AN ANGRY Kidderminster school governor has challenged Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier to visit their school and explain how their budget could be spent more wisely.

Baxter College’s chairman of governors Sarah Beadsworth also called on Mr Garnier to stand shoulder to shoulder with headteachers who will march on Downing Street calling for fairer funding for Worcestershire Schools.

The march is part of the ‘Worth Less?’ campaign and is backed by secondary school heads from across the county.

In the Shuttle last week, Mr Garnier said he sympathised with their point of view and added that people had had enough of austerity. But he also said funding is going up and schools needed to look at their own expenditure.

Mrs Beadsworth said that the government’s National Funding Formula was a step in the right direction but added Worcestershire pupils were still disadvantaged with funding per pupil in the county being £887 less than in Birmingham.

She also argued increasing demands on budgets meant schools were being forced to reduce the range of options, increase class sizes, cut staff and provide less support to vulnerable pupils.

Mrs Beadsworth said: “I challenge Mr Garnier to come into my school – or any county school – and tell us how we could manage our budgets more effectively.

“He has no idea how much time is spent in schools on budget control and challenging every penny spent to ensure we can do the best for our children.

“And if he truly has sympathy for our headteachers, I call upon him to stand shoulder to shoulder with them when they lobby Parliament on September 28.”

“He seems to have forgotten that Wyre Forest and Worcestershire have always been the bottom of the heap as far as school funding is concerned, and we have campaigned for years for fairer funding.

“Our schools have done an amazing job despite these constraints but our headteachers know they cannot continue to provide the service our children need without improved funding.”

But Mr Garnier said: “It’s a shame that Sarah Beadsworth chose to go to London to see Worcestershire MPs not only on a day of the week when Parliament rarely sits, but during the conference recess.

“Had she contacted my office directly, she could have saved herself and her colleagues the cost and time for the trip and I would have been delighted to visit her in Kidderminster, as I will do any time she likes.

“The best way to contact me is through the details she has at Baxter College, or through the numbers advertised on various websites. I look forward to hearing from her."