Headteachers have warned that schools are “on a knife edge” due to strained budgets, forcing them to launch a campaign to fund the basics such as books and pencils.
Schools are having to cut back on staff, trips and courses as soaring energy bills and unfunded pay rises eat up budgets.
Stretched finances were having a “real, genuine negative impact” on the quality of education, one primary school leader in the West Midlands said.
Headteachers are now using websites to appeal for help with purchases that they would struggle to afford otherwise.
