A HEAD teachers’ union has warned that schools across the district face losing out on £38 million from their budgets due to what it described as a “funding crisis”.

The National Association of Head Teachers held a conference with school leaders in the Bradford, Calderdale and surrounding districts, during which it urged school leaders to do more to inform parents about their budget problems.

Although the Government has insisted it is protecting school budgets, the NAHT says other pressures, including rising pension and National Insurance contributions, the soon-to-be introduced apprenticeship levy and the reduction in Educational Services Grant, means schools will soon have to make major cuts.

Rob Kelsall, senior regional officer for the NAHT, said all these factors amounted to an eight per cent increase in running costs of a school.

He said the pressures were likely to be so bad by 2020 that schools could be faced with cutting entire subjects from their curriculum, or even switch to shorter school weeks.

The assembled heads were told these pressures would leave Bradford-district schools facing a real-terms cut of £38 million by the end of this Parliament in 2020, amounting to a reduction of £489 per pupil.

Mr Kelsall added: “1,025 teachers would have to be lost to balance this budget.”

He said nationally schools faced a £3 billion budget shortfall by 2020.

“By the end of this Parliament, investment in the education system as a percentage of GDP will be down to levels not seen since the 1950s,” he said.

Heads were urged to encourage parents to write to their MPs to lobby for increased school funding.

One headteacher, Kevin Holland, said: “Schools have been doing some planning to prepare for this. But a lot of schools have already cut most of the services that could be cut.

“Any next level of cuts will impact deeply on the children.

“Things have been improving in Bradford-district schools and parents need the confidence that they will continue to improve. Any cuts will put us in an impossible position.”

The DfE had not responded to a request for a comment as the Keighley News went to press.