What is Specialist Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics?

The Specialist Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics (SKTM) programme offers professional development for non-specialist Key Stage 3 maths teachers. It enhances subject knowledge and pedagogical understanding, aligned with teaching for mastery principles and DfE’s non-statutory Key Stage 3 guidance. Non-specialist maths teachers are those in a state-funded school who have not undertaken Initial Teacher Training in maths. 

Who is leading this project?

Designed by National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and funded by DfE, this SKTM Programme will be delivered by accredited Local Leaders of Mathematics Education (LLMEs), through participating Maths Hubs.

What will this project look like in your setting?

Participating teachers will receive six days of training, spread across the academic year, engaging in 18 topic-based sessions and work collaboratively on maths tasks (within a workbook) to explore subject knowledge, pedagogy, and common misconceptions among pupils. Teachers are also tasked with school-based challenges that encourage them to apply their training in their classrooms.

Schools will be recruited by participating Maths Hubs and then randomly allocated to a control or an intervention groupIn a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), this group receives the programme being tested. within their hub. Schools in the intervention groupIn a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), this group receives the programme being tested. will receive the SKTM Programme, along with £500 after completing the required evaluation activities. The control groupIn a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), this group continues usual practices to provide a comparison for measuring the intervention’s impact.  will not receive the programme and will continue with their normal practice. In addition, control schools will receive £1,000 upon completion of the required evaluation activities and will be placed on a waiting list to receive the programme in 2026/27 (subject to continued DfE funding).

Evaluation activities for all schools will include online surveys and attainment tests. Schools will also need hand out parent information leaflets, provide pupil data, administer assessments and communicate with the evaluation team and local Maths Hub delivery team. A sample of schools from the intervention groupIn a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), this group receives the programme being tested. will also be selected for a case study and will receive an additional payment for engagement in interviews. 

Who can take part?
To take part, schools must operate in a region supported by a participating Maths Hub and meet the following criteria:

• Be a state-funded mainstream secondary school
• Be operating in a region supported by a participating Maths Hub (see list at top of page).
• Have a non-specialist teacher, who has not undertaken Initial Teacher Training in mathematics and is teaching a Year 8 class (if the class is shared, the non-specialist teacher needs to teach at least 50% of the lessons)
• Be able to release the non-specialist teacher for all training sessions
• Not be taking part in EEF’s research trials of Peer to Peer Coaching (CoachBright) or Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators (HFL Education) in the same period of time.

How can you register your interest?

Complete the expression of interest form at the bottom of this page.

Despite almost half of England’s secondary schools using non-specialists to teach maths, there is limited robust research on the impact of professional development programmesA programme is a package of support, including professional development, that helps early years educators to improve particular areas of practice and children’s outcomes. on non-specialist teachers’ practices. SKTM is built around the mechanisms of effective professional development and aims to fill this essential evidence gap in an area crucial for practitioners and policymakers.

In England, maths departments with a shortage of teachers tend to prioritise Key Stage 4, which can mean Key Stage 3 classes are taught by non-specialists. Sometimes non-specialist teachers are assigned to lower sets too, which often include a disproportionate number of pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Improving non-specialists’ teaching practices is expected to positively impact these pupils, enabling more of them to achieve good grades in GCSE maths.

The SKTM efficacy trial will be evaluated by Sheffield Hallam University through a randomised controlled trialEvaluates an educational programme by randomly assigning settings to an intervention or control group, ensuring reliable impact measurement. . It will assess the mathematical attainment of Year 8 pupils, their experience of opportunities to think, reason and discuss maths, and their self-efficacy, as well as the impact on non-specialist teacher identities.

The implementation and process evaluation will focus on how engagement of the non-specialist teacher with maths activities leads to improved pupil outcomes, the elements of teaching for mastery and how they are taken up in classroom practice by the teacher, and the changes in pupil’s experience of maths teaching that occur.