This community is designed for existing Secondary Subject Leaders - all schools involved in secondary teaching for mastery Work Groups and Programmes should participate. The community is also open to subject leaders whose schools are not yet involved.

Student outcomes

In almost all classes within the department, students will:

• develop a deep, secure and connected understanding of the maths they are learning

• achieve both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency

• think, reason and discuss their maths in order to deepen their understanding

 • have a positive attitude to maths and attain high levels of achievement in maths.

Whole-school/departmental policies and approaches

Participants and their departments will:

• share a common vision, culture and set of principles which align with those in the NCETM’s Essence of Mathematics Teaching for Mastery

• continue to develop teaching for mastery approaches consistently within their own departments

• have structures and systems which allow for dedicated time for collaboration and development with shared responsibility for developing pedagogy.

Practice development

Participants and their departments will:

• continue to develop classroom practices aligned to those in the NCETM’s Essence of Mathematics Teaching for Mastery

• collaborate to create a coherent curriculum in a culture of professional learning

• develop and implement a coherent and ambitious sustained development plan with clear aims based on evidence of need, and an associated professional development programme which will support all departmental members in meeting these aims.

Professional learning

Participants and their departments will:

• have a deep understanding of the practices aligned to those in the NCETM’s Essence of Mathematics Teaching for Mastery

• understand the value of collaboration in creating a coherent curriculum in a culture of professional learning

• have a clear understanding of the leadership and management support required to enable them to effectively develop teaching for mastery approaches within their own departments

• understand the principles and practices behind the creation of a coherent and connected curriculum which promotes teaching for mastery

• understand the benefits of collaborative professional development.

The intended participants for this Work Group are teachers in schools which have previously engaged with a Secondary Teaching for Mastery Programme or Work Group. This includes all schools which have previously engaged with a Development Work Group and schools who have had a Secondary Mastery Specialist trained in Cohorts 1 to 8.

The intention of these Work Groups is for teaching for mastery to be developed across the entire department. Consequently, all Work Groups should include a continual thread of implementation, supporting participants to work effectively with other members of their department. Within each Work Group, participants will also have an opportunity for collaborative lesson observation.

A pair of participants from each school will join the Work Group and the pair will ideally comprise at least one Mastery Specialist or Mastery Advocate. Work Groups will meet for the equivalent of three days across the year; some of this might be online and some might be in-person.

Hubs will offer a selection from four foci; for each of these foci there will be a toolkit of resources which the Work Group Lead can draw from to support Work Group sessions.

• Focus A: Developing mathematical thinking across a maths department

• Focus B: Developing collaborative planning/observation within maths departments

• Focus C: Developing an understanding of secondary teaching for mastery

• Focus D: Developing coherence across maths and science departments

For all participant schools there is also an expectation that the subject leader participates in a subject leader community (NCP25-15).