Addressing mathematics & statistics anxiety

Mathematics above all other subjects strikes real fear and anxiety in some students, these students are taken well out of their ‘comfort zone’ when confronted with mathematical content in their courses. For these students, fear can become a huge barrier to overcome and can become a distraction from their studies in general. In this paper I will give some very personal reflections on this and discuss which students are particularly at risk from maths anxiety and the strategies that one can use to help these students in very practical ways to develop their confidence and skills.I would like to thank National HE-STEM programme for funding the Practice Transfer Adopters Project discussed in this paper. Many thanks to Stephen Hibberd and staff at the University of Nottingham who undertook the initial project and to Prof. Tony Croft at Loughborough, who was very supportive during the project and beyond, a great source of advice, knowledge and insight. And finally I would especially like thank my group of postgraduate tutors who have been instrumental in making maths support work