Mathematics Mastery Primary

Many aspects of mathematics mastery programmes are aligned with evidence on high quality maths teaching, including the use of manipulativesobjects that educators and children can move and interact with to represent mathematical ideas (including fingers, everyday objects, such as buttons or pine cones, and mathematical resources such as Numicon, Cuisenaire rods). and representations, emphasis on mathematical structure and a focus on teaching problem solving strategies.

EEF trialled the Mathematics Mastery primary programme at effectiveness level. This means EEF have trialled this programme with a larger number of schools in circumstances that are as close as possible to everyday conditions. The independent evaluation found that Y1 pupils in schools adopting Ark Mathematics Mastery made, on average, two months’ additional progress compared to other pupils in comparison schools. These results have a moderate-to-high security rating: 3 out of 5 on the EEF padlock scale, meaning we are moderately confident that this difference was due to the intervention and not to other factors.

The EEF later commissioned FFT Education Data Lab to run a quasi-experimental design (QED) study using data from the National Pupil Database, 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 SATs outcomes in 2017 and 2018. The schools in the study had a higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils on average than other schools. The evaluation design means that it is less rigorous than the EEF trial, however, the 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 two months’ additional progress. Together, these findings are promising for impact on pupils at KS1.

Taken together, these results have led EEF to designate this as a ​‘Promising Programme’ for KS1 maths.

For the version trialled, headteachers, maths coordinators and class teachers received one or two days of launch training and two in-school development visits. In addition, teachers attended three cluster workshops with teachers from other schools that were implementing the same curriculum. The most recent iteration of the programme involves one day of induction training for all teachers, two in-person school support visits, remote sessions with the lead at the school, and the opportunity to join additional PD training throughout the year with other schools.

In the trial teachers had access to an online toolkit which included​lesson plans, continuous professional development resources, and assessments. The most recent iteration of the programme contains 30 weeks of fully planned lessons each academic year, 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 end of year, focused on key constructs.

Ark Curriculum Plus now provide different ​‘tiers’ of support appropriate for different stages in a school’s mastery development. The version EEF trialled is closest to the highest tier of support ​‘Tailored’, which Ark Curriculum Plus recommend for schools in their first few years of implementation.