University of Liverpool Maths School
A school still drawing down its own reserves four years in, propped up by philanthropic donations the standard 16–19 funding formula doesn't cover.
Who files the accounts
University of Liverpool Mathematics School is its own single-academy trust — a charitable company that files its own audited accounts, separate from the University of Liverpool.
The accounts, year by year
The most recent filed accounts (2023/24, year ended 31 August 2024) show a net result of −£36k.
| 2018/19 (first period) | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total income | £77k | £502k | £882k | £945k | £1.06m | £1.29m |
| of which ESFA / DfE core grant (GAG) | — | — | £640k | £738k | £758k | £928k |
| Total expenditure | £45k | £252k | £850k | £945k | £1.08m | £1.33m |
| of which staff costs | £9.1k | £140k | £514k | £649k | £773k | £1.01m |
| Net result for the year | +£32k | +£250k | +£31k | −£271 | −£19k | −£36k |
| Total funds carried forward | £32k | £282k | £309k | £346k | £344k | £302k |
| …of which pension (LGPS) surplus/(deficit) | — | — | — | — | — | £0 |
| Average staff (headcount) | 7 | 10 | 22 | 12 | 15 | 19 |
Figures as stated in each year's filed annual report and financial statements; see sources for the documents.
2018/19 (first period) → 2019/20 → 2020/21 → 2021/22 → 2022/23 → 2023/24
DfE benchmarking
2024/25 summary: in-year balance −£6,000, revenue reserve £236,000. Teaching & teaching-support staff cost £8,443 per pupil; non-educational support staff £2,462/pupil. Pupil:teacher ratio 9.43. FBIT's summary view doesn't expose a total income/expenditure figure. See the school's page on the DfE Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool (latest year: 2024/25).
Pay disclosures
Academy trusts and charities must disclose senior pay in salary bands in their audited accounts. The most recent disclosure (2023/24) reads:
Headteacher D Haigh: £85,000–£90,000 (2023: £75,000–£80,000); employer's pension contributions £20,000–£25,000. One other employee: £60,001–£70,000.
Reproduced exactly as banded in the filed accounts — the documents disclose bands, not exact salaries, and so do we.
Notable items in the accounts
- 2023/24: Ofsted rated the school Outstanding in all areas following its March 2024 inspection.
- 2023/24: 59% of Year 13 students achieved 3 A*/A grades in summer 2024; 87% of A-level entries graded A*–B, 33% A*.
- 2023/24: A £36k deficit for the year (2023: £19k deficit) — drawn from reserves in the school's fourth year of operation.
- 2023/24: £131,250 of unsolicited philanthropic donations (including Gift Aid) funded additional student support beyond the standard 16–19 bursary.
- 2023/24: Total funds carried forward of £301,886, including £200,000 in an interest-paying short-term treasury deposit.
- 2023/24: Staff headcount grew to 19 (12 teachers including SLT, 7 admin/support) from 15 the year before.
- 2022/23: 88% of A-level grades A*–B, 69% A*–A, 29% A*; continued 100% STEM-degree progression for leavers.
- 2022/23: The trustees' report records ongoing reliance on two named philanthropic donors to fund bursary support above standard 16–19 Bursary Fund levels.
- 2021/22: The first cohort's A-level results: 87% grades A*–B, 59% A*–A, 20% A*; all students progressed to STEM degrees at British universities.
- 2020/21: The school opened for pupils in September 2020 with an intake of 30 Year 12 students — its first year of operation and first year receiving GAG.
- 2020/21: The reported headcount of 22 appears to double-count 12 unpaid Trustees as staff — the following year's accounts restate this year's figure to 10; shown here as originally filed.
- 2019/20: COVID-19 hit mid-year: outreach teaching pivoted online, growing attendance from ~20–30 to 200+ students per session while cutting costs.
- 2019/20: Secured a £300,000 philanthropic funding commitment from XTX Markets over 3 years (£100,000 received this year). The first recruitment cohort for the September 2020 opening landed at 30 students.
- 2018/19 (first period): First accounting period — a pre-opening development period with no pupils on roll. Income was entirely a DfE post-opening/project development grant (£30,000) plus outreach income (£46,500), not GAG.
- 2018/19 (first period): All expenditure was funded by the University of Liverpool, owed back to the University as a creditor and repaid in August 2020.
Sources
- 1.University of Liverpool Mathematics School — Companies House filing history — find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11686521/filing-history
- 2.Trustees' report and financial statements, year ended 31 August 2024 — www.liverpoolmathsschool.org/Trust-Accounts/ULMaS_Accs_23-24.pdf (text-searchable PDF hosted on the school's own Trust Accounts page)
- 3.Trustees' report and financial statements, year ended 31 August 2023 — www.liverpoolmathsschool.org/Trust-Accounts/ULMaS_Accs_22-23.pdf (text-searchable PDF hosted on the school's own Trust Accounts page)
- 4.Accounts for years ended 31 August 2019–2022 — find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11686521/filing-history (scanned filings, read as page images)
- 5.DfE Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool — financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/school/147477/summary (URN 147477)
What we could not verify: Companies House shows accounts filed to 31 August 2025; only 2022/23 and 2023/24 are posted as text-searchable PDFs on the school's own site, so 2023/24 is the latest year shown. 2018/19–2021/22 exist only as scanned filings and were read as page images.; Exact pupil roll for 2023/24 wasn't stated in the trustees' report — GIAS shows a later, differently-dated snapshot (~95 on roll) not clearly aligned to the 31 August 2024 year end, so it's omitted. Pupil rolls for other years weren't extracted either.; Each year's closing total funds matches the next year's opening balance exactly across the whole run (2018/19 through 2023/24), a strong cross-check on accuracy.; The individual ESFA 16–19 funding allocation figure lives only inside a large multi-thousand-row DfE spreadsheet, not a per-school lookup page, and wasn't pulled this pass..
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