Secondary Teaching for Mastery Development Work Groups
Project Code: NCP 24-12
Heard about teaching for mastery? Interested in high-quality professional development? Want to develop mastery in your school?
Wherever you are on your mastery journey the Secondary Teaching for Mastery Development Workgroup can further develop mastery within your school. The programme which is led by Secondary Teaching for Mastery Specialists enables school mathematics departments to introduce and embed a teaching for mastery approach.
Already successful in thousands of primary schools, teaching for mastery promotes deep mathematical understanding and creates confident mathematicians. Participating schools will become part of a national project Work Group, collaborating with other schools to develop and share best practice working closely with a Secondary Mastery Specialist.
Who is this for?
Mastery Specialists are school-based teachers who have already successfully developed teaching for mastery in their own schools and been trained to work with other schools in introducing the same approaches. Each successful school selects two 'Mastery Advocates' from their mathematics department. These teachers will now have the opportunity to work closely with the Mastery Specialist from their local Maths Hub and receive a bespoke programme of support in their own school. One of the Mastery Advocates from each school should be an experienced teacher with substantial responsibility in the department, and the drive and authority to lead change. This could be the Head of Department or Second in Department, the Key Stage 3 Lead or someone with a similar role. The other Mastery Advocate from each school should have an interest in leading departmental developments and ideally would have substantial teaching experience, but in some circumstances could be a very keen, recently qualified teacher or a very committed non-specialist teacher.
What does the Work Group Involve?
Work will initially begin in Key Stage 3, but it is intended that this will extend to Key Stage 4. Work will be bespoke for each department, tailored to the needs of the teachers and their own stages of development, but is likely to include:
Mastery Specialists leading professional development sessions with the four Mastery Advocates (2 from each school) to enable them to understand the principles and practices associated with teaching for mastery
Mastery Specialists supporting the Advocates to enable them to run professional development sessions for their department colleagues; this could include shared planning (and possibly co-leading) of sessions, with the intention that the Advocates take the leading role in working with their departments
Advocates observing the secondary Mastery Specialist in the Specialist’s own school
The Mastery Specialist observing and giving feedback to Advocates – this might be of, and following, a lesson, a professional development session, a departmental meeting or a planning meeting
Joint planning of individual lessons, sequences of lessons or longer units of work
Mastery Specialists working alongside Advocates to support other departmental members, as appropriate
Mastery Specialists working alongside Advocates to develop schemes of work and other departmental systems and structures to allow for a full teaching for mastery approach.
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What are the expectations of participating schools and teachers?
Schools that wish to participate in the Work Group must commit to the following:
The Work Group teachers will both be released to attend a minimum of four separate half-day meetings during the year (September 2024 to July 2025).
The Work Group teachers will be released to participate in in-school meetings and development activities with the Mastery Specialist. The timings of these will be agreed upon locally and will amount to approximately four to six days between the two teachers during the academic year.
The Work Group teachers will engage in certain tasks (as planned and negotiated with the specialist) to support their ongoing professional development between each of the meetings.
The school’s senior leadership will fully support the Head of Department and Work Group teachers to undertake these development tasks.
The Work Group teachers will contribute to the final reporting and evaluation of the Work Group. The programme is aimed to be at least a 3-year programme. In the first year the Specialist works closely with the advocates and the department, the second year the Specialist continues to work with the department, embedding mastery within the school and then continuing into the sustaining phase the advocates continue to collaborate with other schools in the region attending workshops hosted by the Secondary Mastery Specialist.
What are the costs for participation?
There is no fee or charge to participating schools to take part in this Work Group. The Maths Hub meets the cost of running the Work Group. Each department will receive £2000 to enable the Mastery Advocates to work with the Secondary Mastery Specialist and thus enable them to work within their own department.