English Mastery Secondary aims to improve pupils’ English attainment by providing an ongoing programme of curriculum-integrated professional development for teachers in Key Stage 3.
It guides schools through a strategic shift to a knowledge-rich approach to planning, teaching and assessing during regular timetabled English lessons. The whole-school programme has two pathways to support students with different starting points to access the same curriculum: the traditional curriculum for pupils working at the expected level for their age, and the foundation curriculum for those below the age-expected level.
Teachers receive training, curriculum and assessment materials, access to the MyMastery platform, and ongoing in-school support and coaching.
This evaluation followed the same cohort of pupils from the start of Year 7 to the end of Year 8. It used a randomised controlled trial to test whether pupils receiving English Mastery Secondary made greater progress in English attainment than pupils receiving usual English teaching.
As part of the Department for Education’s Accelerator Fund, the EEF commissioned trials of programmes that show promise for increasing pupil attainment, including English Mastery Secondary.
The EEF previously funded an efficacy trial of English Mastery Secondary in 2018 which showed positive qualitative findings but was disrupted due to partial school closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A previous evaluation of the programme by the Brilliant Club, which involved 1,700 pupils in 14 schools, found that pupils made four additional months progress in reading after three years.
This was intended as a larger trial designed to provide more secure evidence about the programme’s impact.
- Pupils in English Mastery Secondary schools made no additional months’ progress in English, on average, compared to pupils in comparison schools. This result has a low to moderate security rating, so the findings should be interpreted with some caution.
- The trial aimed to evaluate the impact of English Mastery Secondary among children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM). There was a smaller number of pupils in this group and these results may have lower security than the overall findings. Among children eligible for FSM, those in English Mastery Secondary schools made two fewer months’ progress in English, on average, compared to those in comparison schools.
- Compliance with the intervention was low. Only 10 of the 30 schools in this trial implemented the English Mastery Secondary programme fully, meaning most pupils did not receive the programme as intended. Some schools reported that the timetabling requirements for planning and training were demanding.
- However, teacher survey and interview data suggested that English Mastery Secondary delivered a number of the intended changes to teaching and learning. Teachers reported that English Mastery Secondary improved their subject knowledge, particularly for teaching technical accuracy and grammar, and on workload.
- Teachers and pupils also perceived that English Mastery Secondary improved pupils’ English skills, and pupils reported increased self-confidence in English skills.
- The trial didn’t find a difference in progress in English attainment between pupils in English Mastery Secondary schools and comparison schools. However, this result has a low to moderate security rating, so it should be interpreted with some caution.
- Factors that may help explain the findings include low compliance and the possibility that other interventions were happening at the same time.
- Although pupils eligible for Free School Meals made two fewer months’ progress in English, we are not confident in this finding. This is down to the low to moderate security of the trial, the smaller number of pupils in this group, and because there was no evidence from the implementation and process evaluationAn IPE is used to understand how and why an intervention has (or has not) been successful. Data is analysed to explore programme quality, reach, adaptation and differentiation, as well as setting fidelity and responsiveness to the trial design. to explain this finding.
- Even though the trial did not find any evidence of greater progress in attainment on pupils in English Mastery Secondary schools, teacher survey and interview data suggested that English Mastery delivered a number of the intended changes in teaching and learning. Teachers and pupils perceived improvement in subject knowledge, English skills, and self-confidence.
- English Mastery Secondary requires significant time and planning to implement across a school, and many school leaders in the trial found it challenging to create the full conditions for programme delivery. Recruitment to the trial also took longer than expected. This suggests that schools need strong support from senior leaders, including from trust-level leadership where relevant, to create the time and conditions needed for successful implementation.
- Schools considering implementing English Mastery Secondary should think carefully about whether they have the capacity and time to implement the programme as intended.