PARENTS with youngsters at two Tynedale schools have been asked to make donations in the wake of an emerging funding crisis.

Executive headteacher at Queen Elizabeth High School and Hexham Middle School, Graeme Atkins, has issued letters to parents asking for contributions to help relieve the pressure of Government cuts.

In the correspondence, which includes standing order forms and gift aid details for the schools which converted to a multi-academy trust in September, Mr Atkins described the move as an "unprecedented step" which had not been taken lightly.

According to education unions the combined impact of historic underfunding and new national funding formula proposals could see the high school lose £521,000 from its budget by 2019.

Meanwhile, the middle school was at risk of losing more than £176,000 over the next two years.

"This puts at genuine risk the quality of provision to which we have become accustomed at both our school," Mr Atkins wrote in the letter.

"Class sizes would become bigger, our curriculum would narrow, extra curricular activities would reduce and good staff would potentially leave."

The deadline for responses to the national funding formula consultation is 5pm on March 22.

Responses can be made via the Department for Education website here https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula2/consultation/intro/

But Mr Atkins also called on parents with concerns to "make their voices heard" by writing to their MP and signing a petition organised by teaching unions here http://www.schoolcuts.org.uk/#/contact-us

For more on this story pick up Friday's Hexham Courant.