Mastery of mathematics is something that we want all pupils to acquire, or rather to continue acquiring throughout their school lives, and beyond. Teaching for mastery is already well advanced in St William of York, and it forms a key part of work within the Maths Hubs Programme. 

Mastering maths means acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. At any one point in a pupil’s journey through school, achieving mastery is taken to mean acquiring a solid enough understanding of the maths that’s been taught to enable him/her move on to more advanced material.  It does not require children to accelerate on to the next year’s content of work, but rather develop a much deeper understanding of the current content. 

In 2015 the school was part of the China-England Exchange.  One of our teachers travelled to Shanghai and spent two weeks working alongside maths teachers in China.

St William of York was selected as the host school, and two visiting teachers, Miss Lilly Yang and Mr Alex Yan, travelled to London to spend time teaching alongside our staff.  Over the course of the two weeks, over 200 teachers came and observed teaching in our school.  The buzz of maths talk was amazing!

 We were very fortunate to have been selected as one of the few schools across the UK and we have seen a positive impact across our school, and with our pupils.