TWO headteachers have said claims that the Government is delivering fairer funding for rural schools are misleading.

The Department of Education has revealed a redrafted formula which will see money moving from urban centres that have been better funded in the past to schools in rural areas that have traditionally received less money.

In North Yorkshire, the secondary schools set to gain are Easingwold receiving an extra £59,000, Thirsk £22,000, Lady Lumley’s in Pickering £52,000 and Norton College £13,000.

Education secretary Justine Greening said: “Our proposed reforms will mean an end to historical unfairness and underfunding for certain schools.

“We need a system that funds schools according to the needs of their pupils rather than their postcode, levelling the playing field and giving parents the confidence that every child will have an equal opportunity to reach their full potential.”

The move has been welcomed by Ryedale MP Kevin Hollinrake, who said North Yorkshire schools would be almost £7m a year better off.

Mr Hollinrake said: “I made a campaign commitment to seek a fairer deal for rural areas and am grateful to my many colleagues who were also involved in this fairer funding campaign.”

However, headteacher of Lady Lumley’s School, Richard Bramley, said he felt it was necessary to put these figures into context.

“The Government is currently consulting on a National Funding Formula for schools and this will not become fully operational until April 2019,” he said.

“While additional funding is welcome, the proposed funding formula involves a redistribution of existing money, so there will be ‘losers’ as well as ‘winners’.”

Mr Bramley said published figures showed that other local secondary schools would lose more than the gains quoted for Lady Lumley’s and Norton.

“The recent changes in teachers’ superannuation and increased National Insurance contributions cost Lady Lumley’s School about £170,000 a year. These changes affect all schools and means this money is now not available to spend on children’s education,” he said.

“The Government has not protected sixth form funding. There has been a 14 per cent cut in the money available for teaching sixth form students since 2010. Deep cuts in the money available to the local authorities has also meant that services, such as educational psychologists, have now to be paid for out of the schools’ budget.

“Increases in the minimum wage are similarly not being funded, so staff costs increase but school’s income does not. We have been very prudent at Lady Lumley’s and we are managing to just keep our heads above water, but I know many schools in the area and across the country are in a much worse position.

“We are all living in difficult times, but it is not made easier by reading promises of “jam tomorrow” when the bread and butter is being taken away today.”

Phil Loftus, headteacher of Norton College, said: “School budgets have been at best frozen over the last four years as the cost of living has risen. In the future it is predicted that budgets will decline by a further eight per cent. There is now a real funding gap in all schools.

“This additional monies, is a drop in the ocean for Norton’s needs and in no way covers the shortfall in funding the school is experiencing.”