ATM People • Gill Hatch

Gill Hatch

Gill (pictured on the right with Kath Cross) died suddenly on 11 November 2005. Those at her funeral included people from all over the country and from overseas who had worked with her in the field of mathematics education. Some of you will know Gill as one of the pillars of ATM for over 30 years, but her professional life extended much wider right up to the time she died. Only a week before her death she was at an AQA Mathematics panel meeting, reviewing the next round of AS papers. She continued to carry out research after she retired from Manchester Metropolitan University and at BCME 2005 she ran a seminar with Paul Andrews and Judy Sayers about their latest European study. Paul says more about this in his tribute to Gill.

Gill started her teaching career in a girls’ school in Irlam and moved into teacher training in the early seventies when the ‘Manchester group’, which included among its members Derek Woodrow and John Savin, first made itself felt at ATM conferences. A few years later Gill, with David Cain, founded the Greater Manchester branch of ATM. Gill always had the energy, commitment and enthusiasm to gather a group of people around her and get them working together. The first publications she produced for ATM: These have worked for us at A-level (1984) and These have also worked for us at A-level (1985) were a result of a group of teachers (several of whom were at Gill’s funeral) meeting regularly in her living room. And a few days before she died she was working on a new ATM publication Reaching the core of AS Mathematics, which is taking the ideas from these earlier books and updating them for the 21st century.

Gill was a creative mathematician, who had the gift of inventing activates that help people to learn mathematics. She published teaching material for five-year-olds through to post-graduates. She strove to find ways of writing about the mathematics that would help learners make sense of the situation for themselves.

But while Gill is mainly familiar to some members of ATM because of her recent publications and seminars at ATM conferences, her involvement with ATM was a lot more than that. She was Honorary Secretary of ATM, alongside Christine Shiu as Chair, between 1986 and 1989. We were members of General Council at the time and found them an impressive pair, who confronted the issues ATM was facing at the time with great determination, ensuring that we faced up to what was necessary, but always with a great sense of the humanity which made members of General Council and of the Association feel that there was business to be done but we were doing it because of what we believed about mathematics and children and teachers.

And what of Gill herself? Gill was a gifted mathematician, an exciting teacher and an inveterate collaborator: she liked nothing better than to gather round her a group of people and start to work on something. She always had a clear vision and lots of ideas and was not afraid to challenge others. In the address at her funeral the parish priest spoke of her “questioning faith”: he always thought carefully about what he said in his sermons because he was “not allowed to get away with anything”. When talking to fellow professionals, if Gill thought that what you wanted to do would not help learners to think about mathematics then she would say so.

ATM is the poorer without Gill’s commitment, flair and energy, but her work lives on. In the March 2006 issue of MT there will be a special feature bringing together a range of Gill’s ideas for primary and secondary classrooms, so that today’s teachers can continue to benefit from her work.

Barbara and Derek Ball

I would like to take this opportunity to mention how influential Gill was to my development as a person and as a teacher. I was, and am, in no way a natural mathematician and relished the challenge of training as a maths teacher at the MMU in 1991. Gill never made any of the weaker students feel inferior and always had time to help us out at the drop of a hat. Her enthusiasm for the subject was infectious, her commitment to her students 100%. Because of Gill I was able to reorganise my fractured past by thinking in her positive and constructive way. I have used her as a role model for much of my teaching career and will continue to do so. Thai kids love 'Jump to it' and many of her other hand scripted books. Her influence here is very strong.

Being shocked and saddened was my initial reaction. Now, more than ever, I will continue to develop those skills acquired at the MMU and work hard to pass on to my students the joy of maths. I was privileged to be helped by such a person.

Ralph Millington

It was a great shock to hear that Gill had died. I must have known her for around 20 years and she was always such a great person to work with at conferences and working groups. She’ll be sadly missed.

Keith Jones

I have known Gill for most of the 35 years I have been an ATM member and I am extremely distressed about her untimely passing. I shall always treasure her generosity of spirit and sharing of her often brilliant ideas and approaches; her clarity of thinking; her warmth of friendship and engaging humour.

