Children as young as five have addressed MPs directly about cuts to school funding.

A group of 16 youngsters aged five to 17 attended Parliament to tell and sing their stories of how years of under funding is affecting them and their schools.

Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas were among a cross-party panel of MPs hosting a parliamentary briefing.

Campaign group Save Our Schools UK (SOS), in conjunction with other parent groups nationally, took the children to speak about issues such as their heartbreak at losing most of the teaching assistants at their schools.

They also spoke about the cuts to Send provision, the social inequality created by an increasing reliance on parent donations, losing non-core subjects from the curriculum and what it is like to learn in crumbling buildings.

In his speech, 10-year-old Michael from Greenwich, said: “I have special educational needs and I am being failed now in my education because there is not enough money available to be spent on children like me.

“I was out of school for 10 months during the most important year of my education due to being bullied in school.

“I need you to hear me and help me and the other children who are being affected by lack of staff and resources.

“I am autistic and doubly exceptional. I am very worried about what is happening in our schools and how the lack of funding is affecting me and other children.”

Eight-year-old Eliana Iketubosin, from Brighton, said: “In July, our school lost 11 members of staff, eight of them teaching assistants.

“Those were wonderful people who did a great job of looking after us.

“When we heard the news in assembly we were so sad we cried our eyes out. We were told the school could no longer afford to pay them because of the cuts to their budget.”

As the schoolchildren gathered in Parliament Square they were dressed in t-shirts emblazoned with statistics about under funding.

The students, from across England, sang songs appealing to the Government for more funds.

They also laid out paperweights they had designed, which they intended to give to MPs following their speeches.

The event comes less than two weeks after more than 1,000 head teachers marched on Downing Street over funding cuts.

Alison Ali, co-founder of the SOS campaign in Brighton and Hove, said: “As other state services crumble, schools are expected to do more, with more pupils; yet they’re being given less money, and have fewer teachers.

“A nine-year-old can see the figures don’t add up – it’s time for Damian Hinds and Philip Hammond to do the maths and reverse the damaging cuts before schools slip so far into crisis there’ll be no coming back.”

In July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said total school spending per pupil fell around 8% in real terms in England between 2009/10 and 2017/18.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We want ‎every child to have a high quality education and since 2010 the proportion of pupils in good or outstanding schools has risen.

“We are investing in our schools; our new National Funding Formula is allocating more money for each school to every local authority; the independent IFS confirmed that funding for five to 16-year-olds has been maintained across this year and next.”

He added: “We recognise that there is more pressure on schools to do more, which is why we have taken a number of steps to help them get the best value for every pound.

“Our government-backed deals are helping schools save money on things like utility bills and other non-staff spend.”