FUNDING cuts will leave schools in Bury down £6.6 million by 2020, campaigners say.

Figures collated by the School Cuts campaign show that by 2020 schools will have less money per pupil than in 2016.

A separate survey of Bury headteachers asked about pupil and staffing numbers and asked for headteachers comments on the current funding situation.

One headteacher said: “Government rhetoric says that schools’ funding has been maintained but do not mention the additional costs (NI payments, paying for services which were previously free, pay increases, pension increases etc.).

“In a high school these have totalled between £400,000 and £500,000 increased costs over a period of years.

“Government also say that there is more money in schools than ever before — this is because there are more pupils than ever before.”

Another Bury headteacher said: “The school is facing over £100,000 deficit. Savage cuts are being made and we’re not sure if we can meet basic statutory provision. Redundancies and stopping of all training and development, incremental pay rises and any staff absence cover — all going to stop. Some repairs and maintenance needed will not be undertaken either.”

The School Cuts campaign was set up by a group of unions, including Unite, Unison and the National Education Union to inform the public about education funding across the country.

Figures from the campaign used existing and projected data to find that Bury’s 11 secondary schools will be £1,699,350 down by 2020 compared to 2016 and the borough’s 63 primary schools will be down by £4,945,658.

The survey of Bury headteachers, completed by 45 per cent of borough’s schools, was carried out by the office of Bury North MP James Frith.

It revealed three-quarters of schools say they have been forced to make staff cuts due to funding pressures.

Of those who responded, 84 per cent had cut spending on books and equipment and 56 per cent have cut spending on special educational needs provision.

A large majority of schools reported plans to make further cuts to the above over the next two years due to continuing funding pressures.

Of those schools which responded 88 per cent were dissatisfied with current funding levels.

Mr Frith, who will be quoting the results of his survey when the secretary of state for education, Damian Hinds, comes before the Education Select Committee this month, said: “The results of this survey reveal the devastating impact of cuts on our schools and the really tough choices headteachers are having to make to keep the lights on and provide the best standard of education possible for our children.

“The government is telling people that school funding is going up but the figures make clear that our school are losing money, not gaining it, and are having to reduce staff and resources as a result.”

Council leader Cllr Rishi Shori, said: "The Government needs to fundamentally rethink its long term approach to school funding.

"Pupils numbers are going up but schools are clearly not getting adequate resources to keep up with that.

"The Government also need to urgently address the lack of money available to schools to help them refurbish and expand existing buildings.

"With numbers going up more classrooms are required and more space generally is needed to ensure that our children are learning in the best possible environment.”