Welcome to the Every Child Counts programme to support schools, teachers and TAs in their development of Intervention in the Mastery Context (IMC). Many schools are beginning to adopt a mastery approach to teaching mathematics and for many of them this will require that they reappraise their approach to the ways in which they support their struggling learners.
Intervention in the Mastery Context is a comprehensive professional development course for a teacher and a teaching assistant together. It develops their understanding of the nature and practice of a mastery approach, with particular reference to intervention and to supporting struggling learners both to catch up and to keep up. They can apply their learning more widely, develop their mathematics teaching and support for all pupils and share their practice with colleagues.
The programme encouraged me to reflect on the ability of each individual child. It supported me to understand the importance of ‘small steps’ in lessons and in varying my questions. I really feel that it’ll have an impact on my practice!
Jenny Roberts, Y5 Teacher, Chorley New Road Primary school, Bolton
What are its aims?
IMC provides a comprehensive professional development programme to support schools, teachers and TAs at various stages of their adoption of a mastery approach to teaching mathematics. The programme draws on the extensive experience gained by ECC since 2008 during which time well over 100,000 struggling learners have been helped to catch up with their peers. IMC is not only based on the lessons learned from successfully working with so many learners but also with the thousands of teachers and TAs who have received professional development from ECC.
How does it work?
- The course is for experienced teachers and teaching assistants who work with the same class and share an interest in teaching mathematics.
- It combines face-to-face training with structured in-school gap tasks, readings and activities.
- The teacher and TA will need 3 half-days of release time in school to support each other to diagnose the mathematical difficulties that exist within their class and decide how best to address the needs of their learners.
- The course comprises focused training that explores the roles of both ‘keep up’ and ‘catch up’ interventions in the mastery context. It is not about a specific intervention programme.
- It supports the development of a mastery approach to teaching mathematics and focuses on getting the pre-requisites in place for effective keep-up intervention.
The programme enabled me to think carefully about the small steps needed for some learners to succeed and modify my practice to include these. It also helped me to plan tailored interventions for those children who need it.
Daniel Whittaker, Teacher, St Austin’s Catholic Primary School, Liverpool
Professional Development and Support
School will receive:
• local delivery by an accredited ECC Trainer
• 3 days of high-quality training for 2 staff members who will work as learning partners covering:
– developing a mastery approach
– planning and managing intervention
– diagnostic assessment
– variation theory
– supporting fluency
• gap tasks to try out ideas in their own classrooms
• a detailed handbook
• phone and e-mail support
To find out more please contact the ECC team [email protected]