TEACHERS gathered in the town centre to warn shoppers about more than £3 million in cuts that will affect Swindon schools.

The National Education Union’s division secretary Debbie Brown and assistant secretary Peter Smith spoke to parents about how the slashed education budget will hit schools around the town.

She said: “We’re trying to publicise the cuts that the government are making to education so parents can see exactly what’s happening to their children’s school.

“I’ve been a primary school teacher in Swindon for 20 years and our schools are in crisis.

“Class sizes have increased, teaching assistants are being made redundant but not replaced, and subjects in the curriculum are being cut.

“The government has failed to commit the funding that our schools urgently need.”

Pete added: “The government make it sound like schools have never had it so good, but when you speak to headteachers, they say they can’t remember a time when they were under so much pressure to stretch their budgets.

“We need to make the government take notice, change must happen now.”

According to their website schoolcuts.org.uk, 51 of the 61 schools in Swindon will face further cuts as their total income from 2015/16 to 2019/20 will decrease by £3.1 million.

The website estimates that Swindon Academy will be the worst-hit. It calculated that the school will have £597,061 less in its annual budget in real terms by 2019/20 than it did in 2015/16.

Several schools are estimated to lose more than £100,000 during the same period, including Lydiard Park Academy, Drove Primary School, East Wichel Primary School, Goddard Park Community Primary School, and Lainesmead Primary School.

For more information on each school and how the organisation have calculated these budget deficits, visit schoolcuts.org.uk