Masterclass organiser resources

In 2023/24 academic year, the Ri Masterclass team and our partners across the UK delivered 125 Masterclass series, running around 630 Masterclass workshops for over 4,500 students, with great feedback from across the network. We also ran 40 training sessions run for sixth formers and older secondary students to develop and deliver Masterclasses for Primary pupils, with additional of trainings and 1-1 support sessions for undergraduates, postgraduates, academics and professionals across the UK. As always, we are very grateful to all who contributed, giving up their time and resources to make these Masterclasses special.

In the past year we've successfully trailed a new Hub model for masterclass series involved in the Sixth-Form-to-Primary project and have been working on our templates, guidance and evaluation model - see below for updates, with more to come throughout 24/25. We've started working with PhD interns who have been busy working on a variety of projects within the Masterclass team - see a summary of the 2023/24 series feedback, and watch out for new Secondary Maths Off the Shelf Masterclasses in autumn 2024!

Consent forms:

We have updated the consent forms and to ensure consistency across the programme; please see the updated files below. You'll notice that we now have versions for 'accompanied' and 'unaccompanied' series rather than primary and secondary; accompanied series are where teachers/adults from participating schools bring a group of their students and remain with them throughout, retaining the pastoral care of those students. COMING SOON: Templates for the new Hub model.

Electronic Recruitment:

Electronic recruitment forms for schools, students and volunteer helpers are available for all series types, on both MS Forms and (coming soon!) Google Forms. See below for an example - we will create specific versions for your series, enabling you to edit and giving you access to the data collected. Please ask your Masterclass coordinator.

Evaluation templates:

We have been working with a number of you to trial pre- and post-series feedback forms, and are excited to launch our new evaluation templates. These should make it easier to collect data on the impact of Masterclasses from across the network, and will allow us to share the national picture with you for you to use with your own supporters. You can use 'paper' or electronic forms; the post-series form collects data on your series specifically, so we'll set up specific online forms for you if you would like to use the electronic versions, Please see the templates below!

Organiser Handbooks:

We are in the process of updating our guidance documentation - check back for more updates later in the academic year. The following documents have been updated for 2024:

Handbook 3: Data Protection

If you are new to organising Masterclasses, read our introduction: Masterclasses Handbook 1 

• Face-Face Masterclasses are held in-person. All documentation is on this page

• Online Masterclasses, all activities are delivered via a video conference platform and students access the sessions on individual devices (normally from home). All documentation is on this page

• Livestreamed Masterclasses are streamed into schools and students stay in their own classrooms to watch them and join in the activities. See Livestream webpage for information and documentation.

Below are all the templates and resources you need to undertake Masterclasses, involving:

1. Start organising by completing an Organiser Agreement and reading our handbooks

2. Recruit students via teacher nomination

3. Create a pack for the supervisor overseeing your Masterclass sessions

Contact us if you have any questions or would like to review this with a member of the Ri team. 

Share the organiser handbooks with your organising committee. Ensure you read Handbooks 1, 2 and 3, plus any other relevant ones.

The Masterclass team are happy to support any organiser or contributor who would prefer a verbal overview of the relevant handbooks and guidance - please get in touch to arrange a briefing.

• Handbook 1: Masterclass introduction and general requirements for organisers
• Handbook 2: Safeguarding and health & safety for face-face Masterclass (version 2023)
• Handbook 3: Data protection
• Handbook 4: Finance reporting
• Handbook 5: Marketing

Running online Masterclasses? Use our Online Masterclasses Handbook for Organisers

Planning to take and share photographs? Use our Photography, Video and Social Media Guide

• Child Safeguarding Policy and Safeguarding Procedures; more information is on our safeguarding webpage
• The Data protection policy and Social Media Policy can be found on our policies webpage
• Code of conduct for Masterclass students and adult attendees

Masterclass students are nominated by their teachers. Organisers send nomination packs to teachers a few weeks or months before their Masterclasses start.

