Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the the effectiveness of Maths Hubs.

The Maths Hubs’ flagship Teaching for Mastery programme is based on teaching approaches used in top performing East Asian jurisdictions such as Shanghai and Singapore. It encompasses several approaches focused on ensuring that pupils genuinely know, understand and can apply mathematics. Maths Hubs are increasing engagement with the programme with the aim of reaching 75% of primary schools and 65% of secondary schools by 2025.

There are several studies on the effectiveness of mastery teaching methods in England. The Centres for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching for Mastery Randomised Controlled Trial, published in March 2023, which provided mastery teaching support for GCSE resits, found that pupils on the full intervention made one month of additional progress in attainment compared with pupils in colleges that were not using Teaching for Mastery. Pupils from a disadvantaged background benefitted the most and research showed they made two months of additional progress.

Ofsted’s mathematics subject report, published on 13 July, builds on this, highlighting the contribution of the Maths Hubs offer to notable improvements in the quality of mathematics education since 2012. The report highlights that the overall picture of mathematics education in England is broadly healthy, with support and resources from Maths Hubs being well used by headteachers, enabling many teachers to receive high quality, subject specific career personal development.

The report also says that primary mathematics education has seen a resounding, positive shift with curriculum sitting at the heart of head teachers’ decisions and actions, whilst secondary mathematics education has seen notable improvements in curriculum guidance and professional development, though the Department recognises that there is much more to be done. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subject-report-series-maths/coordinating-mathematical-success-the-mathematics-subject-report.

England performs above the international averages for mathematics in all international studies of school aged pupils. In particular, England achieved its highest ever mathematics score in both the 2019 TIMSS international test for year 5 pupils, and the 2018 PISA test of 15 year olds. The 2018 PISA test showed that the performance of 15 year olds improved significantly in mathematics, particularly for lower attaining pupils.