A YORK head teacher has gone public about the “relentless” funding squeeze on his school that has led to bigger classes and cuts to subject choices and teaching posts.

Trevor Burton, head teacher at Millthorpe School, has written to all his pupils’ families so they can understand what is happening with the school’s finances.

He said: “I am not asking for sympathy, but they do deserve to know that there’s a significant impact in their school because of the cumulative impact of several years of funding not keeping pace with costs.”

In a letter sent out last week Mr Burton and chairman of governors Bill Schofield said extra costs - like pay rises and pension increases - coupled with stagnant per pupil funding - means they have eight per cent - or £350,000 - less to spend.

Mr Burton added: “The worst thing has been putting class sizes up. You can have excellent results from large classes, but it is much harder for our teachers.”

The school, which was rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted in 2014, is taking an extra eight Year 7 pupils this year in order to get extra income, he added, but because school funding has an 11 month lag it will not see that money until September 2019.

Previously Millthorpe has been able to send some Year 10 and 11 pupils to York College and Askham Bryan to take vocational courses like construction, motor engineering and animal care but that is no longer affordable, Mr Burton added.

“Lead Teacher” posts - which let outstanding teachers spend time helping others improve their skills - have also had to go, he added.

The situation will be replicated across the city, Mr Burton warned, and despite recent changes York schools are still the worst funded in England.

In last week’s letter to parents, Mr Burton and Mr Schofield wrote: “You may be able to detect our frustration as we write to you. Senior leaders and governors have to spend more time finding ever-smaller efficiencies rather than focusing on improvements these days.

“We are not asking for sympathy; we understand that many public and private sector organisations are also finding times hard. However, we do hope you may understand better that we have had to cut back on some things because the relentless reductions in our real terms income over the last few years.”

The school has drawn the line at cutting other subjects to save money - particularly the arts, and has stopped short of asking parents for voluntary contributions of extra cash, Mr Burton added.

The area’s city councillor Jonny Crawshaw has backed the actions, saying the school is to be commended for speaking to parents so frankly.

“It is unusual for school leaders to speak out in this way and should be seen as testament to the gravity of the situation that they have chosen to do so,” Cllr Crawshaw said.

“That York’s pupils are in the unenviable position of receiving the lowest funding in the country is completely unacceptable. The city’s good overall GCSE results mask a stubbornly high attainment gap for York’s more disadvantaged pupils. Increasing class sizes and teacher workload will only compound the problem.”

City of York Council’s education boss Jon Stonehouse said the authority recognised the “difficult financial landscape”, and has pushed for better funding through the F40 group of lowest funded education authorities, while both city MPs have spoken up in Parliament.

“We continue to remain strongly supportive of our schools and are very proud of all they continue to achieve despite being low funded,” Mr Stonehouse said.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said they could not comment because of rules around upcoming elections in other parts of the country.

However, he said that in the next two years every school would see its funding increase. Data available on the DfE website shows that Millthorpe’s funding will go from £4.54 million in 2017/18 to £4.79 million in 2019/20.