All groups must use Ri parent/carer consent statements for Masterclass students. 

Teacher nomination packs include:

1. Invitation to schools (teacher letter)
2. Teacher nomination form
3. Parent/carer letter
4. Parent/carer consent form

Some of the above documents may be combined into one file; as always, please ensure you open using the desktop apps to maintain layout and formatting.

Please select your pack:

• ACCOMPANIED students – students attend in-person Masterclasses with an adult from their school and remain under their under supervision throughout the Masterclasses (usually only Primary Masterclasses): Accompanied students recruitment pack (zip file with two documents)
• UNACCOMPANIED students – students attend either online or in-person Masterclasses where the Masterclass supervisor(s) are in charge of their pastoral care and hold their details and consent forms: Unaccompanied students recruitment pack (zip file with four documents)
• Livestream Masterclasses - students remain in their schools and take part in livestreamed Masterclasses, with several schools taking part in the live class all at the same time:  New files coming soon - for now use the previous versions: Livestream recruitment packs 
• COMING SOON: Hub model - trained groups of sixth formers go into individual primary schools to deliver their Masterclasses, with students from all primary schools coming together at least once in the series. This format works well where primary schools cannot regularly bring their pupils to a central location. 

Interested in doing your student recruitment electronically? 

Electronic forms allow for for efficient student recruitment and data sharing with the Ri, with no more typing in hand-completed data. Ask us if you would like to do this - we can provide Microsoft Forms (if you have a work or school Office 365 account) or (COMING SOON) Google Forms for your individual series. The pack includes:

• Full instructions on how to use the system
• Teacher nomination email templates and forms: 
  • Available now: Letters and forms for in-person, online, or hybrid (online & f-f sessions) Masterclasses
  • Coming soon: Letters and forms for Livestream and Hub model Masterclasses
• Student parent/carer letter/email templates and consent forms:
  • Available now: Letters and forms for in-person, online, or hybrid (online & f-f sessions) Masterclasses
  • Coming soon: Letters and reduced consent forms for Livestream and Hub model, for situations where consent would be needed (e.g. group events, photo permissions or optional demographics information)
• Volunteer forms - for collecting volunteer helpers' details and availability directly (for example, with the link passed on by nominating teacher to their colleagues)

Example letters and instructions coming soon to this webpage; forms will need to be created specifically for your series.

There may well be other adult contributors helping you to deliver your Masterclass series, such as speakers helpers and supervisors.

Share our adult contributor webpage with them so they have access to our materials and handbooks. Put them in touch with us if additional training is needed on how to lead a workshop or supervise young people.

Supervisors will need access to the following documents, all of which should be prepared by the organisers in advance of series start.

1. Risk assessments

Provide your supervisors with a risk assessment that covers Masterclasses. Review it with them and cover any emergency/incident procedures that they are not familiar with for your venue.

2. Registers and emergency contact details

• Student register
• List of emergency contact details and health/accessibility information for your Masterclass students must be given to the supervisor by organiser
• To record attending adults, use Adult register template or End of Series reporting spreadsheet for online Masterclasses

3. Safeguarding

• Safeguarding report form and poster
• Spare copies of the relevant Parent/Carer Consent form (provided by organiser)

4. Additional resources if you are working with 16-18 year-old helpers/speakers

• Sixth form helper register template and consent form (zip of 2 files)

Your risk assessment (RA) needs to cover all aspects of working with Masterclass students at your venue, capturing all procedures to keep everyone safe. Share with your Masterclass supervisors well before series start date and review procedures with them.

Use our Risk Assessment Guides to help you build your RA and as a useful 'quick access' to most salient points in our handbooks.

