A pandemic summer: Impact on teaching and learning for mastery in Power Maths primary schools

We report on findings from a 2019-2021 study of use and impact of Power Maths, a ‘mastery’-oriented primary (R-year 6) resource. The study follows 40 classes of 2019-20 Power Maths-using year 1, 3 and 5 children and their teachers over two years, exploring teacher/pupil use and impact on learning. We report initial high-level findings. Summer 2020 study data serendipitously enabled us to understand aspects of teachers’ work over the pandemic period. Teachers reported particular challenges in addressing new areas requiring conceptual development, and inability to effectively develop children’s mathematical language or reasoning, or to monitor deep progress in mathematics learning. However, some children’s learning benefited from small group in-school provision, and others’ from more contextualised and less time-constrained ‘home schooling’. Tentatively, children returning to school often showed initially slow, but accelerating, recovery from confidence and learning loss.