THIS month I take over as president of the school leaders’ union NAHT.

I’ve been headteacher at St Nicholas Church of England Primary School in Blackpool for 15 years. In that time, my team has taken the school from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘outstanding’ in the eyes of Ofsted.

Now I face the heartbreaking and perverse task of having to break that team up because I don’t have the funds to pay everyone.

There will be many other schools across in your part of the world which find themselves in the same position as mine.

Without sufficient funding, all of the aspirations we have for our schools, our staff and our students will be held back.

Nationally, eight out of ten schools is rated good or outstanding by Ofsted. We must not allow underfunding of state education to break-up the thousands of successful staff teams who have made this happen. If we do, we will be putting future standards at serious risk.

ANDY MELLOR National President, NAHT