Autumn Statement 2011: Schools that specialise in maths planned by Government

It is understood they will be among 100 new free schools for England to be announced by Chancellor George Osborne when he delivers his autumn statement on the economy on Tuesday.

He will tell MPs that the Government is to provide ￡600 million in additional funding over the next three years to enable the schools to be completed by the end of the parliament.

The new maths schools will be the subject of a special application process - outside the normal free school application process - to be set up by the Department for Education.

It will be open to groups with links to strong university mathematics departments to apply to open the schools for 16 to 18-year-olds.

Mr Osborne was said to have given his strong personal backing to Education Secretary to ensure that funding was found for the programme.

Maths is seen by the Government as a "fundamental strategic priority" in education.

With the spread of digital technologies, it is regarded as being is of ever-greater importance to the economy, offering students a better chance of well-paid jobs than almost any other subject.

Ministers want the new schools to produce a new generation of mathematicians able to produce breakthroughs in pure and applied mathematics or able to build new innovative companies.

Autumn Statement 2011: free childcare for one-in-four toddlers

More children will be given free childcare, the Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement.?Photo: ALAMY

Some 40 per cent of two-year-olds in England will get 15 hours of childcare a week as part of a ￡650m programme.

The proposals – outlined in George Osborne’s Autumn Statement – will be aimed at children from the poorest homes.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, the Chancellor insisted that a decent education was the best way to pull the most deprived youngsters out of poverty.

He said the move would allow mothers to return to work and give children a “real chance” of eventually going on to university and gaining a degree.

It comes just days after a major report from the Sutton Trust charity warned that the educational gap between rich and poor was wider in England than many other developed nations. Researchers said deprived pupils were already a year behind wealthier classmates when they started school aged five.

Currently, three- and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours a week of early education for 38 weeks a year.

The Department for Education had announced an extension of the scheme, saying around 140,000 two-year-olds would also win the entitlement.

But in his statement, the Chancellor announced the number would now be almost doubled to around 260,000 children.

"Education. Early years learning. That is how you change the life chances of our least well off - and genuinely lift children out of poverty," he said.

Some ￡73m will be spent on the proposals next year, rising to ￡203m a year later and ￡380m by 2014/15.

The Daycare Trust, which represents nurseries, welcomed the proposals but suggested any benefits may be offset by a freeze on Working Tax Credits for couples and single-parent families.

Anand Shukla, chief executive, added: “At a time when family budgets are increasingly squeezed and childcare costs are rising, parents will now be forced to shoulder more of these costs themselves. This risks trapping families on benefits if they find that they are no longer better off in work.”

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Today’s changes will not bring back the 124 Sure Start centres which have closed since the government came into office and our poorest families will be hit by the squeeze on benefit increases.

“While the richest continue to get richer, the poorest children will miss meals more often and will continue to miss school for want of shoes.”

Autumn Statement 2011: bright children to be sent to 'maths schools'

Around 12 specialist institutions for 16- to 18-year-olds will be opened to give pupils expert tuition under the guidance of university mathematics departments

Unveiling the plans in his Autumn Statement, George Osborne said the colleges would help produce graduates in academic disciplines seen as vital to the country’s economic recovery.

On Tuesday, the Chancellor announced that a total of ￡600m would be earmarked for 100 new “free schools” – establishments opened and run by parents' groups, charities and private companies free of local council interference – between 2013/14 and 2014/2015.

Of those, around a dozen will specialise in maths for teenagers, he said.

“This will give our most talented young mathematicians the chance to flourish,” Mr Osborne told the Commons.

“These ‘Maths Free Schools’ are exactly what Britain needs to match our competitors – and produce more of the engineering and science graduates so important for our longer term economic success.”

But teachers condemned the move.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “At a time of unprecedented economic pressure it is incomprehensible that the Government is committing that sum of funding to creating 100 new free schools when so many existing schools are in desperate need of investment.”

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “In naked pursuit of the Coalition's elitist vision of education, 100 free schools and a handful of pupils get ￡600m while children in 22,000 other schools fight over a few hundred pounds.”

In a further announcement, it was revealed that another ￡600m would be spent creating additional school places in areas with the greatest “demographic pressures”.

It is already feared that many infants are being forced to travel miles to primary school because of an acute shortage of places caused by a baby boom and influx of migrants in some areas.

Many schools have been forced to turn hundreds of children away while others have created extra space by educating pupils in mobile classrooms or local church halls.

The biggest pressures have been reported in parts of London and cities such as Bristol and Birmingham.

On Tuesday, Mr Osborne said money would be allocated to places with the greatest need to deliver an additional 40,000 school places between 2012/13 and 2014/15.

This comes on top of ￡800m a year already allocated each year – and an extra ￡500m for 2011/12.