MORE than 20 schools in the Cotswolds will have their funding reduced by thousands of pounds next year if the proposed national funding formula goes ahead.

Farmor's School in Fairford and Powell's C of E Primary School in Cirencester will be faced with the highest proportion of cuts - 2.8 per cent.

Funding for Farmor's will be reduced by £88,000 while Powell's will be £40,000 worse off.

Cirencester’s secondary schools Kingshill and Deer Park could lose out by £77,000 and £57,000 respectively.

In Tetbury, Sir William Romney's secondary school will have its funding reduced by £33,000.

Larger primary schools in Tetbury, Fairford and Lechlade will also see reductions in funding.

St Mary's Primary in Tetbury will see a reduction of £18,000. At Fairford C of E Primary, the figure is £16,000. Meanwhile, St Lawrence C of E Primary in Lechlade will suffer a relatively lower loss in funding of £7,000.

But 39 smaller primary schools in the district which receive lower levels of funding are set to benefit from the new formula.

Funding for Southrop C of E Primary will increase by nearly a quarter, by £54,000 to £283,000.

Kemble Primary School will see an increase in funding by more than a tenth, by £41,000. Its sister school Siddington Primary will also see a funding increase of £27,000, a 9 per cent increase.

Conservative MPs have voiced concerns over the government plans to shake up school funding, with several warning they could not support the current proposals.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Cotswold MP (pictured below), said the "unfair" funding formula, which aims to increase money targeted at schools with additional needs, would hit pupils in rural schools.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard: Thames Water must do more to prevent flooding, according to Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Mr Clifton-Brown said schools in Gloucestershire had suffered from years of underfunding and the proposed formula would not make up the difference.

Liberal Democrats in the area also hit out at the “unfair” plans.

Gloucestershire county councillor for Cirencester Park Division and leader of the Cotswold Lib Dems, Joe Harris, said: “Our area is already one of the most underfunded authorities in the UK and for schools this will mean tough choices.

“I regularly meet with schools and I hear about how they are having make tough decisions with their current funds, sometimes it is a clear choice between reducing their offer to students or fixing the school roof.

“The 'f40 group' has for many years campaigned for fairer funding in education and to see changes in the way funds are allocated to schools. After years of lobbying, I’m at a loss to see how this particular formula where there are winners and losers can really be fair.

"The Department for Education needs to go back to square one and formulate a national funding formula which is genuinely fair for every school across the country.”

The deadline for submissions to the government’s consultation on stage two of the schools national funding formula closes on March 22.