IN response to a march on Downing Street by hundreds of headteachers demanding extra cash for schools, the Department for Education trotted out the same, tired line.

The Government is spending record amounts on schools, a spokesperson said. Funding will rise to a record £43.5bn by 2020 and every school attracts more funding per pupil through the National Funding Formula.

The headteachers, however, believe ministers are taking them for fools. Organisers of yesterday’s march say schools are seeing funds depleted and are having to send out begging letters to parents, while teachers face poor working conditions and overcrowded classrooms.

Who is in the right?

Figures published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in July said total school spending per pupil fell by about eight per cent in real terms in England between 2009/10 and 2017/18.

The IFS says this figure includes the effect of cuts to school sixth form spending per pupil (25 per cent) and local authority spending (55 per cent). Local authority services include spending on home-to-school transport, additional support for pupils with special educational needs, and central administration.

Those numbers are pretty stark, and tell a totally different story than the DfE’s blind insistence that all is rosy.

Officials must get their heads out of the sand and start listening to the headteachers who are so concerned for the future they have taken to the streets to call for change.