A HEADTEACHER fighting a proposed budget cut of almost £300,000 will take his campaign to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Steve Flavin is rallying opposition against plans to slash funds meant to help some of the town's poorest children at Churchfields Academy.

The academy will still receive just under £100,000 a year from the Pupil Premium, a flagship Lib Dem policy which became part of the coalition agreement.

But Mr Flavin, who has also written to local councillors, warns this will be wiped out by cuts affecting schools serving the town's most deprived areas.

The Pupil Premium, worth £1.9m annually for Swindon schools, was set up to raise students’ education standards and life chances.

“The Pupil Premium is targeted at greatest need based upon the percentage of pupils in each school receiving free school meals. Our plans for its use are well advanced,” said Mr Flavin.

“The Pupil Premium was particularly aimed at schools such as Churchfields, which are educating a significant number of children with particular needs, including special educational needs.

“Churchfields recently received a national award for its work supporting children with dyslexia.

“The additional funding which is being removed from Churchfields through these proposals creates smaller class sizes and affects additional specialist teaching assistants supporting individual children in reading and writing. All of this good work is being placed at risk, which is why I want Nick Clegg to know what is going on in Swindon.”

Churchfields has an overall budget of £5.5m for the next academic year, not including the £281,520 it stands to lose.

The changes have been drawn up by the Schools Forum, an independent body which includes headteachers, governors and union representatives and advises the local authority on funding. Nova Hreod will also have £338,947 removed and Dorcan Technology College £166,025 – leading to accusations that schools serving some of Swindon’s poorest areas will be hardest hit.

Funding to Isambard Community School will increase by £238,652, Kingsdown by £227,428 and Commonweal by £197,017.

The proposals have been likened by Mr Flavin to ‘the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood’.

He has cited figures showing 40 per cent of pupils claim free school meals at Churchfields, compared to just 13 per cent at Isambard.

Supporters say other educational institutions have been underfunded after a series of grants was provided in 2000 to help four secondary schools, including Churchfields, out of special measures.

The council has said the new system, worked out by a formula based on pupil numbers, is simpler and fairer. The council is also providing almost £600,000 as a one-off payment to the help the worst-hit schools in the first year.

The recommendations, which will go before the council on March 21, would consolidate the various sources of funding, excluding the Pupil Premium, into one pot available to all schools.