PARENTS at Lawn Primary have been warned that the school faces a budget shortfall of eight per cent as real terms funding cuts in education continue to bite.

Writing to parents last week, chairman of governors Steve Sutton revealed that over the next three years, the school would be £128,000 short of the funds needed to deliver the service they’re currently able to achieve.

Mr Sutton wrote: “We are facing some difficult financial decisions over the next few months and you will see some changes to the educational provision at school in the coming year.

“The cause of the shortfall is a combination of increasing costs for pensions, salaries, and utilities, the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, zero planned increase in our budget from central government and the phased removal of the Education Support Grant which was paid direct to the local authority.”

Mr Sutton stressed that while the financial situation was a challenge, he was confident that, at least for now, the governors and senior leadership team had been able to ensure that the standard of education being provided to Lawn Primary School pupils was maintained.

But he warned that without a reversal of the funding freeze in cash terms, a longer term direct impact was inevitable.

He acknowledged that tinkering with the budget was no longer enough and that staffing levels would have to be reduced for 2017/18. He was unable to say what those changes might entail.

Jane Sykes, whose son attends Lawn Primary, said she was “horrified” to discover the scale of the problem.

She has now written to South Swindon MP Robert Buckland to challenge him on the gap between the the reality facing schools and Conservative commitments to protect school budgets.

Mr Buckland said: “Whilst I can’t comment on the specific figure raised by the chair of governors, I acknowledge the pressures on school budgets that he describes from my regular conversations with headteachers in Swindon.

“After many years of underfunding due to a formula that was introduced by the previous government, we are going to introduce a fairer formula that will help Swindon’s schools by increasing budgets in more than real terms each year.

“Justin Tomlinson and I have already helped to secure increases in funding for Swindon’s schools from 2015.

“We will press to help ensure that the final version of the new formula works for our local schools.”

The Adver understands that governors and headteachers at other Swindon schools have also taken the decision to send letters home to parents.

In March, the principal at 'outstanding' Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, launched a scathing attack on education funding levels.

In a letter to parents, George Croxford wrote: "I believe education is facing the worst crisis over the 30 years of my career so far.

"This government keeps talking about how it is spending more than ever on education – it is, but that is because there are more students than ever.

"They have frozen the per pupil spending for this whole parliament which means that we, in effect, have a cut in income every year due to inflation, tax changes and pay rises."

A report by leading teaching unions warned that in Swindon, the equivalent budget shortfall across all schools could be as much as £9.7m by 2022, even with the planned fairer funding formula.