Developing the maths mastery approach in a mixed-aged school

In 2014, a new National Curriculum was introduced in England which significantly changed the contents of the maths curriculum in Primary Schools (DfE, 2014). The new curriculum effectively increased the level of challenge for primary school children, as some year group’s objectives were moved to the year below. For example, five-year-olds were now expected to learn to count up to 100, compared with just 20 under the previous curriculum (DfE, 2014). I initially began using the maths mastery approach because I was asked to do so in my previous school setting. However, I had also come to recognise that the former methods of teaching maths did not ensure that all children became confident mathematicians. Four years later and I am well on my way to using the maths mastery approach to teach maths. This article is based on the impact of adopting maths mastery at my school, St Michael’s Primary School in East Sussex. The old method of whole-class differentiation did not seem right and fel