A maths teacher from Kingston has been named among the best in the world and is in with a chance of winning US$ 1 million thanks to recognition in a global prize competition.

Jamie Frost teaches maths at the Tiffin School in Kingston and has won acclaim from peers around the world for his online learning portal ‘Dr Frost Maths’ that helps kids learn maths anywhere in the world for free.

The success of Dr Frost Maths helped him into the Global Teachers Prize 2020 shortlist, which features 10 outstanding teachers from around the world.

Jamie’s achievement in making the shortlist is thrown into relief by almost 12,000 nominations the prize, which is run in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), received this year.

“Congratulations to Jamie Frost for being selected from such a huge number of talented and dedicated teachers.

“I hope his story will inspire those looking to enter the teaching profession and also highlight the incredible work teachers do all over the UK and throughout the world every day,” Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director General for Education at UNESCO, said.

The winner of the prize will be announced at a special ceremony hosted by Stephen Fry at the Natural History Museum on December 3.

Stephen paid his own tribute to Jamie, so far the only British teacher to be revealed on the shortlist, in a special video message released recently:

“Jamie, as well as teaching for the last eight years at the Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames, your internationally acclaimed website for maths tuition – DrFrostMaths - has had over 7 million resource downloads and is making maths fun for children all over the world.

“But most impressive of all, you continue to provide your platform completely free, as you feel it is important for these resources to be available for all schools and all families, regardless of their income. Congratulations Jamie and thank you for everything you do,” he said.

As the Global Teacher Prize 2020 pointed out, during the coronavirus pandemic and the shut down schools of all over the world, DrFrostMaths became a lifeline for students shut out of classrooms.

Within weeks its site usage had jumped to some 1.3 million hits per day, while it has to date clocked a staggering seven million+ resource downloads and is used by “well over half” of all secondary schools in the UK.

Jamie, who previously won the Microsoft Research Prize for best undergraduate dissertation at Oxford University, joins a range of other teachers from across the world who are also in contention for the top prize.

Among them are South African teacher Mokhudu Cynthia Machaba, US teacher Leah Juelke and South Korean teacher Yun Jeong-hyun.

“This year, more than ever, we have seen teachers go above and beyond to keep young people learning throughout the world,” Education philanthropist Sunny Varkey, who founded the prize, said.