Budget 2017 outlines new provisions for maths and science teaching

The government has unveiled a series of new measures in the latest Budget that are designed to improve pupils' access to high-quality teaching in key subjects such as maths, science and computing.

It was announced that schools will receive an additional £600 for every extra pupil who takes A-level or core maths, with more than £80 million to be available for this scheme and no overall cap on numbers set. Meanwhile, £27 million will be spent improving how maths is taught in 3,000 schools by expanding the scope of the Teaching for Mastery maths programme.

Moreover, £49 million is being allocated to helping students who are re-sitting GCSE maths - including an £8.5 million pilot of innovative new approaches to improving GCSE maths resit outcomes - while £40 million is to be spent on training for maths teachers delivered through new Further Education Centres of Excellence.

Additionally, £350,000 of extra funding a year will be provided to all specialist maths schools nationwide, drawing from an overall fund of £18 million, and a £1,000 teacher development premium will be offered for staff working in areas deemed to have fallen behind.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said these measures will ensure that "young mathematicians can release their potential, wherever they live and whatever their background".

Meanwhile, the government's newly-announced commitments in the area of computing will include a trebling of the number of fully-qualified computer science teachers from 4,000 to 12,000, which will support a new guarantee that every secondary school pupil is able to study computing.

This comes in addition to the previously announced plans to established a new £100 million National Centre for Computing, which will play a central role in training the 8,000 new teachers.