As an appreciative recipient on many occasions, I valued her critical thinking skills and tremendous encouragement, both of colleagues and (of course) of her learners, in any activity in which she was involved. On the occasions we worked together, the collaborative learning process was enriched by her insight and focus on the benefits for learners as well as on the enjoyment of participants.

ATM get-togethers at Easter will not be the same without her.

Robert Vertes

Gill taught me maths on my teacher training course at Gaskell site and was an inspiration. She is the reason I changed from liking maths to loving it!

She taught me so much that I have used in my lessons many times over and it was nice to speak with her before I came out to Houston to teach as Head of Maths at the British School - she was an inspiration to everyone who had the pleasure to know her.

Carol Jones (formerly Mills)

As a Reception class teacher in the late 1980s I could find nothing of use to me in teaching mathematics. All children were required to do was to fill in worksheets. One lunch time, my Headteacher came to my classroom, saying something like; “Can you come to the staff room? There’s a rep with some maths material I would like you to see.” I wasn’t keen to waste my precious non-contact time and refused. She insisted, “Really – I really think you should see this, it looks really different.” In the end I gave in grudgingly and followed her to the staff room muttering about publishers and dreaded infant workbooks.

The rep was from EJ Arnold and the materials were Gillian Hatch’s Maths Chest. It was a ‘maths scheme’ but it certainly was different. I had never seen anything like it before. The Teacher’s files were full of practical maths activities using everyday early years equipment, obviously written by people who knew about young children as well as about mathematics, what they enjoyed and how they learnt. Things to talk about, things to do, things to play. Flicking through the ‘level 1’ (reception) file today reminds me of my and my children’s enjoyment learning and teaching mathematics using these ideas. Without a doubt the richest section was ‘Apparatus topics’, where ideas for recognisable mathematical equipment such as Cuisenaire rods “Can you make a line of green rods the same length as a line of yellow rods?” and dominoes “Make dominoes using the paper and pens and ask your friend to find the real one you made”, sat alongside ideas for classroom equipment such as junk “Which containers fit inside each other? Return and discuss who has got the most containers to fit inside”, and floor toys “Make a road with lots of corners. Return and discuss the different directions the road takes.” The ‘return and ask’ suggestions opened up possibilities for mathematical exploration that I had not seen before and today I carry with me her idea that all sorts of equipment can be used as a catalyst for mathematical exploration. I use many of these ideas today.

In her foreword Gill thanks everyone who has contributed to the writing of this scheme, writing that she hopes that “… all the teachers using the scheme will find this a valuable working manual to support them in the on-going task of developing the learning environment for mathematics in their classroom.” Gill certainly did that in mine and is still doing that.

[Maths Chest, a set of teachers’ resources for the primary school was published by EJ Arnold in 1988]

Helen Williams

We have just received the sad news that Gillian Hatch died this week...

When I think of Gill, I think of mathematics and fun and I cherish a photo taken at the Maths Day when we are both laughing at something she had said. It is one of the ones I selected to print out and display at home as a reminder of a super day. Someone said that this photo showed Gill at her chirpy, bright best.

Gill was one of those amazing people who was equally at home teaching undergraduate mathematics, writing material for infants and working with pupils across the age range as well as teachers and trainee teachers.

She had particular concerns about able pupils of all ages and was always thinking of ways of engaging and inspiring them.

We first met very many years ago (in the 70s) as part of an ATM group in the north west. We - Gill and Anne Haworth, Barbara Binns, Dave Wilson, Tansy Hardy and others – worked together on several publications but particularly on ‘These have worked for us at A-level’ which was published in 1984. I thought it was wonderful that, in my retirement, Anne, Gill and I were asked to work on an updated version with Barbara Ball and Sue Johnson Wilder. It was great to work with Gill again and be reminded of her ability to think creatively about the mathematics as well as ways to help students understand what was going on.

