GOVERNMENT plans to create “fairer school funding” could, according to headteachers and principals, lead to Alton cluster schools losing a staggering £200,000 per year.

On Wednesday, as the Chancellor’s budget revealed additional funding for 140 new free schools in England, on top of the 500 already pledged to open by 2020, and increased spending on post-16 technical education, headteachers across the country were protesting against a funding crisis in existing schools, with some advocating action which could even include a four-day week.

Most of the 16 schools in the Alton cluster – Alton Infant, Anstey Junior, The Butts, St Lawrence, and Wootey infant and junior schools in Alton, and primary schools at Bentley, Bentworth, Binsted, Chawton, Holybourne, Medstead, Rowledge and Selborne, as well as Amery Hill and Eggar’s secondary schools – stand to lose funding should the new formula be implemented.

Last year, the government laid out proposals to change the national funding formula to ensure “every school will have funding matched to need”.

The Department for Education says these changes will mean “an end to historical unfairness and underfunding for certain schools”.

Education Secretary Justine Greening announced the redrafted proposals in December and said the country needs “a system that funds schools according to the needs of their pupils rather than their postcode”.

Nationally, the Department for Education estimates that more than 10,000 schools will gain funding, including more than 3,000 receiving an increase of more than five per cent.

Those on the losing side look set to be primary schools with less than 200 pupils and any senior schools with a roll call of fewer than 300.

But critics of the scheme warn that in real terms many more schools could suffer when the new model is adopted alongside other spending reductions.

With the second round of consultations on the proposals came a warning from spending watchdog the National Audit Office that schools in England were facing an eight per cent real-terms cut in funding per pupil by 2019-20, as a result of £3bn worth of cuts. And this could result in a double blow.

Commenting on behalf of the Alton cluster schools, chairman Janet Knott said: “The modelling done by Hampshire has shown that all bar one school in the Alton cluster is set to lose funding under the reform if it goes ahead.

“The total losses are shown to be £210,000, with one school gaining £10,000 which leaves a net loss for Alton cluster schools of £200,000.”

While these are not exact figures, she added: “It is not just small village schools that would be losing out but also our town schools, and in fact it is a town school which will be losing the most by this model and it is also the largest percentage loss.”

While East Hampshire as a district would see a net gain in funding, this will not be reflected in Alton.

According to Mrs Knott, of the 43 primary schools in East Hampshire, 12 will gain, one will have no change, and 30 will lose funds. Of those set to lose funding, all fall into the 300 pupils or less category, with 22 of them having fewer than 200 pupils.

Of the six secondary schools in East Hampshire, four will gain and two will lose funds. Both of these are in the Alton cluster.

Elizabeth Wylie, headteacher of Amery Hill School, said that while, according to current calculations, there is not a great deal of variation in the amount the school will be receiving per student, several years of stagnation has led to a failure to keep up with inflation and escalating costs.

“This has meant that we have needed to go beyond looking for value for money, to find areas in which we can reduce our spending,” she said. “We have managed to avoid impacting on the quality of our highly-skilled staff and the resources that we provide to support the education in our school, but it is a daily concern.”

Eggar’s headteacher Patrick Sullivan said: “Fortunately, at Eggar’s we are financially very efficient and watch every penny we spend, which means taxpayers’ money continues to fund quality and creative education for our students.

“However, it is increasingly difficult to cover basic costs – and this is the situation with all state schools – because funding has not kept pace with inflation for the last seven years despite increases in salaries, NI and pension contributions, energy bills and the imminent apprenticeship levy.

“All of these increases have been met by individual schools which receive ‘flat cash’, which is effectively no further funding.”

Peter Edgar, executive member for education at Hampshire County Council, said: “The impact of the national funding formula on Hampshire schools, as currently proposed, would bring in a small amount of additional funding overall but the redistribution caused by the new formula would also create a number of financial ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ – the majority of those schools losing funding under the proposals being either small schools or schools in areas of deprivation.

“The county council is raising these issues nationally and welcomes the input of individual and groups of schools into this debate as it is really important for their voice to be heard.”

The consultation runs until March 22. To comment, visit consult.education.gov.uk.