Dr. Sara Santos

Dr Sara Santos is the Head of Teaching & Learning Enhancement, and Head of Data Science and Business Analytics at Forward College since 2021. British and Portuguese, Sara was born in Porto, Portugal, where she took a BSs (Hons) in Pure Mathematics. Sara gained her PhD in Mathematics from the University of Manchester.

She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance Connect) in the UK, and holds a Professional Certificate in Practical Statistics from the Open University (UK). Sara possesses a rare combination of skills from the worlds of academia, education (formal and informal), entrepreneurship, performance and the arts.

Based in the Lisbon campus, Sara has responsibility, beyond teaching duties, for student Preparedness for Forward at pre-admission, admission and term 1 stages, coordinating the profiling, upskilling, and scaffolding of candidates for mathematics and academic writing skills.

At Forward, Sara creates and delivers staff workshops in teaching for Autonomous Learning and Flipped Classroom, as well as student workshops in effective learning strategies and group-work skills.

An old-hand in teaching, Sara brings to Forward College her extensive knowledge of learners and unusual experience across the education sector: higher education lecturer and tutor (King’s College London, Goldsmiths College University of London, Coursera/University of London, University of Manchester, University of Porto) combined with secondary school teaching (The Manchester Grammar School) and private tuition.

Sara has pioneered group-work training for students at Goldsmiths College and group-work in mathematics teaching for Computer Science. Sara created a fully online module for the BSc Computer Science for Coursera/University of London.

Sara managed the Mathematics Masterclasses programme and network (60+ locations) at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, which included programme evaluation, and solution design to implement evaluation recommendations.

Sara has expertise in audience engagement as a presenter and presenter/trainer, from her work as Clothworkers’ Fellow in Mathematics at The Royal Institution of Great Britain and from her businesses Maths Busking, Ingenious Busking and Intelligent Cabaret. She has provided entertainment at events such as Glastonbury, RAF Air-Tattoo, Green-Man, The Big-Bang Fair in the UK.

Sara has performed across Europe including in Lisbon, Paris, Lugo, Sofia, Krakow, Warsaw, and even toured the island of La Réunion.

Sara has delivered teacher training courses as well as speaker training courses with funding from the british government and the Royal Academy of Engineering. At the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Sara worked with teachers to develop mathematics rich-tasks using architecture, fashion design and paper folding to include all learners and deepen learner understanding of maths and the world around us. 

Sara trained in Physical Theatre with LAMDA and is currently learning pottery.