Behind the scenes of the Mastery Readiness programme

In this podcast, we visit Spring Bank Primary School in Leeds and talk to headteacher, Sarah Hawes and maths lead, Tracey Baruah. With 40 years’ experience between them, they explain their enthusiasm for what the Mastery Readiness Programme is offering the children in their school.

The Mastery Readiness Programme began work with a small number of schools in the Northern Powerhouse in 2018/19. The programme was designed in response to Maths Hubs’ recognition that some schools were not able or ready to engage with the full Teaching for Mastery Programme. This bespoke programme offers schools support with preparatory groundwork to become ‘ready’ for teaching for mastery. The programme is being rolled out nationally in 2019/20.

If your school might benefit from participation in the expanding Mastery Readiness Programme, please contact your local Maths Hub, or email Emma Patman or Elizabeth Lambert directly.

You can also find out more about the programme by visiting the Mastery Readiness section of our website.

Show notes

Taking part in the discussion are:

• Sarah Hawes, Headteacher at Spring Bank Primary School
• Tracey Baruah, Maths Lead at Spring Bank Primary School
• Gwen Tresidder, Communications Manager, NCETM

Episode chapters

• 01:10 – Introductions and how the school began with mastery
• 05:05 – What the Mastery Readiness Programme involves
• 07:25 – Not like attending one-off workshops
• 09:45 – Getting all staff on board
• 12:32 – Articulate children
• 14:47 – A different type of training
• 18:42 – Understanding what ‘going deeper’ means
• 19:29 – Focus on problem solving
• 25:18 – What pupils have got out of it
• 27:17 – Abandoning ability-groupings: a revelation
• 32:26 – Next year: the full Teaching for Mastery Programme
• 33:57 – The challenges
• 39:39 – Advice for heads considering Mastery Readiness.