Ms Victoria Lee-Stevens

Life before Stowe

I studied Physics and Philosophy at Exeter College Oxford and left to join KPMG in 2009. I qualified as a Chartered Accountant and went on to work in Product within the Corporate bank in Barclays. After 10 years in Canary Wharf, I decided to return to the Spires and took my PGCE in Science with a Physics specialism in Queens, Oxford before applying to teach Maths and Economics at Stowe.

What do you enjoy most about your subject?

I love that maths is the language of the natural sciences and is the route of entry into understanding the most fundamental relationships in the natural world. The logic and the rules are really satisfying once you grasp them and I enjoy the moment when pupils feel they've got to grips with a skill. I also love that it is accessible to anyone who is willing to practise and iterate their approach. Learning to appreciate the value of incorrect responses to inform your learning is such an important behaviour.

What do you enjoy most about Stowe?

It is hard not to be inspired by such beautiful grounds, architecture and art and I truly relish walking around Stowe. Being involved in sports in those fabulous grounds (Lacrosse on the South Front cannot be bettered) has also meant that you get the opportunity to know your students in a different context.

What is your favourite Lesson?

I really love cross-over topics so things like compound depreciation and the relation of those skills to understanding half-life in physics. The same is true of graphical representations of economic theories.

What do others say about you?

I would hope they would describe me as a measured thinker, who considers things logically and from as many perspectives as possible. I also aspire to be fearless in protecting the principles in which I believe and hope that some of that aspiration is translating into my interactions with pupils and colleagues.

Other hats

I am involved in Lacrosse coaching, Badminton and am a tutor in Lyttleton. Alongside teaching Maths and Economics, I hope to wiggle my way into a bit of Physics teaching in the not-too-distant future.

Passions

I have two small children and am thrilled that I can go to theme parks, trampoline parks and Disneyland again and pretend it is purely because they would like to go! I was a choral scholar at Oxford and very much enjoy singing. I am an avid consumer of pop psychology books and lots of fiction.