MOORSIDE Community Primary School serves Ovenden, a working-class district in Halifax in West Yorkshire.

Parents, children and staff personally feel the effects of funding cuts caused by Tory austerity, and the school was among 350 nationwide to simultaneously raise banners in protest earlier this year.

Katherine Horner’s children Samantha, 10, and George, seven, attend the school.

Samantha has special needs, but the cuts mean there’s no money to provide extra help, and council education officials have refused to issue a “statement” which would release money.

Horner says: “Sam has been refused a statement of special education three times now. They said parents could provide more resources.”

She says a recent Commons education select committee review of funding was “totally inadequate.”

“It is really upsetting,” she says. “As a special education needs [SEN] parent, we do not want an inquiry. We just want a level playing field.”

Her son George has problems too. At seven years old he still has to use nappies.

“I have to sit in reception for an hour so George can get extra help because I have to change him,” she said. “SEN is just as important as other education.”

Head teacher Dani Worthington has been a teacher for 14 years and a head for four.

She says: “We have lost four staff that we have not been able to replace. I do not have enough IT equipment. A lot of it needs upgrading but there is not the money for it.”

School trips have also been hit.

“Trips are not just a nice day out. They take the children into different areas. This area has a high level of deprivation. It is difficult to ask parents to make donations. We have in the past funded them as a school but we are not now able to do so,” she says.

“We are quite lucky in that we have a brand new building which we were promised for 35 years.

“But in terms of maintenance we have had unexpected bills and it is a constant worry and stress. There is no spare money at all. It all falls to staff and that is my main concern. We have not replaced the four and it puts extra pressure on the staff that we do have. 

“The four vacancies are all teaching assistant posts, and we have lost two midday supervisors so teachers have to step in and cover. We are shattered but we are coping.”

The school is short of £40,000. Because of that the school’s Education Healthcare Plan, costing about £16,000, has been axed.