How maths schools are funded
Five different money models hide behind eleven similar-looking schools. This page explains each one — and what the DfE actually commits to a specialist maths school, per the documents.
Model 1 — the stand-alone academy trust
Most open maths schools are their own single-academy trust: a company limited by guarantee and exempt charity that receives ESFA funding directly and files its own audited accounts at Companies House. Their money is fully visible — every dossier on this site for these schools reads straight from their own filings.
Model 2 — the academy inside a multi-academy trust
Cambridge, Leeds, Imperial and Surrey sit inside multi-academy trusts. The trust is the legal entity: it receives the funding, employs the staff and files one consolidated set of accounts. The maths school's own finances are visible only through DfE school-level benchmarking data and whatever the trust's narrative discloses. This isn't evasion — it's how MATs work — but it does mean four schools' finances are structurally harder to see.
Model 3 — the university sponsor
Every state maths school has a university sponsor, but the sponsorship is mostly people and premises rather than cash: seconded academics, masterclasses, governance time, sometimes buildings. Where a filing quantifies sponsor support, the school's dossier says so; where it doesn't, the support is real but invisible in the accounts.
Model 4 — the DfE programme money
Specialist maths schools are funded like other 16–19 free schools — national funding rate per student, plus weightings — with programme-specific arrangements on top. What is actually documented:
“Funding was provided by the DfE (excluding capital)... This was made up of 'basic rate' per-student funding and a maths school top-up.” — King's College London Maths School Trust — annual report, year ended 31 August 2025
| Funding year | Rate per student | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | £4,843 | Band 5 (580+ planned hours) — the band nearly all A-level and Level 3 programmes fall into. |
| 2025/26 | £5,105 | +5.4% on 2024/25, announced alongside an extra £190m for 16–19 education nationally from September 2025. |
The baseline every 16–19 provider gets before programme weightings, disadvantage funding and top-ups.
Model 5 — the independent outlier
The 1729 Maths School takes no state funding at all: it is a fee-charging independent school funded by fees and a large philanthropic commitment, registered as a charity. Its dossier explains the structure — and what its first filings will eventually show that press releases can't.
Capital: the invisible half
Buildings for free schools are typically funded by the DfE outside the school's own revenue accounts, so a school can occupy a multi-million-pound new build that never appears as its own spending. Where a capital figure for a maths school project has been published, it appears in the table below and on the school's dossier.