Looking beyond recruitment and retention: the distribution of maths teachers in England
Discussions around maths teachers in England tend to focus on recruitment and retention. How do we train more teachers? Why are so many leaving the profession? How do we get more people to stay in teaching? These are important questions, however they only capture part of the picture. It is also crucial to understand how they are distributed across schools and how this impacts how maths is taught.
Policy has long focused on boosting the number of people entering the teaching profession, often through subject-specific financial incentives such as bursaries, particularly since 2013. In July 2024, the government pledged to recruit 6,500 new teachers, and by December 2025 reported an 11% increase in overall teacher recruitment compared with the previous year - driven in part by a 16% rise in maths trainees.
More recent initiatives, however, for example the Levelling Up Premium and the Targeted Retention Incentive, have begun to shift attention towards where teachers work, with a particular focus on disadvantaged schools. Drawing on data from 1,043 secondary maths teachers across a nationally representative sample of 148 secondary schools in England, this blog examines what the distribution of maths teachers currently looks like in practice.
Experience is unevenly distributed
Looking at the distribution of teaching experience across different schools in our sample reveals some clear patterns (figure 1). Pupils in schools with higher shares of free school meal eligibility are more likely to be taught by maths teachers who are in the early stages of their career. Meanwhile, teachers with over 15 years of experience are most likely to work at the schools with the lowest levels of disadvantage.
The same pattern appears when looking at attainment. Schools with lower average Attainment 8 scores rely more heavily on early-career teachers, while higher-attaining schools are more likely to be staffed with more experienced educators.
Figure 1: The distribution of secondary maths teachers by years of experience, across schools by free school meal (FSM) eligibility and average attainment (Attainment 8).
Not all pupils have access to maths specialists
A similar, though less pronounced, pattern is present in teachers’ degree backgrounds. Teachers in schools with higher levels of free school meal eligibility, or with lower average attainment, are less likely to hold a degree in mathematics. Instead, these schools are more likely to rely on teachers with other STEM or non-STEM backgrounds to teach maths (figure 2).
Figure 2: The distribution of secondary maths teachers by undergraduate degree field, across schools by free school meal (FSM) eligibility and average attainment (Attainment 8).
What these patterns tell us
Our data shows that there are differences in access to experienced and specialist maths teachers across schools in England. Schools serving more disadvantaged communities, and those with lower average prior attainment, appear to have less access to the most experienced teachers and teachers with maths degrees.
While recent policy has begun to address teacher distribution, it often focuses narrowly on early-career teachers through short-term financial incentives. Our data suggests that the distribution of teachers in the later stages of their career also warrants greater attention.
It is important to note that teaching quality depends on many factors, and these findings should not be taken to imply that less experienced teachers, or those without mathematics degrees, are less effective. By linking this data to the Observatory’s wider cohort study, which includes information on pedagogy as well as pupil and parent experiences, we can explore how these patterns impact pupils’ confidence, enjoyment, progression, and attainment of maths.
Author information
Inga Steinberg is a Research Fellow at the Observatory.
Observatory for Mathematical Education team