Primary Mastery Specialists Programme
The closing date for applications is 5pm 29th March 2024.
There are currently hundreds of Mastery Specialists supporting colleagues in their own schools and beyond to develop mastery approaches to maths teaching. Mastery Specialists are classroom-based practitioners who develop expertise in mastery and lead Work Groups to support other schools and teachers locally.
There are now approaching 1,000 Primary Mastery Specialists established and operational. They will collectively have worked with more than 8,000 other primary schools, which represents around half of all primary schools in England.
We are now looking to recruit for Cohort 10 of the Primary Mastery Specialist Programme!
Benefits for participating teachers and their schools
Participating in the programme will provide the following benefits to the Mastery Specialists and their schools:
• Mastery Specialists will develop:
o understanding of the principles of mastery within the context of teaching maths
o deep subject and pedagogical knowledge of primary maths to support teaching for mastery
o skills of teaching, planning and assessment in order to effectively support pupils in developing a deep and sustainable understanding (i.e. mastery) of maths
o professional development leadership skills to support teachers, within their own school and in other schools, to adopt a teaching for mastery approach, including leading Teacher Research Groups.
• Mastery Specialists will have the opportunity to work closely with the NCETM central team and the national and local communities of Mastery Specialists
• Mastery Specialists who are not already accredited NCETM PD Leads will be able to gain this accreditation through successful completion of the programme
• The Mastery Specialist’s school will benefit from high-quality and sustained support in embedding teaching for mastery across the school
This short video from 2017/18 tells you more about how Mastery Specialists are trained and what their role involves.
In their specialist training year, 2024/25, participating teachers will:
• participate in three two-day residential professional development events led by the NCETM, these will be held in November 2024, March 2025 and June 2025 but are subject to confirmation
• broaden their own understanding of, and skills in, teaching maths for mastery in their own classroom
• work with colleagues, including the headteacher, to develop teaching for mastery approaches across their school, using a range of professional development activity, including regular Teacher Research Group (TRG) meetings
• lead a pilot TRG with teachers from interested local schools
• collaborate with the Maths Hub’s leadership and the other Maths Hub Mastery Specialists.
This first year will require 15 days’ teacher release time and will be fully funded through the Maths Hubs. The second year onwards will require teacher release time and will be fully funded through the Maths Hubs. The exact number of days will be discussed with the Maths Hub and depend on the nature of the work carried out by the specialist. Typically, this could be approximately 12- 37 days in any one academic year.