IT was only a matter of time before a school in Bury made the very difficult decision to explore cutting the school day because of financial pressures.

Schools up and down the country have shortened the school week because of what is described as real term cuts to their budget.

Woodhey High School in Ramsbottom is now consulting on reducing the length of the school day by 15 minutes on four days and one hour 15 minutes on another.

And unfortunately it won’t be the last school to be looking at the option of reducing the school week ­— many others probably already are.

Headteacher Brian Roadnight told The Bury Times it was a difficult decision ­— and one he and his governors certainly didn’t want to take ­— to look at cutting the school day, but so far it seems the only feasible way of maintaining standards at the popular school.

Everything that can be cut at the school already has.

A cautious estimate shows that the school has lost £776,851between 2015 and 2019, with Bury as whole losing out on £28.1m in the same period.

And according to the School Cuts website all 76 schools have suffered cuts to per pupil funding.

Mr Roadnight stressed that the if the proposals were implemented, hopefully there may be a chance in the future to return to the traditional school week.

He is not blind to the concerns this may cause parents and is already looking at ways of minimising those concerns.

Sadly, only in March a teaching union warned more schools could be forced to cut teaching hours.

The debate about school funding will continue.

The Government will argue that school funding is at “record levels”, and unions will point out the real terms cut ­— but when schools are reluctantly forced to cut the school day something is seriously wrong with how education is funded.