SCHOOL budgets will be slashed by £630 million and fall to their lowest level since at least 2010 due to the government’s refusal to fully fund teachers’ pay awards, new research reveals today.

Three in four primaries and 92 per cent of secondaries will be forced to make cuts after ministers agreed to fund only 3 per cent of the 4 per cent award for teachers next year, according to the School Cuts coalition of education unions.

The fourth consecutive year of cuts to school spending power will be equivalent to 12,400 schools staff — 5,700 teachers and 6,700 support staff.

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Schools have been battered by over a decade of declining budgets, they simply cannot take more cuts.

“Education is meant to be one of the key priorities for the government, but this move risks scuppering their ambition to recruit more teachers.

“Austerity will only be ended by deeds not words. The Chancellor must change course at the upcoming Spending Review and give schools the funding they need.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set the budgets for all government departments over the next few years in her Spending Review on Wednesday.

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said: “Education funding is simply not at a level sufficient to meet the costs faced by schools and colleges.

“The stark reality is that it just isn’t possible to make the savings this situation necessitates without having to make cuts to provision.

“The government must recognise that funding schools and colleges properly is an essential investment in the future of children and of the country.”

Following 14 years of austerity, the coalition’s researchers said that every local authority in the country will see a reduction in real-terms per-pupil funding due to the gap in funding.

The worst hit, Hammersmith and Fulham, will see a cut of 1.9 per cent, with the average primary school suffering a 1.1 per cent fall in spending power and the average secondary school, 1.2 per cent.

School leaders’ union NAHT leader Paul Whiteman said: “We are hearing strongly from our members that they are having no choice but to make redundancies and reduce staff in order to try and balance their budgets.

“Ultimately, this cannot help but negatively impact the education and support schools are able to provide for pupils.

“The Treasury must not underestimate the urgency of the case for fresh investment into education while making its decisions for the upcoming Spending Review.”

The latest government figures show that the number of local authority maintained schools in deficit rose to one in seven in the last financial year.

Commenting on the findings, Unison head of education Mike Short said: “If pupils are to get the education they deserve, school funding must be given a far higher priority.

“Classrooms can’t function without the essential work of support staff. Teaching assistants, administrative workers, technicians, cleaners and others shouldn’t be facing the axe because school budgets are under such strain.”

The coalition is supported by Parentkind, the membership association for Parent Teacher Assistants in schools, and the National Governance Association (NGA), a representative body for school governors and trustees of state-funded schools in England.

Parentkind chief executive Jason Elsom said that the research into “just how far schools have fallen behind” is a “major concern” for parents who have “over and over again” called for more spending on schools when the Chancellor announces her spending plans.

NGA chief executive Emma Balchin said that it is “deeply concerned that costs will outstrip funding rises for most schools and trusts again next year, forcing further cutbacks in a system which is already on the brink.”

Labour vowed to recruit 6,500 more teachers by the end of this parliament in its general election bid last year.

A major demonstration to “send a message” to the government over spending cuts and welfare reform will be held in central London today.

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.