Mathematics Mastery Primary by Ark Curriculum Plus is a whole-school approach to teaching mathematics. It is designed to enable teachers to focus on the most impactful teaching while building maths subject expertise and confidence. The subject improvement programme integrates bespoke school support with continuing professional development, assessment materials, classroom teaching resources, and a thriving community of practice.
This project is focused on KS1 and KS2 pupils, and will give schools access to two years of the Mathematics Mastery programme at a subsidised rate. Each KS1 and KS2 year group has 30 weeks of fully planned lessons, sectioned into units, with all lessons structured in the same six-part format. Each unit has a tutorial for teachers, professional development videos, and is resourced with planning guides, task sheets, lesson slides and exemplification materials. Standardised assessments are provided for each term and EOY, focused on key constructs. To support schools and teachers there is training and in-school support, an online toolkit, and collaboration opportunities amongst teachers delivering the approach.
Schools will be expected to:
- Assign a Mastery Lead to drive implementation in their school.
- Send all teachers to induction training (in person/one day/all relevant teachers).
- Facilitate two in-school support visits from your school’s Development Lead.
- Facilitate four remote development sessions with your school’s Development Lead (live/online/approx. 90m; Mastery Lead).
- Join professional development training sessions throughout the year (live/online/approx. 3h per term/all teachers; also available asynchronously).
- Implement the Mathematics Mastery Primary curriculum in years 1 and 2 (Infant schools ) and years 1 – 5 (Primary schools).
A previous EEF independent RCT evaluation found that Year 1 pupils who received Mathematics Mastery made an average of +2 months’ additional progress in maths compared to children in comparison schools. The EEF later commissioned FFT Education Data Lab to run a QED design study using NPD data, as part of a pilot of an Education Data Service. This evaluation contained around 400 schools who joined the programme from 2012 – 2018, and looked at KS1 outcomes in 2017 and 2018. The schools in the study had a higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils on average than other schools. These results added to the picture from the RCT, suggesting that pupils in primary schools which used Mathematics Mastery were more likely to be‘working beyond the expected level’, equivalent to +2 months’ additional progress. Together, these findings are promising for impact on pupils at KS1.
As part of the Department for Education’s Accelerator Fund, the EEF is supporting programmes that have positively impacted pupil outcomes in previous EEF trials to reach more pupils, by subsidising the cost of the programme for schools. We will support these programmes to be accessible at a larger scale throughout England, with schools in Education Investment Areas being prioritised for access.
EEF is subsidising this programme at 80% of the programme cost, for schools to access the Reception and KS1 programme for two years. Schools are asked to contribute 20% of the cost, which is £1,110 a year. For the first time, EEF is also subsidising the Reception, KS1 and KS2 combined programme at 70% of the programme cost. Schools are asked to contribute 30% of the cost, which is £2,150 a year.
Mathematics Mastery has already been rigorously evaluated in a previous EEF trial which produced positive findings, so this project is focused on scaling up the programme to support more schools and pupils.
EEF has commissioned an overarching scale-up evaluation of multiple EEF scale-up projects, including Mathematics Mastery. The evaluation aims to gather and synthesise insights and learnings across multiple programmes to understand effective approaches to scaling programmes beyond an effectiveness trial across early years and primary settings. We anticipate that the findings will be useful for the delivery providers, policy makers, as well as sector leaders to support effective programmes to reach more settings and pupils to improve education outcomes, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.