Exeter Mathematics School

Since 2014, Kerry Burnham, founding headteacher. Warm, effusive, approachable, inspiringly intelligent and phenomenally good at her job – just a few of the plaudits thrown her way by pupils and parents that we spoke to prior to our meeting with her,

The school receives around 120 applications for the 64 places up for grabs annually. Entrance is selective, although ‘no more so academically than anywhere offering further maths’, according to the head; the selection is rather about whether a pupil

Almost unheard of for anyone to leave midway through the course; pupils we met were unanimously wishing they could stay on for longer to ‘do it all over again’. Post A levels, around 75 per cent head straight to university, 70 per cent of these to

In 2025, 65 per cent A*/A at A level (82 per cent A*-B).

Maths, maths and more maths with a healthy dose of maths-related subjects thrown in for good measure! Yes, this is a maths school. However, what it is ‘categorically not’, according to staff, pupils and parents, is ‘an exam factory’; instead it

This is a school that welcomes and embraces those with special needs. Thirty per cent of students have a diagnosed SEN but most staff and parents we spoke to agreed ‘there are plenty more that are undiagnosed and thriving here’. High-functioning,

Extracurricular inevitably revolves around maths here but it is this very fact that sets the school so firmly apart from a mainstream school offering maths A level. Curriculum X is designed to expand pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the maths

Sport is another string to the Exeter College bow and there are plenty of EMS pupils who take full advantage of the gym or the fantastic coaching, training and competitive match opportunities offered at the college. From its Exeter Chiefs rugby

One of the main draws to this school is its weekly boarding offering. Being the only maths school in the whole of the south west of England, some pupils face long commutes from outlying areas whilst for others journeying to-and-fro daily would simply

Pastoral care is second to none here. As one parent summed it up, ‘What we’ve loved about the school is not necessarily the maths but how they’ve grown and nurtured the young people in their care both educationally and pastorally… the maths is a

Pupils come in from far and wide, many with long daily commutes on bus or train routes. Currently 70:30 split boys to girls and a real mix of educational and social backgrounds from mainstream state secondaries to home schooled and the independent

This is a free state-funded school. Means-tested bursaries are available for transport and towards the cost of boarding.

This school feels like a marvellous alternate reality, full of the brightest of young people who all have an innate and disarmingly profound understanding of the importance and centrality of maths in our world and are guided in their exploration of