A new chapter for English Mastery: knowledge-rich approach selected for EEF research trial

Friday 8th February 2019

English Mastery, a knowledge-rich, key stage three curriculum and teacher development programme, incubated by Ark Ventures, has been selected for a two-year Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) efficacy trial, it was announced today.

An earlier and smaller trial of English Mastery published last year by the Brilliant Club, concluded that, on average, students in schools that adopted the programme made four months more progress than similar students in similar schools that did not adopt the programme.

The EEF trial, which will be independently evaluated by a team of researchers at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), is designed to build on those promising early findings and find out whether similar results can be achieved in a large number of schools.

Amy McJennett, English Mastery’s Director said: “English Mastery provides teachers with a coherent curriculum that builds year on year. The content is carefully sequenced to help students master the ideas, concepts and stories that have shaped the world. We’re really proud of the programme and eager to take part in this research. Great curricular can transform student outcomes and we are looking forward to working with teachers to show this.”

110 schools, 700 teachers and 40,000 students will participate in the trial which will assess the impact of a knowledge-rich curriculum on student outcomes in English across Years 7 and 8. It will also consider whether centralised, coherent curricular can contribute to reducing teacher workload.

Rebecca Boomer-Clark, Ark’s Director of Secondary said: “A fully-sourced curriculum such as English Mastery reduces a teacher’s workload by ensuring that they have the right tools and support they need. This allows teachers to place their focus where it really belongs– on their students in the classroom. English Mastery combines a world-class curriculum with a robust training programme. It unlocks the love of language and literature and we couldn’t be more pleased to be part of this research trial.”

Eleanor Stringer, Head of Programmes at the EEF said: “There’ s promising evidence that English Mastery can have a good impact on students’ outcomes, particularly those with low prior attainment. This trial will tell us whether these positive findings can be translated into a large number of schools across England.”

Schools interested in learning more about the trial can visit www.englishmastery.org to find out more.