"When the expected standard is 54 marks out of 110 (as it was in 2024 KS2 Sats), it’s clear that we do not really have a mastery system." It's always baffled me how there has been a sustained national push towards a mastery approach, yet the assessment framework has remained woefully misaligned. - ThreadSky

steviecaldwell.bsky.social • 98 days ago

"When the expected standard is 54 marks out of 110 (as it was in 2024 KS2 Sats), it’s clear that we do not really have a mastery system."

It's always baffled me how there has been a sustained national push towards a mastery approach, yet the assessment framework has remained woefully misaligned.

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helenjwc.bsky.social•97 days ago

You certainly ain’t going to fix the primary curriculum by having “phonics for maths”.
Also- we already have it with @ncetm.bsky.social’s “mastering number” https://www.ncetm.org.uk/maths-hubs-projects/mastering-number-at-reception-and-ks1

steviecaldwell.bsky.social•97 days ago

The mastering number resources are great. I think the article is suggesting a similar approach but to have it enshrined within the NC.

helenjwc.bsky.social•97 days ago

I can’t see the point. The whole NC needs a rethink. What really needs attention is the lack of attention to spatial reasoning-a far greater predictor of later success than arithmetic.
Also- affective and attitudinal issues; which are still extremely poor. Partly due to an overemphasis on number.

steviecaldwell.bsky.social•97 days ago

I’ve heard that spatial reasoning is a strong predictor of future success before, but I’ve not read into it at all. Is there anything you could point me to?

helenjwc.bsky.social•97 days ago

Yes! Thx for asking!
If you go to our ECMG spatial reasoning toolkit - all the refs and loads of supporting materials are there - all **freely available** https://earlymaths.org/spatial-reasoning/
And specifically here for research: https://earlymaths.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ECMG-Spatial-Reasoning-Toolkit-Feb-2022.pdf

dbrian2.bsky.social•97 days ago

📌

steviecaldwell.bsky.social•97 days ago

Great. Thanks for the link!

elgarmaths.bsky.social•98 days ago

How many primary schools actually have a true mastery system do you think?

steviecaldwell.bsky.social•98 days ago

Very few. Given stretched resources and staffing, same-day intervention is challenging to implement and sustain. However, other aspects of the approach have landed more successfully.

elgarmaths.bsky.social•98 days ago

So a push for mastery but without being given the means to achieve mastery and an assessment that is not aligned to mastery.

Recipe for disaster?

steviecaldwell.bsky.social•98 days ago

I wouldn’t say disaster. But same-day intervention is a key part of the ‘keep up, not catch up’ philosophy. Mastery has definitely changed attitudes to differentiation and adaptive teaching in a positive way, and broadly speaking I’d say that pedagogy has improved.

elgarmaths.bsky.social•98 days ago

I forget the name of the person who had senior leadership take all the assemblies and the teachers would use the time for intervention.

Matt?

steviecaldwell.bsky.social•98 days ago

A good idea in theory, but in my experience these things go easily awry. Especially at primary where staffing is often on a knife edge.

oldmanteacher1.bsky.social•97 days ago

Mastery by that approach - same day interventions - means the end of a balanced and broad curriculum that all pupils can experience and access.

elgarmaths.bsky.social•97 days ago

Same day interventions is mastery isn't it? There isn't another approach to mastery I thought?

learnwhatyoulive.bsky.social•97 days ago

It just seems impossible to achieve within a standardly staffed class unless you do nothing else.

suchmo83.bsky.social•97 days ago

I guess one of the challenges is that standardised assessments are designed to differentiate between pupils, which by definition requires plenty of questions the the average pupil will struggle with, regardless of the curriculum expectations.

markgoodrich.bsky.social•97 days ago

You see that in GCSEs for sure but I think it might be better to aim for less differentiation in KS2 SATs with more attempts to get children to a minimum standard.

suchmo83.bsky.social•97 days ago

I totally agree, but it would inevitably mean that we'd have to accept that the same assessment would be much less reliable in identifying those pupils who were particularly strong, i.e. lots more pupils achieving/missing out on greater depth by a single mark.

(I'd be happy to ditch GD.)

markgoodrich.bsky.social•97 days ago

And, as the article says, try to get away from being able to game it by focusing heavily on arithmetic to get to Expected.

suchmo83.bsky.social•97 days ago

Depends what we mean by focusing heavily on arithmetic. I'd argue that the focus on written arithmetic is currently the number one cause of teaching distortion in year 6 mathematics. Pretty much every school tries to 'game' the SATs by disproportionately focusing on written methods.

helenjwc.bsky.social•97 days ago

Couldn’t agree more Christopher.
Add to that all the research that points to spatial reasoning as the better predictor of future achievement &maths success; and that being an area we pay scant attention to despite that.

suchmo83.bsky.social•97 days ago

To be clear, I am not disagreeing with the article. I'm merely making the point that we'd need to accept that the Y6 SATs would tell us less about differences between pupils at the expected level or above (which is something I'd be fine with, but I don't know whether everyone would be).

markgoodrich.bsky.social•97 days ago

Yes, I’d be happy with the trade-off as well

markgoodrich.bsky.social•97 days ago

Yes, that’s exactly what I meant!

suchmo83.bsky.social•97 days ago

Gotcha.

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