In our conversation with Charlie Jewell, Head of Programmes, it became clear that Axiom Maths is more than just a charity. It is a growing movement that gives pupils across the UK the chance to stay confident and curious about mathematics through its five-year Maths Circles programme.
Who Axiom Maths Are
Founded in 202, Axiom Maths is a UK-based charity dedicated to ensuring students with both the “head and heart for maths” continue excelling through secondary school. The organisation was created in response to a striking challenge: every year, nearly half of top-performing primary school pupils eligible for pupil premium funding no longer achieve at that level by GCSE. Axiom aims to prevent this “lost potential” by providing long-term enrichment through its five-year maths circles programme.
These weekly sessions for pupils in Years 7 to 11 encourage deeper mathematical thinking, foster resilience, and give children a community where they can grow together. Axiom Maths now works with over 25% of schools in England, with over 8,000 pupils taking part last year.
Charlie Jewell on the Power of Online Maths Circles
Charlie Jewell, part of the Axiom Maths team responsible for their online programme, has been closely involved in scaling the organisation’s work across the UK. He oversees the strategy and coordination of the maths circles initiative, ensuring that pupils and mentors alike benefit from the right structure and tools.
For Charlie and his colleagues, the VEDAMO platform is a cornerstone in making the vision of Axiom Maths possible: reaching thousands of young people, sustaining their mathematical potential, and building confidence that lasts throughout secondary school.
What Problems Axion Maths Had Before Using VEDAMO
While in-person enrichment was valuable, schools often struggle with the logistics: limited teacher time, lack of space, and insufficient capacity to sustain weekly sessions. Charlie shares that although the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated interest in online delivery, the decision to build a strong digital programme was driven by a larger goal: ensuring that every pupil, regardless of their background, geography, or school resources, could access the same opportunities.
To succeed, Axiom Maths needed a virtual learning platform that could recreate the collaborative, problem-solving atmosphere of face-to-face maths circles, while also being reliable and easy to use for pupils and mentors.
VEDAMO as a Solution and Its Benefits
After exploring different e-learning tools, Axiom Maths found that VEDAMO Virtual Classroom matched their vision perfectly. Its features allow Axiom Maths mentors to recreate the dynamics of in-person learning and offer pupils an engaging, interactive environment.
These are the top benefits of VEDAMO for Axiom Maths, as Charlie lists them:
- Whiteboard for collaborative problem-solving and highly interactive functionalities.
- Breakout rooms that make it possible to run small-group discussions and mirror the feel of in-person teamwork.
- Content sharing tools that allow Axiom Maths to collaborate with external organisations and share content.
- Session recordings that ensure quality control and supervision, allow mentors to reflect on their teaching, and provide an oversight tool impossible in physical classrooms.
- Reliability and ease of use so that even younger pupils quickly adapt, while mentors feel supported by intuitive functionality.
Axiom Maths runs its online programme with a lean team at its core, supported by a high degree of automation. This makes the programme efficient, scalable, and sustainable. VEDAMO platform fits naturally into this model: its straightforward setup means that staff can focus on content and mentoring rather than technical troubleshooting.
What the Tutors and the Students Share
As Charlie explains, “feedback from both pupils and mentors has been overwhelmingly positive”. Pupils report enjoying online maths circles as much as in-person sessions, and retention levels are even higher online. For mentors, the platform’s tools open opportunities for creativity in teaching that align with Axiom Maths’ mission of making maths exciting and empowering.
The results of Axiom Maths’ cooperation with VEDAMO have been striking. Students remain motivated to stay in the programme for up to five years, and the retention rates online have proven especially strong. The opportunity to review recorded sessions has helped mentors continuously refine their teaching and ensure consistency across the entire programme. Occasional face-to-face meetings strengthen the sense of community, and then the online model enables pupils to form lasting groups that grow together year after year.
Why This Partnership Matters
Thanks to VEDAMO, Axiom Maths is now able to serve hundreds of pupils at once, reaching children who would otherwise be excluded by geography or lack of resources. The partnership between Axiom Maths and VEDAMO is more than just a technical solution; it is a model for educational equity and long-term impact. By combining Axiom Maths’ vision of nurturing talent with VEDAMO’s highly functional virtual classroom, pupils across the UK are given the chance to sustain and grow their potential in mathematics.
As Charlie Jewell puts it, the real value lies in making sure that “all pupils realize their potential, regardless of what school, place, or background they come from.”
With VEDAMO’s interactive features, we can recreate everything we do in a face-to-face class. Pupils tell us they are enjoying it just as much, and we see that retention is even higher online. Thanks to this, we can make sure that all pupils realise and keep their potential, no matter what school, place, or background they come from.
Charlie Jewell, Head of Programmes, Axiom Maths, UK
