Mastering maths means pupils of all ages acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. The phrase teaching for mastery describes the elements of classroom practice and school organisation that combine to give pupils the best chances of mastering maths. Achieving mastery means acquiring a solid enough understanding of the maths that’s been taught to enable pupils to move on to more advanced material.
In 2023-2024, within East Midlands East Maths Hub, 304 primary schools, 40 secondary schools, 12 special schools and 5 Alternative Provisions have engaged with the Teaching for Mastery Programme. There are currently 20 Primary, 14 Secondary and 2 Further Education Mastery Specialists working across the region.
The Five Big Ideas underpin teaching for mastery in both primary and secondary schools.
A true understanding of these ideas will probably come about only after discussion with other teachers and by exploring how the ideas are reflected in day-to-day maths teaching, but here’s a flavour of what lies behind them:
Teaching is designed to enable a coherent learning progression through the curriculum, providing access for all pupils to develop a deep and connected understanding of mathematics that they can apply in a range of contexts. Click here to find out more.
Teachers carefully select representations of mathematics to expose mathematical structure. The intention is to support pupils in ‘seeing’ the mathematics, rather than using the representation as a tool to ‘do’ the mathematics. These representations become mental images that students can use to think about mathematics, supporting them to achieve a deep understanding of mathematical structures and connections.
Mathematical thinking is central to how pupils learn mathematics and includes looking for patterns and relationships, making connections, conjecturing, reasoning, and generalising. Pupils should actively engage in mathematical thinking in all lessons, communicating their ideas using precise mathematical language.
Efficient, accurate recall of key number facts and procedures is essential for fluency, freeing pupils’ minds to think deeply about concepts and problems, but fluency demands more than this. It requires pupils to have the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics, to recognise relationships and make connections, and to choose appropriate methods and strategies to solve problems.
The purpose of variation is to draw closer attention to a key feature of a mathematical concept or structure through varying some elements while keeping others constant.
Teaching for mastery is a Department of Education initiative that started in 2016. The purpose of the initiative is to develop Mathematics teaching and learning in England. The aim is that all schools in England will eventually be teaching using this methodology and regional maths hubs like the EME Maths Hub are the primary vehicles for delivering this.
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Support for schools beginning their journey implementing teaching for mastery with fidelity
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Collaborative professional development for schools to ensure that a teaching for mastery approach is implemented with fidelity
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Introduce teaching for mastery across your department
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For departments embedding their work on teaching for mastery
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For departments who have participated in Development Work Groups
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