At least six of the government’s 11 specialist maths schools have been forced to push back their opening dates or are operating on temporary sites, Tes has learned.

The delays have prompted questions from a headteachers’ leader over whether the millions spent on the projects would have been better directed at existing sixth forms.

And a multi-academy trust leader involved in one of the projects has expressed his frustration at the delays in getting it off the ground, which he says have worsened due to election purdah.

The maths schools, run by academy trusts, are aimed at 16- to 19-year-olds who show particular aptitude in maths and other related subjects.

All the schools are backed by universities, and aim to be regional centres for excellence for maths teaching and to increase the number of pupils going on to science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) degrees.

The government committed in 2019 to opening 11 maths schools - but four are still yet to open, Tes understands.

MAT chief: Launch date ‘slipping through our fingers’

University of Nottingham Maths School and Aston University Maths School listed September 2024 as their proposed opening date in business cases submitted to the Department of Education, a freedom of information request has revealed.

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Both have had to delay their opening dates to September 2025 - with even this delayed date looking uncertain for Nottingham, Tes has learned.

Durham Maths School is not set to open until September 2026, with work still underway to find a site.

And Surrey Mathematics School is due to open this September, but on a temporary site.

Three other maths schools are operating on temporary sites: University of Liverpool Mathematics School, Imperial College London Mathematics School and Cambridge Maths School.

Rob McDonough, chief executive officer of East Midlands Education Trust, which is set to run the University of Nottingham Maths School, said it was forced to move the opening date back to next year after realising September 2024 was unrealistic.

“We have been trying to find a permanent site for it, but all the work has stopped during purdah,” Mr McDonough told Tes.

“It means for us that a September 2025 opening is starting to slip through our fingers,” he added.

‘A limited availability of sites’

The trust wants to open the school on a site well connected to the university and the city centre, but Mr McDonough said that many such properties are owned by the council - and that discussions have proved slow.

A spokesperson for Nottingham City Council said it supported the plans, but pointed to “a limited availability of sites”.

Aston University Maths School entered its pre-opening phase in July 2021, and is set to be run by a new trust.

A spokesperson for Aston University Maths School confirmed the project was delayed by “the necessary due diligence required to find and acquire a suitable site for the maths school in Birmingham’s saturated construction environment, heightened by HS2 and levelling-up investments”.

An “ideal site” has now been acquired on the Aston University campus, the spokesperson added and amendments to the building are being made. It is set to open next year to an initial 75 pupils, before reaching its target capacity of 200 in its third year.

How much money did ministers commit?

The March 2017 budget committed £18 million to fund an annual £350,000 for maths schools across the country.

In 2019, the government committed to opening 11 schools in total. A year later, Rishi Sunak, as chancellor, said the 11 schools would receive £7 million.

Aston and Nottingham are the only two business cases to be received since Sunak’s 2020 announcement, according to Tes’ FOI request.

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said: “What is always frustrating is when a new policy, usually announced to great fanfare, is then not backed up with the support that is clearly required from the government to ensure it is delivered in a timely and successful fashion.”

Opening any new school is a “major undertaking” and it is “all too common for trusts to find themselves held up by bureaucracy and logistical challenges in securing a suitable site, as has evidently been the case with several of the maths schools”, he said.

“There are also many existing 16-19 providers and it might have made more sense to focus resources on these rather than trying to create something from scratch,” he added.

However, Mr Di’Iasio said it was “too early” to judge the maths school scheme as a whole.

Students ‘missing out’

CEO of the University Maths School Network (U-Maths) Dan Abramson said, when value added from GCSE to A level grades was last calculated for maths school students in 2019, on average they attained nearly a grade higher than peers in non-maths schools with equivalent GCSE results.

The network has fought “tooth and nail” to open every school as quickly as possible, he said.

“Every year lost to delays means another cohort of students who miss out on an exceptional opportunity,” he warned.

Mr Abramson added that the schools need to be close to regional transport hubs so they can serve large regions easily, making it harder and more expensive to secure properties.

“What matters is that the schools, their partner universities, the Department for Education and local authorities all pull together to get the remaining schools open as soon as possible.”

Schools on temporary sites

Tes revealed earlier this year that the DfE’s property company, LocatED took nearly five years to secure a site for Cambridge Maths School, which opened on a temporary site in September 2023.

It is expected to expand to 200 students when it moves to its permanent home in 2025.

Several other schools have struggled to find a permanent site.

Damian Haigh, head of Liverpool Maths School, said the school is working closely with the DfE and the university to secure permanent accommodation, and that available options are restricted by the need to be close to the university campus.

A spokesperson from Gorse Academies Trust, which runs Leeds Mathematics School, said the school was in temporary accommodation for a month after it opened in September 2023, before moving to its permanent home in Leeds city centre.

Surrey Mathematics School will start on a temporary site in September - though a permanent site has been secured and is undergoing works. Co-headteachers Nora Kettleborough and Sahar Shillabeer said maths schools could be “transformative” for many students, improve social mobility and widen participation in Stem degrees and careers.

The DfE, its property firm LocatED, and all 11 maths schools have been contacted for comment.