Shropshire Star

Teacher pipes complex maths on biscuits as leaving gift for students

The biscuits were topped with calculus and hyperbolic trigonometry among other things.

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A photo of several biscuits with complicated maths piped on top

A teacher in Hertfordshire painstakingly piped complex mathematics on top of biscuits as a leaving gift for her students.

Ella Dickson, 40, works at Beaumont School in St Albans. Having taught her year 13 maths class for two years she wanted to do something special to say goodbye.

Some generous teachers might bake a few tasty treats for the pupils before they part ways – Ms Dickson did just that but with a numerical twist.

Her biscuits – adorned with calculus, hyperbolic trigonometry and more – received hundreds of likes on Twitter and were gratefully received by her students.

“They loved them,” Ms Dickson told the Press Association. “I’ve got such a lovely class.”

She said she has created GCSE and A-level biscuits before, but this is the first time she has made “further maths” biscuits, and the piping of the equations took a couple of hours to complete.

“I love teaching my classes and I’m really excited this class are going to go off and do wonderful things,” she said.

“They’re really special kids, so I wanted to do something nice so that they would remember the last lesson.”

The feeling appears to be mutual, as Ms Dickson’s students also made her something rather special – a mug covered with some of their teacher’s favourite maths.

A mug which Ella's students gave her as a present
(Ella Dickson)

“They designed and made a mug which has got my name on it so no-one can steal it!” she said. “It’s got a picture of lots of the maths things that we’ve studied, things with particular meaning that I really enjoyed teaching.

“That was really special.”

And while the maths on the biscuits was not solvable, Ms Dickson said her students did check before tucking in, something which may have inspired her next batch.

“I didn’t take it that far but that would have been a good idea actually. Next year!” she said.

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