School 'invoice' sent to Clarke

The school has written to the education secretary asking for a cheque for £52,000

The chair of governors of a primary school has "invoiced" the education secretary for the money missing from the school's budget.

Pevensey and Westham Church of England school in Pevensey, East Sussex, says it needs an extra £52,000 if it is to avoid losing staff - and the chair of governors, the Reverend Gary Barrett, says that he wants to hold the education secretary accountable.

As such, he posted an invoice to the Education Secretary Charles Clarke requesting the outstanding amount and saying that he would be "grateful for early payment".

So far the only reply has been from education department officials - and so he is planning to write again, making the point that there are jobs at risk.

This is one of the schools caught up in this year's funding problems - and at present, Reverend Barrett says that it is facing the loss of one teaching post and a reduction in the hours of classroom assistants.

Stretched budgets

The school has managed to limit the damage of the budget shortfall by using a surplus from the previous year and by drawing on funds intended for furniture for a new school building.

But the budget will still not stretch enough to cover the school's staffing costs.

The loss of the funding, at a time when schools were expecting an increase, came as a great shock to the school, said Reverend Barrett.

"We were amazed when we received the news about the budget, it came out of the blue. And when we went through the budget we realised that it was more and more serious," he said.

The education secretary is expected to make a statement on school funding later this week - with head teachers seeking assurances that schools will receive funding increases.

Despite the increased education funding from central government, the variations caused by local and national allocation systems saw some individual schools losing money this year.