ACT ONE · THE PROBLEM
Maths fear never stays inside the maths book.
It starts small — a shaky test, a topic that never clicked, homework that ends in tears. Then it grows a script of its own.
First, the marks slip
Weak basics from earlier grades — place value, times tables, fractions — quietly pull everything else down. Every new topic is built on a floor that wobbles.
Then, the dread arrives
Sunday-night stomach aches. Freezing in tests. Avoiding practice because practice means feeling stupid again. Your child starts performing fear instead of maths.
Then, the label sticks
“I’m just not a maths person.” A ten-year-old should never get to write that line into their own story — but left alone, the fear writes it for them.
And here is what three decades in classrooms has taught me: the villain was never your child. It is rules-drills-and-red-pen teaching that hands children pressure instead of a story they can hold on to. Left unchallenged, it costs far more than marks — children lose interest, start to hate the subject, then school itself, and the doubt spills into everything they try.
a note from the director…
“Everyone makes mistakes. No child should learn to fear a subject before they’ve had a fair chance to love it.”
— Tanita Da Silva, Tanita Inspires
ACT TWO · THE TURN
What changes when maths becomes a story your child stars in
Three things parents tell me they notice first — usually within the opening weeks.
Calm before content
Every class opens with a calm start — a story hook, a laugh, a low-stakes warm-up. Fear switches off so the thinking brain can switch on. Children stop bracing and start playing.
Concepts that finally click
Fractions, decimals, percentages — the usual monsters — become situations, characters, and journeys your child can picture. Not rules to memorise. Ideas that make sense.
Marks that rise — and stay up
Number sense and fluency get rebuilt first, then practice tests make exam day feel familiar. Students I’ve taught have gone from a D to a B, and from a B to an A*.
Tanita Da Silva · Maths · Speech & Drama · 30 years
YOUR GUIDE
Meet Tanita — the teacher who kept two classrooms.
For thirty years I have taught in two rooms: the maths room and the drama studio. In one, children learned to reason. In the other, they learned to stand up, speak, and be seen. Tanita Inspires is what happens when those two rooms become one.
I know the whisper of “I can’t” from the inside — I was once made to feel not good enough, too. No child leaves my class feeling that way.
- BEd (Hons) · Higher Diploma in Education (HDE IV) · Licentiate in Speech & Drama · TEFL certified
- National award for a 100% Grade 12 Mathematics pass rate (South Africa) — earned in two separate years
- 100% Grade 12 Dramatic Arts pass rate for six consecutive years
- Medal of Merit for contribution to language and cultural education projects
THE PLAN · THREE SIMPLE SCENES
How your child’s new maths story begins
Book the free demo
One relaxed 30-minute online class. Your child experiences a story-based lesson; you see exactly how it works. No payment, no obligation.
Get your child’s story plan
A gentle level check finds the real gaps — usually number sense, fluency, or fractions — and I map an 8-week plan around your child, not a generic syllabus.
Watch confidence take the stage
Weekly live classes, story worksheets, practice tests, and a progress note to you — so you watch the fear shrink and the marks rise, week by week.
the four moves of every lesson
- 1The Calm Start
Nerves down, curiosity up. - 2The Story
The topic becomes a situation, character, or journey. - 3The Play
Your child acts, solves, laughs — active, never passive. - 4Practice & Pride
Worksheets and wins that make progress visible.
THE UNIQUE MECHANISM
The Maths Story Method
Most tutoring is more of what already failed: more sums, more drills, more pressure on a child who is already afraid. This is the opposite. Instead of presenting a topic as a set of rules, I turn it into a situation your child can picture — then we step inside it and play until the maths makes sense.
Thirty years of real drama craft and real maths teaching, held in the same pair of hands. That is the difference no ordinary tutor can copy.
THE FEATURE PRESENTATION
The Confidence Rewrite
An 8-week drama-maths programme for Grades 5–10 — small casts of five, so every child gets the spotlight.
Settle the nerves. Rebuild number sense, place value, and ×÷ fluency.
The hard scenes made easy: fractions, decimals, percentages, measurement, geometry.
Centre stage: word problems, exam strategy, and the family Showcase class.
RAVE REVIEWS
Thirty years of grateful parents and braver children
“From a D to a B in one term — and no more Sunday-night tears before maths homework.”
Parent of a Grade 9 student · result on record, quote to be replaced with verbatim testimonial
“She went from a B to an A* — and walked into the exam hall smiling. We didn’t think that was possible.”
Parent of a tutored student · result on record, quote to be replaced with verbatim testimonial
“Former students now tell me they became teachers because of what happened in that classroom. That is the real pass rate.”
Tanita Da Silva · on 30 years of teaching
A different kind of maths tutor in Oman
Tanita Inspires is a live online maths tutoring studio for students in Grades 5 to 10, based in Sohar, Oman and teaching families across the Gulf. It was founded by Tanita Da Silva, a teacher of thirty years who holds qualifications in both Mathematics education and Speech & Drama — a combination almost no other tutor in the region carries. Instead of repeating the drills that made your child anxious in the first place, every lesson uses storytelling, role-play, humour, and creative tasks to rebuild number sense, master fractions, decimals and percentages, and prepare confidently for tests and exams. Classes run in English, in small groups or one-to-one, with worksheets, practice tests, and regular progress notes for parents. If your child says “I can’t do maths,” this studio exists to prove them wrong — kindly, playfully, and permanently. The first class, a free 30-minute demo, is on the house. That is the promise of Tanita Inspires: where learning, creativity, and human values meet.
FREE PROGRAMME NOTES
The Calm-Start Kit
Five ten-minute, story-based maths warm-ups that end homework battles — the same calm starts I use to open every class. Use one tonight and watch your child begin maths without the sigh.
- Five ready-to-use warm-ups for ages 10+, no printing required
- A parent script for what to say when your child freezes
- Works for any curriculum — British, IB, or national
Delivered on WhatsApp — one message, no spam, ever.
“Tonight’s warm-up:
The Pizza That Refused
to Be Divided”
— warm-up no. 2, fractions
A peek inside the kit
TONIGHT’S SHOW · YOUR CHILD, CONFIDENT AT MATHS
Ready to change how the story goes?
Book the free 30-minute demo class. If your child doesn’t leave it smiling, you’ve lost nothing — and you’ll finally know what maths could feel like.
WhatsApp +968 9200 8316 · Sohar, Oman · Online across the Gulf