How to become a maths teacher

Maths is one of the subjects England struggles most to recruit for, and the incentives reflect that. Trainees on a fee-funded postgraduate course starting in 2026/27 can get a £29,000 tax-free bursary, and you do not necessarily need a maths degree to train. After a year of training you gain qualified teacher status (QTS) and start on the main pay range, from £34,069 at M1 outside London.

Who can train

You need an undergraduate degree, plus GCSEs in English and maths at grade 4 (C) or above. For maths specifically, providers want evidence that you can handle the subject at A level standard and above. A maths degree is the obvious fit, but plenty of trainees come from engineering, physics, economics, computer science, accountancy and finance.

If your degree had less maths in it, a training provider may offer you a place on condition that you complete a subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) course first. These are funded for eligible trainees and are designed for people whose maths is rusty or patchy.

The money during training

The 2026/27 funding rules for England give:

Funding	Amount	Notes
Postgraduate bursary	£29,000	Fee-funded courses; no repayment
Undergraduate bursary	£9,000	Final year of an eligible maths QTS or opt-in course
Salaried route grant	Same per-subject amount, paid to the school	Salaried trainees cannot also get a bursary
Veterans’ bursary	£40,000	Eligible service leavers on certain courses

There is no maths scholarship listed for 2026/27, unlike chemistry, computing and physics. On a fee-funded route you still need to cover tuition fees, usually with a student loan, which you repay through payroll once you earn over your plan’s threshold. Teacher training bursaries explains eligibility in full.

Routes for career changers

Maths attracts many people moving from other jobs, and the routes allow for that:

1. A fee-funded PGCE or SCITT, with the bursary, if you can manage a year without a salary.
2. A salaried route such as School Direct salaried, where a school employs you on the unqualified teacher pay range while you train. In 2026/27 that range starts at £23,732 outside London.
3. A postgraduate teaching apprenticeship, also salaried.
4. Teach First, which places trainees in schools serving disadvantaged communities.

There is also a teacher degree apprenticeship being piloted for maths, aimed at people without a degree who want to train on the job.

The career change into teaching guide goes through money, timing and what schools look for in someone with a previous career. Experience that involved explaining numbers to people who found them hard is worth putting at the front of your application.

What the job is like

Maths teachers teach every year group, often with more lessons per class than most subjects because maths has a large share of the timetable. GCSE maths is compulsory, and students who do not get a grade 4 must keep studying it after 16, so some schools and colleges have large resit groups. Expect regular marking, close tracking of progress and a lot of intervention work for students near grade boundaries.

Maths teachers are in short supply, so you are likely to have a choice of jobs, especially outside the most popular cities, and progression to second in department or head of maths can come quickly. Teacher workload is worth reading before you commit, since it applies to maths as much as any subject.

Pay after qualifying

Teachers in maintained schools in England are paid under the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. The 2026 pay award is 3.5 per cent from 1 September 2026, with the final document expected around early November 2026. From that date the main pay range runs from £34,069 (M1) to £46,940 (M6) in most of England, and from £41,729 to £54,131 in inner London. The upper pay range reaches £52,835 at U3 outside London. A head of maths will usually hold a TLR on top.

Full scales are on teacher pay scales in England, and the take-home pay calculator shows what M1 comes to after tax, National Insurance, the Teachers’ Pension and any student loan.

Teaching maths elsewhere in the UK

The bursaries above apply to training in England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own teacher training and funding, and their pay scales differ. In Scotland, after the two-year deal, main grade teachers are paid £43,383 to £54,453 from 1 August 2026, and probationers £36,159. In Northern Ireland the latest confirmed scale (from September 2025) runs from £32,916 at M2 to £43,830 at M6, with no M1 point; the 2026/27 award had not been agreed by mid-October 2026. Wales was consulting on a 3.5 per cent rise for 2026/27. If you train in one nation and want to teach in another, check how the relevant teaching council recognises your qualification before you move.

Getting started

Speak to a Get Into Teaching adviser, who can check whether your degree is likely to be accepted and whether you need an SKE course. Spend a few days in a secondary maths department if you can. Then apply through the DfE’s Apply for teacher training service. Maths courses recruit all year, but salaried places tend to go first.