• Ri risk assessment guide Face-Face v23
• Ri risk assessment guide ONLINE v2
• Template for activity-specific risk assessment if standard RA doesn’t cover any activity undertaken

Try our new pre- and post-series feedback templates with your students, either electronically or in paper form (or both!). We have different versions for maths and computer science series - if you are running a Masterclass series in a different subject, please ask us for tailored forms. In both cases the forms are for primary and secondary students.

Why are we asking for both pre- and post-series feedback? We want to be able to better show the impact of the Masterclass programme, which includes the change in attitudes and opinions of students from before and after the Masterclasses. The pre- and post- series surveys ask a variety of multiple-choice questions designed to capture students' opinions on themselves and their relationship with the subject, attending the Masterclasses (and the venue, where applicable), and how they feel about the subject in a wider context. Both series are anonymous, so results will give an overall picture from your series and across the Masterclass network, which we can share with you. It's also the first time we'll be routinely asking for more demographics data so we can build a better picture of who is attending Masterclasses and where we may have gaps in provision (beyond purely geographical). The post-series surveys  ask for feedback on your Masterclass series, including on the individual sessions, to help you plan for the future and give feedback to your workshop leaders. 

Why do we have separate forms for maths and computer science? When we trialled some similar pre- and post- series feedback questions with a handful of series in the summer term 2024, we found some differences in the patterns of the data - we'd like to see if this continues on a wider scale, or if it was specific to those series. In addition, the forms mention the specific subjects, so it means less editing for everyone!

These have been designed to work either as students arrive at the sessions, or sent in advance via email, whichever works best for your series. The electronic surveys include a question on where the students are attending Masterclasses, so we can filter and share the results with you. Just share the relevant link below! Alternatively, if you need tailored versions for your institution to add questions, please get in touch. For paper forms, please edit the title to name your series, and share the results with us.

• Pre-series student survey - Mathematics Masterclasses: 
  • Download paper template (open in desktop app to preserve formatting)
  • Shareable online form link: https://forms.office.com/e/xb6smkv2GJ
  • Download QR code to online form (zipped picture)
• Pre-series student survey - Computer Science Masterclasses: 
  • Download paper template (open in desktop app to preserve formatting)
  • Shareable online form link: https://forms.office.com/e/MSG0PxRF2S
  • Download QR code to online form (zipped picture)

Want to share with students/parents and carers via email? Here are some words which may be helpful: "We're keen to hear the views of students both before and after they attend the Masterclass workshops. This survey should only take a few minutes to complete and is anonymous, and questions are all either optional or have a 'don't know' option. Don't worry if you're not sure for any of the questions, just choose 'don't know'. Please complete this before you start the first session, and if you aren't able to, that's OK. Your answers will help us to evaluate the impact of the Masterclass programme. Thank you so much for your time!"

You'll need to edit the template to include your series timetable (or can remove those questions if you collect session feedback during the series). If using electronic forms, you'll need a specific form for your series, so please ask us and we'll set this up so you can edit the form and access the data.

• Post-series student survey - Mathematics Masterclasses: 
  • Download paper template
  • EXAMPLE online form - do not share this link, we will create you a tailored version with instructions on what to edit and how to share. 
• Post-series student survey - Computer Science Masterclasses: 
  • Download paper template
  • EXAMPLE online form - do not share this link, we will create you a tailored version with instructions on what to edit and how to share.

We plan to share the data from across the network at the end of the academic year, but ask us if you need something sooner!

Our off-the-shelf Ri Masterclass resources have everything you need to run a primary mathematics Ri Masterclass workshop. Contact us if you would like extension resources for secondary mathematics or computer science.

These are useful tools for communicating with Masterclass stakeholders and potential contributors. Please see Handbook 5 for more details. If you plan to film or photograph students for publicity material (only permitted for face-to-face Masterclasses, unless you are only including students from your own school), you must read our photography/video and social media guidance.

Communication pack downloads

Tools to help you

• Masterclass programme template
• Ri Masterclasses network logo
• Masterclass boiler plates 2023

Ri Masterclass sponsorship letter