Birmingham headteachers are to give Education Secretary Damian Hinds a first-hand account of the devastating effects of underfunding on city schools.

A group of heads from Erdington are to meet Mr Hinds at Westminster.

They will present the Education Secretary with a dossier explaining the issues they face.

Michell Gay, head of Osborne Primary School, writes in the dossier: “These enforced changes due to a real term reduction in Osborne’s school budget will lead to dire consequences for the emotional well-being, personal resilience, improved standards and, ultimately, life chances of our children and families.”

The Birmingham schools say they have been forced to cut back on teaching assistants, swimming lessons, music lessons and more.

And help for pupils with special educational needs has been reduced.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds.

The Government and unions disagree about whether education funding has fallen. Ministers say schools are getting more money than before, but headteachers point out that they also face extra costs, and if these are taken into account then the funding has fallen.

A survey of Erdington headteachers found that more than two thirds will not be able to afford a teaching assistant for every classroom by 2020, if nothing changes.

The dossier presented to Mr Hinds continues: “Curriculum provision will also be hit hard by the funding cuts, with over two thirds (65%) of Heads cancelling external music tuition, 59% of Heads stopping residential trips and 53% of Head Teachers saying they would no longer be able to afford to have Theatre specialists in school.”

Ms Gay said the school’s budget had increased but it also faced extra costs as a result of government decisions, such as increased pension contributions, higher pay for teachers and funding for apprenticeships.

She said the school had been forced to make “stark choices which will have a cumulative impact across the whole school” in order to cut costs.

A new class was being introduced next year because the school was expanding - but she said: “Currently the school will not be able to employ a teacher for the additional class.”

In order to find the money, the school was considering making existing staff redundant, such as a learning mentor who supports children with emotional or behavioural issues.

Another money-saving option being considered was to scrap the school’s counselling service, “resulting in heightened issues for the children resulting in poor behaviour, impacting upon theirs and their peers’ learning potential.”

And each class used to have its own teaching assistant - but the school could not afford to employ one for the new class, she said.

She added; “The school had funded two weekly swimming sessions for Key Stage 2 children but this has now been reduced to one.

“Guitar tuition lessons for the Year 4 class had been funded by school but this service had to be ceased.”

Mark Rhatigan, Head of Erdington Academy, said schools also faced extra costs because of a reduction in support offered by local councils.

He said: “Due to the loss of funding at Local Authority level and the reduction in funding for community services (e.g. school nurse, youth work), local services are under pressure.”

But students continued to need support and the school was paying for it “using our own funds”.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We want every child to have a high quality education and since 2010 the proportion of pupils in good or outstanding schools has risen.

“We are investing in our schools; our new National Funding Formula is allocating more money for each school to every local authority; the independent IFS confirmed that funding for five to 16-year-olds has been maintained across this year and next.”

He added: “We recognise that there is more pressure on schools to do more, which is why we have taken a number of steps to help them get the best value for every pound.

“Our government-backed deals are helping schools save money on things like utility bills and other non-staff spend.”