TEACHERS and campaigners made the trip from Swindon to Westminster today to lobby MPs over school funding.

It is an issue that featured in the General Election campaign and has continued to rumble on in the months since.

The Conservative government has pledged to put additional money into schools, with Education Secretary Justine Greening announcing an extra £1.3bn.

But the money is not really new, instead it is coming from a raid on other parts of the education budget.

Critics also argue that it will not be enough to address the issues in schools that are struggling to cope with rising pupil numbers, the impact of inflation and other cost increases such as salaries and pension changes.

Last week, the National Education Union revealed that 94 per cent of teachers have had to reach into their own pockets to pay for school essentials such as books, while 73 per cent are regularly paying for stationery supplies.

It is a picture that Kingsdown history teacher David Finney recognises.

After 18 years in the classroom, David still believes there is no job that will give him the same satisfaction, but he is worried about how schools will cope.

Speaking ahead of the visit to Westminster, he said: “The biggest concern in my school is the amount of pastoral staff that are being cut back. That’s having a major impact on kids accessing school and accessing the curriculum.

“We are feeling it more now from day to day. There are restrictions on what you can do in areas such as school trips and visits for example. It means we can’t provide the broad experience of education that we’d like to be able to.

“There has also been a lot of change in the curriculum over the past few years with new courses and new exams. They need a lot of support in terms of textbooks and basic resources at a time when we’re already dealing with a very difficult budget situation.

“The constant pressure on teachers to justify everything you are doing is becoming demoralising.”

Joining David and the contingent from Swindon was Labour’s 2017 South Swindon General Election candidate, Sarah Church.

A school governor herself, Sarah said: “Schools are in a situation where they are having to manage decline for the next five years.

“The government is talking about more cash than ever in education but there are more children than ever. Even putting per pupil funding up is not enough when the education support grant has also been cut.

“The money is being moved around but when you’re looking at a two per cent pay increase for staff, pensions, the apprenticeship levy, business rates having to be paid - that is money coming out of the classroom.

“We’ve got to the point now where schools have done what they can to take out any inefficiencies in the back office. This is now impacting on teaching and learning in the classroom.

“We are going to speak to the MPs to ask them what they can do. We want them to put pressure on the chancellor.”

Both Swindon MPs made time to meet with campaigners during their visit to Westminster.

Justin Tomlinson, MP for North Swindon, said he would be happy to raise the concerns expressed to him, but he defended his party’s decisions.

“We have rightly increased schools funding,” he said. “The recent additional £1.3bn increase will deliver an average 4.8 per cent rise across North Swindon, a very welcome announcement.

“I will continue to work with my colleague Robert Buckland MP to make further progress on the fairer funding formula securing additional money that Labour wrongly deemed our local schools did not need.”

Robert Buckland also took aim at Labour’s record, blaming them for the unfair funding position Swindon found itself in.

“I’ve worked hard to successfully ensure that Swindon will have a new and better funding formula after years of unfairness caused by Labour,” he said.

“I was pleased by the Education Secretary’s recent announcement of greater funding under the new formula and will continue to work to ensure that Swindon schools receive their fair share.”