“There are two Local Leaders of Maths Education (LLME) in my school; two major benefits are that they become better mathematicians, and they become better at teaching maths. They have a much more nuanced understanding of what good maths teaching looks like because they are exploring other settings and, in turn, visitors come into our school to observe them. Therefore, they need to be excellent practitioners.

For both LLME, we have seen a huge increase in confidence; I am convinced that one of them will be a Headteacher soon! With a critical perspective, they both have an ability to articulate and analyse things as leaders. In addition, they understand the development of schools, recognising the schools which are on a journey.

Recognition of the wider educational system has been an eye opener, which is provided through opportunities working outside of our school. Similar to what the old ‘Specialist Leaders of Education’ or ‘Advanced Skills Teacher’ did, it’s universally beneficial. Our LLME returns to school with stories from other schools and shares best practice. What that did for me was feeding back to my staff that we are doing well. When you are at the coalface day to day, staff sometimes need to hear things are good in our school: an affirmation that we are doing a good job and the staff know that.

The LLME are knowledgeable about the direction in maths and we can see that in our curriculum, it’s embedded all the way through. Having the exposure of visitors to the schools is massive for students and staff and this leads to an increased confidence all round. Students are used to external visitors observing them and staff are used to others observing, it’s just thought of as another school guest. There isn’t a value on that in terms of a school in a deprived area where recruitment is really difficult. The affirmation that staff get when I send an email with feedback is great and it comes about from being part of the system, part of the collective partnership. As David Carter said: ‘You cannot be a great school if the school next door is failing’.

The knowledge, personal development, confidence boosting and our affirmation as a school are the real benefits for us having LLME.”

“A huge thank you to the fabulous Maths Hub who through their fabulous training and interesting discussions have opened our eyes to new ways of teaching mathematics. The experiences of working with both the whole Work Group and our lead teacher have been wonderful. We truly cannot thank them enough!”

“Embarking on the Teaching for Mastery (TfM) programme has been the best decision we took as a school. Prior to joining, problem solving in maths was on the School Improvement Plan every year because improvement in this area was slow and maths was the weakest subject. The argument was that EAL children do not have the language to be able to solve maths problems systematically and efficiently. So, we tried a range of resources and approaches to address this but little improvement in maths was made.  We failed to recognise that maths is a universal language and that we really needed to look at our approach. Through specific CPD, focused Teacher Research Groups (TRG), peer support and mentoring, maths has become a real strength of the school! The impact of the CPA approach is evident in the books, pupils and teachers’ confidence and of course the end of year data outcomes.  Since the beginning of our journey we have received tremendous support and guidance. The Maths Hub team especially Karen Hill have been a pleasure to work with and the broader team namely, Kathryn Greenhalgh and Charlotte Thornton are truly inspirational individuals. ”

“Training to become a SMS has given me the opportunity to collaborate with teachers from other schools and develop my own teaching practice in an open and supportive environment. The programme is helping to structure my development whilst keeping site of the 5 big ideas of teaching for mastery. With the support of the other participants, I have felt confident to try new ideas in the classroom and embed using representations and variation theory in my practice. The response from students has been fantastic and they are able to engage with new content and ideas much more easily. I have been able to introduce the themes of mastery to my department and provide in house CPD to the department.”

“Teaching for Mastery isn’t just good Maths teaching or fancy tricks to impress students, colleagues and friends. It’s about developing a culture of enjoyable, collaborative, consistent outstanding learning for students and teachers alike. When I started my journey, I was fascinated by new learning styles and structures that seemed to start to knit many topics together. As the journey went on, I developed the skills necessary to bring these ideas into practice in my own lessons and my department as a whole. Now, I help other schools on their own Mastery journeys whilst my department reaps the benefits that Teaching for Mastery brings. Working collaboratively, we have rewritten our schemes of work, developed formal and informal assessments that fit a Mastery approach whilst also aligning with school policies and created planned lessons from year 7 all the way through to year 11. Long may the journey continue.”

“I’ve loved being a Secondary Mastery Specialist with YH Maths Hub. There is so much opportunity to develop my own practice and share ideas with other like-minded teachers, which is definitely the highlight for me! I’m now really excited and feel so ready to go on developing my own department and others.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Maths Hub as a secondary mastery specialist. I’ve developed so much as a Professional Development Lead and feel much more comfortable delivering training both to my department and teachers at other schools. I have strengthened my understanding of Teaching for Mastery, and through the Maths Hub, have found the opportunity to share this passion with other members of the community. If you are looking to develop your understanding of teaching for mastery and support others around you - this is a great programme to be involved in.”

“The programme has been extremely interesting and has focused my own understanding and thoughts regarding the fundamentals and understanding of delivering Mathematics. The programme has also provided me with the opportunity to discuss and build relationship with other ‘Secondary Mastery Specialists”

“Becoming a Secondary Mastery Specialist has completely revolutionised the way I look at teaching. I have worked with my department to restructure our schemes of work to plan for understanding and it provides opportunities for sharing great practice!”

“Things seemed ‘stale’, things felt ‘the same’ - some staff felt ‘disheartened’ and progress said the same. Then we started the mastery programme at Newsome Academy. We actually didn’t completely realise the holistic impact that it would have on the department nor the academy. This programme offered not only structure to lessons and thinking, but a teaching and learning tool for staff - something that we had initially underestimated. The Maths department has had a progress trajectory of -0.64 before the programme started, -0.16 after 1 year, -0.08 after two years and finally +0.13 in our most recent year 11 cohort. The structure has also meant that it has provided a solid framework for the development of teaching and learning and supported strong development and solid capacity and sustainability. Throughout the programme, colleagues have attended workgroups, lesson observations and discussions and had the added support of the team joining us in school to help improve our practice. The support from the mastery team has without doubt transformed not only the achievement of young people - but also the quality and consistency of teaching.”