TRAFFORD'S schools will be even more severely hit by a new funding formula than previously estimated, according to a teachers' union.

Figures compiled in January by the National Union of Teachers forecast that the Trafford's schools would be worse off by £14.6m by 2019/20, under the National Funding Formula.

Now the union has recalculated the figures and it reckons that funding will be down by £16.2 - more than £1.5m higher than previously calculated.

The union also claims that 21 out of 85 schools in Trafford face cuts of £3,014,355 after 2020.

NUT Secretary Sian Bloor said: “The Government is breaking its promise to protect school budgets.

"Parents in Trafford should be deeply concerned by these damaging cuts that hit almost every school. The Government must act now to protect schools.”

The leader of Conservative-controlled Trafford Council, Cllr Sean Anstee, wrote to the Secretary of State for Education in January, calling for a re-think on schools' funding.

He said: "“Our schools are some of the top performing in the country and this is down to the hard work and dedication of our heads and teachers who work tirelessly to provide the best education for pupils they can.

"For pupils’ futures it is imperative that this continues.”

The Government, though, disputes the NUT's figures.and says the new funding formula will be fairer.

Minister of State for School Standards, Nick Gibb, said: “The current system for distributing school funding is unfair, opaque and outdated. It is based on inconsistent decisions that have built up over many years and on pupil information that is over a decade old.

“The case for change is clear. That is why we are proposing to introduce a national funding formula that will create a system that funds schools fairly and according to the needs of their current pupils, not just their postcode.?”

A website, published by the NUT and other teacher unions, compares each school’s funding in 2015-16 with the funding the Government predicts it will receive in 2019-20 under the proposed new National Funding Formula (NFF), adjusted for the impact of inflation and cost increases imposed on schools. It is at schoolcuts.org.uk