LOOMING budget pressures in local schools could soon see some classes or activities disappear from day to day school life, a union has warned.

Today was the final day of a Department for Education consultation into its plans for future school funding.

Many schools have said the proposed funding changes fail to take into account increasing costs facing schools in the coming years, including extra National Insurance payments to staff.

The Bradford Schools Forum, made up of school leaders, council representatives and education bosses, has predicted the proposed levels of funding will leave the district’s Designated Schools Grant with a £44 million shortfall within three years.

The forum’s response to the consultation says: “A National Funding Formula that does not build into its construction growth in real terms for inflation and employer’s costs, and which therefore, locks in an insufficiency of funding of schools that will continue to grow over the next three to five years; an estimated £44m ‘shortfall’ within Bradford’s DSG by 2020, cannot be said to be fair and cannot be said to support stability.”

Nationwide there are fears that as well as staff cuts, schools would have to cut the academic week to balance budgets.

Ian Murch, Bradford spokesman for the National Union of Teachers, said although he had not heard of any Bradford schools making such plans, many faced difficult decisions. He said: “I think a lot of people are waking up to this problem now. My colleagues and I are constantly meeting with heads who are asking us how they can reduce staff costs.

“Subjects are already being taken off the curriculum. Schools can’t afford as many teachers in subjects like PE, so you’ll see things like schools stop offering rugby. Music is also going to be a big casualty of these pressures.”

A DfE spokesman said: “The government has protected the core schools budget in real terms since 2010, with school funding at its highest level on record at more than £40bn in 2016/17 and that is set to rise, as pupil numbers rise over the next two years, to £42 billion by 2019-20. But the system for distributing that funding across the country is unfair, opaque and outdated.

“We recognise that schools are facing cost pressures, which is why we will continue to provide support to help them use their funding in cost effective ways, including improving the way they buy goods and services.”