Schools in Bucks have sent the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, a bill for over £141 million to cover the shortfall in funding in the county. 

The schools - led by Russell Denial, principal at Chalfonts Community College and David Hood, head teacher at Cressex Community College - are part of the Worth Less? campaign, which is demanding more money go into schools to ensure that children across the country receive equal levels of funding. 

The invoice sent to the Chancellor demands £141,272,610. 

They base their calculations on the difference between what children receive each year in the county they live in, compared with what they would receive if they lived in central London.

In Bucks, there are 44,962 pupils in primary schools and 37,182 in secondary. 

Worth Less? funding figures found that the primary per-pupil funding is £3,744 and £4,774 for children in secondary schools. 

The total funding is £168,337,728 for primary and £177,506,868 for secondary.

In Westminster, the total funding for primary schools is £235,915,614 and £251,201,592 for secondary schools. 

The number of children involved is identical. 

In their letter to the Chancellor, the head teachers said: "You will recall that head teachers wrote to you and visited 11 Downing Street in November 2017 requesting a much greater improvement to the budgets of schools in very low-funded counties.

"We were surprised and disappointed that, after providing a detailed and cogent letter, the response from your office was superficial and inadequate.

"Unsurprisingly, the key issues that we pointed out - a chronic lack of funding to support reasonable teacher/pupil ratios, excellent curricular provision and adequate help for our most vulnerable pupils to name but a few - persist.

"We have never sought to see other better-funded schools (in areas such as London) lose out. But we are not prepared to accept second best for our schools."

The headteachers go on to emphasise that the huge shortfall will have a “devastating” impact on the quality of education they can provide and, especially, on opportunities for students from poorer backgrounds.

Mr Denial and Mr Hood said: "This is a major issue for us. The school performance tables published this week show that we are facing a double challenge.

"Not only do we have to run our schools on far less money than that received by similar schools in other areas, but it is quite clear that the schools in Buckinghamshire that cater for the highest numbers of disadvantaged pupils (the non-selective schools) are struggling to meet the minimum standard expected, and students’ life chances are suffering as a consequence.

"Without a big injection of money we are not going to be able to turn this around.”