’re not alone. That creates a sense of community and helps students feel safe enough to grow. And with regular, high-quality content, students feel like they’re part of something – they’re not just learning, they’re growing together.”
“Now we have a real community, we call ourselves the ‘Lun Gang’. The name comes from a mathematical logarithm - the ‘natural logarithm’ - which is abbreviated to LN. In the UK I was always taught to say “lun”, but that drew a little criticism from the US, where they spell out “L N” when talking about it. It was quite the debate and now we were the “Lun Gang” as a kind of badge of honour.”
“We’re able to give students a way to participate without fear, learn at their own pace and feel like they’re part of a wider community. That support system makes a huge difference – especially for students who’ve struggled in traditional settings.”
Heading into the A-level exams in 2023, the Lun Gang had swelled considerably, and for his final eight-hour long revision livestream before the exams, Neil was teaching 1,300 students. Along with his legions of followers on social media, Neil has become a recognisable face both on and offline.
“People come up to me quite often in the street or in the gym to introduce themselves as former students, or the parents of students, which is really cool. I once sat on a train for 40-minutes chatting with one parent. I enjoy the interaction and, of course, I enjoy hearing all the positive things people have gone on to do, for which you’ve played a small role. That’s really cool.”
While we offer a complete homeschooling program, Neil believes MyEdSpace is also perfect for students who attend school Monday to Friday, 9am-3:30pm.
“MyEdSpace is a great complement to school, because sometimes students learn something with us first, then see it again in school, or vice versa. There are no downsides. We fill in the gaps and offer consistent support in a way that’s flexible and tailored to the student.”
An example of that in action came in 2024 when 10-year-old Kautilya Katariya signed up to learn Maths on MyEdSpace and Neil tutored him to an A* at A-level. The story made national news, with Neil telling the BBC at the time; “Getting this result as an 18-year-old is extremely tough, and Kautilya did it as a 10-year-old. I am pretty lost for words."
“What Kautilya achieved is exceptional, he worked hard for his grade, but it also goes to show that if a student connects with the right teacher, and that teacher is able to unlock their potential, every single student can achieve top grades.”