Thornbury and Yate MP Luke Hall and South Gloucestershire Council Leader Toby Savage have called for a £2.3 million investment in Thornbury schools.

Last month the pair presented the plan for the future of Marlwood school to the Minister for Schools Lord Agnew.

The meeting saw the pair present the Council’s plan to make better use of the existing site in Alveston and improve facilities for children with complex educational needs.

A bid to see a new 112 place special educational needs free school built on the site gained Department for Education sign off earlier in the year.

Local MP Luke said: “It was a great opportunity to present our case to the Minister as to the importance of this scheme not just to those at Marlwood but also the difference a purpose built school for special needs would make to children with the most complex learning difficulties.

Councillor Toby Savage said: “The proposals we have presented have the pupils in our local community front and centre of our priority to see investment in our schools, and to see local standards rise.

The party has come under criticism following the broadcast of School, a BBC documentary following the Castle School Education Trust.

58 local headteachers put together a report showing nearly how the majority of primary schools in the area are facing a funding crisis.

Lib Dem Council Group Leader, Claire Young, said: “South Gloucestershire has become a national symbol of schools in financial crisis as a result of the BBC’s School documentary series.

"Now the whole country knows that our schools have been chronically underfunded and that this is affecting our children’s education and life chances."

"It is an unusual step for teachers to speak out so publicly. The fact that they have felt forced to do so just goes to show how desperate the crisis has become.

South Gloucestershire Lib Dem education spokesperson, Cllr Ian Blair called on Toby Savage to back the headteachers and demand a better deal from the government.

"Toby Savage painted a rosy picture of the Chancellor’s recent Budget, but many local teachers will have been insulted by the Chancellor’s so-called “little extras” for schools, which will amount to just a few thousand pounds per school at a time when schools are being forced to cut teaching assistants and other basic essentials," he said.

In response Cllr Savage said: "“If the Liberal Democrats truly had our children’s best interests at heart they would have supported the Council’s budget this year that delivered increased school funding, a doubling of the School Improvement Fund and a multi-million pound programme of capital investments to upgrade and maintain many of our schools."