the national picture
It’s difficult to quantify the impact of Teaching for Mastery on student attainment since school datais very ‘noisy’, however using results from TIMMS and Ofqual, it is clear that the impact is beginning
to show.
The graph below shows that the trend in average year 5 mathematics score is increasing and began to increase significantly after 2015 which is when the Teaching for Mastery programmes began.
Commentary
The Ofqual National Reference Test results exemplifies the impact of the Teaching for Mastery programmes on secondary students.
The same test was taken by a large sample of year 11s in late February of 2020 (before the first national lockdown).
Between 2017 and 2020, the percentage of students achieving a grade 4 and above, as well as a grade 7 and above increased dramatically.
The same increase was not seen for English language which suggests that something was happening in Maths education that impacted student progress. The Teaching for Mastery programmes continued to expand after 2017 and thus could have contributed significantly to the improvement in percentages.
