Money for schools in Bracknell has reached a “tragic state of affairs,” a teacher has said – after a primary school asked for more than a quarter of a million pounds in help.

St Michael’s Easthampstead Church of England Primary School has told Bracknell Forest Council it could overspend its budget by up to £260,000 over three years.

Bracknell Forest Council’s Schools Forum – a committee of head teachers and schools professionals – agreed St Michael’s should run a “deficit budget” of £40,000 in the financial year running April 2023-April 2024.

The school also expects to spend £90,000 extra in 2024-25 and £130,000 extra in 2025-26.

Council documents said that it was a “good achievement” that only one school had made a new request this year given “significant financial challenges that schools have faced.”

Council officer Paul Clark told the forum: “Despite really difficult financial challenges it is pleasing to see that only one new licensed deficit application has come forward for 23-23, which is definitely a surprise to me.”

But Paul Tatum – who is a National Education Union representative and teacher in Bracknell – said that showed the scale of the funding problem that schools face.

He told the News: “It’s a tragic state of affairs that that’s the position the local authority has to take.

“It’s not down to financial ineptitude. It’s down to there simply not being enough money.” He added that other schools could soon follow in St Michael’s footsteps.

Mr Tatum said: “I don’t think they’ll be alone over the next couple of years because everything has been squeezed from the bottom up.

“Teachers are costing more because pay rises haven’t been fully funded. Schools are having to spend more money on everything because of inflation The real tragedy is children and teachers will suffer.”

READ MORE: St Michael’s Easthampstead primary short of £260,000

Four other primary schools in Bracknell Forest are already being allowed to run licensed deficits. These are Ascot Heath, Cranbourne, The Pines and Winkfield St Mary’s.

Under this arrangement, the council allows them to spend more than their funding in the short term, but “repay” this by scaling back spending in future years.

But Mr Clark told the forum that each of these had found themselves facing even further financial difficulties.

He said: “The four schools that already had a licensed deficit in place – most of which were already struggling with managing to develop a repayment plan – all of those have experienced a widening of their financial deficits.

“It does reflect the financial circumstances that those schools are finding themselves in.”

The forum voted to approve the licensed deficit at a meeting on Thursday, September 14.