It was shortly after the last meeting of the group in September that she was diagnosed as having lung cancer. Her approach was typically Gill; “I’m just going to get on with things as well as I can”. We had all anticipated months of treatment and hoped for a very successful outcome. We were not prepared for such a sudden death.

At BCME 6 I attended Gill’s seminar when we enjoyed playing many of the games she had developed. Here she was at her typically enthusiastic best but my abiding memory of Gill was in the immediate post-Cockcroft era with lots of inservice training and imaginative links between trainers and teachers. Gill was working with some primary teachers and she also involved their pupils. They all came together for a session and Gill organised the children to play Frogs. There were at least 100 pupils involved – boys on one side, girls on the other. On many occasions later I heard people decry the use of Frogs. Well it might not of brought about much mathematical work in some people’s hands, but if you had witnessed Gill’s session you could have had no doubt about its worth as a mathematical activity.

Two days after hearing of Gill’s death I met my niece, who is in her second year of teaching, for dinner in London. Katie was talking about the school and mathematics and said that her pupils really liked the problems she was using from some booklets (ATM) I had given her. [After retirement I decided to give away many of the things I had collected over time and would probably not use again.] She was referring to ‘Jump to it’ and ‘Bounce to it’ which Gill created.

This was just another reminder of Gill’s impact and influence over many years. She has touched and inspired a large number of people and, while we will miss her greatly, we know that her work and influence will live on.

Kath Cross

I have known Gill for nearly twenty years. During that time we have worked closely as both teachers and researchers on a variety of courses and projects and a world without her seems suddenly quite empty. It is difficult to write this piece objectively because we have shared much over the years, including many weeks in different parts of Europe trying to find ways of making the teaching of mathematics more effective at home. I smile as I recall just how well she knew me; without making it obvious she always found ways of mollifying my fear of flying by keeping the conversation flowing at those moments of maximum tension. The image of her knitting while keeping me calm is as clear today as it was the very first time we flew together to Budapest.

She was a gifted mathematician and an exciting teacher; her unique way of working will resonate with many of those who have ever been taught by her. Her large pad of paper and the gathering of even the largest of classes around a single table set her apart from others. “But it allows everyone in the group to be involved”, I can still hear her say. She was also the most creative of thinkers and her contribution of ideas to the teaching of mathematics in general and the ATM in particular must be as extensive as that of any other individual. Her enthusiasm for games as both initiator and sustainer of mathematical thinking is particularly well known and her last publications for ATM have reflected that interest. I, and many others who know her work, have been haranguing her for years to write up her data on the use of games in the development of algebraic understanding and fluency. I hope someone will be able to do this on her behalf because there is much which should be shared with a wider audience.

It is difficult to piece together all the threads of Gill’s life. At times she could be extraordinarily strident, and those who have ever sat in a meeting with her will recognise what I mean, but this always masked a genuine sense of caring and desire to achieve the best for all. She was immeasurably patient with both colleague and student and hereby hangs the real tale. Gill genuinely cared for others. Throughout the years of our collaboration she watched over me with affection and wisdom. She never preached, was never patronising, but was always there when a personal or professional crisis loomed. I know I am not the only person to have experienced this hidden but deep seated side to her character.

She was an inveterate collaborator. Indeed, the list of authors who have co-authored with her makes for an interesting who’s who of mathematics education. Her interests and willingness to engage with new ideas led her down many interesting and unexpected paths. Long after I left Manchester her enthusiasm for our research remained undimmed. We would meet at the OU, courtesy of colleagues there lending us their offices, and argue our way through our work. She would catch the fast train to Milton Keynes boasting of the latest cheapest fare she could get with the pensioner’s railcard she carried so proudly and I would drive from Cambridge to meet her. It was always a lovely moment in our work together; waiting in the station concourse for that familiar figure to come rushing up from the platform. It is hard to accept, reflecting on our many collaborations and the conclusion of our latest European project that Andrews will now have to work without Hatch.

She leaves a husband, Dick, three married daughters, several grandchildren and many thousands of people whose lives have been touched for the better.

Paul Andrews

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