The secondary teaching for mastery NCPs form a long-term programme for schools to develop highly effective classroom practices so all students develop a secure, deep and connected understanding of maths. It is vital not only that individual teachers develop teaching for mastery approaches, but also that the department as a whole has systems, policies and ways of working which are compatible with teaching for mastery, and allow for the collaborative professional development structures which are needed in order to develop and embed these approaches and to sustain them in the long term.

The focus of this support is to build initial developments into a coherent and long-term departmental plan, targeting the needs of students and teachers.

The Mastery Advocates (designated previously in the Development Work Group) will work closely with an assigned Mastery Specialist to help them embed teaching for mastery approaches across the whole department. The focus will be on constructing or refining a coherent development plan, and supporting and leading the whole department in realising the aims of that development plan. Schools at this stage of the Teaching for Mastery Programme who are eligible for bespoke specialist support must also join the Sustaining Work Group, where they are part of a wider professional learning community.

This is a bespoke programme of support, with the Work Group Lead spending their time working alongside and supporting the Advocates. Over an extended time frame, the progression should be from supporting Advocates to develop their own classroom practice, then enabling the Advocates to work with their colleagues, and finally developing their department’s structures and systems. The amount of time and support devoted to each of these elements will vary from school to school.

Work is likely to include Advocates and others observing the Mastery Specialist in the specialist’s own school. The Mastery Specialist will also work alongside Advocates and other members of the department to jointly plan individual lessons, sequences of lessons or longer units of work, and support the Advocates to enable them to lead PD sessions for their departmental colleagues. The Mastery Specialist will work alongside Advocates to support and develop other departmental members’ teaching as appropriate, and to develop schemes of work and other departmental systems and structures to allow for a full teaching for mastery approach.

This project is for departments who participated in a Secondary Teaching for Mastery Development Work Group in the previous academic year, and who are now beginning to embed their work in developing teaching for mastery approaches. The two lead participants will ideally be the same Advocates who participated in the previous academic year. At least one of the Advocates from each school should be an experienced teacher with substantial responsibility within the department and the authority to make change happen. All Advocates should have a passion for developing teaching and an enthusiasm to work with their departmental colleagues to instigate change.

Mastery Advocates need the full support of the head of department and headteacher, and mechanisms must be in place to enable department-wide development and change to happen over an extended timeframe.

Mastery Advocates should be available to work with the Secondary Mastery Specialist for the equivalent of three days. At times it will be beneficial for one or both of the Advocates, together with the head of department, to collaborate with the Specialist. Additionally, Advocates will need to work with others within their department during their usual departmental PD time.

Advocates will work with materials, such as the NCETM Secondary Mastery Professional Development Materials, which are designed to help them understand the Five Big Ideas.