Changing lives and providing equity through pre-teaching and assigning competence

(2015) identified one of the key aims of teaching for mastery as being to ensure that all children have: ... a deep understanding of the mathematics they are learning so that: * Future mathematical learning is built on solid foundations that do not need to be re-taught. * There is no need for separate catch-up programmes due to some children falling behind. * Children who, under other teaching approaches, can often fall a long way behind, are better able to keep up with their peers, so that gaps in attainment are narrowed whilst the attainment of all is raised. (p.5) The main strategy to support children to "keep up", identified within the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) literature, related to teaching for mastery in mathematics, is "rapid intervention", a practice common in Shanghai. Each teacher selected three vulnerable children as their focus children for the project, which was jointly funded by Devon County Council, Jurassic Maths Hub and Cornwall and West Devon Maths Hub. Flexibility may be important in terms of making pre-teaching work in the long term, with the option to vary at least some of the children who are involved, but the impact, on the focus children in this project, relied on their sustained involvement in the pre-teaching sessions for the full year. * Length: There is no set length for a pre-teaching session, the important thing is clarity about the purpose of the session and taking the time needed. Mathematics is not about a performance and is not a memory test. * Comment on the thinking or the idea not the child. * Use simple phrases to draw attention to valuable thinking. * Anticipate and monitor. * Support other children to publicly state how they have been helped by a class member. * Subvert hierarchies that exist in the classroom. * Attend to classroom and school culture.