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A school in Theresa May ’s own back yard is being forced to axe staff to plug a £200,000 cash black hole, we can reveal.

The Prime Minister faced embarrassment after the Mirror was handed a letter sent to parents outlining the scale of the cuts facing The Piggott School in her Maidenhead constituency.

In a humiliating blow for the under-fire premier, head teacher Derren Gray admitted: “We are not alone; most schools are facing the same financial pressures.”

Today it was revealed one cash-strapped primary school is asking pupils to vacuum classrooms at the end of the day because it cannot afford to replace the cleaner, while the head teacher’s husband is doing the plumbing for free.

The Tories are under-fire in the general election campaign for failing to protect per-pupil funding.

While the Conservatives plan to pump more cash into schools if they win on June 8, it will not keep pace with rising pupil numbers and inflation - meaning the amount a school gets for each child falls.

Schools face a real-terms drop of £3billion once inflation is taken into account.

The financial crisis gripping the nation’s classrooms was laid bare in a heartbreaking letter Piggott School head Mr Gray sent to parents.

In a desperate bid to cut costs, he vowed not to replace “some teachers or support staff to reduce spare capacity”, scrap some subjects and hike charges for trips.

Outlining a host of redundancies in non-teaching roles, he said: “The post of librarian will be made redundant but we will retain a library assistant post.

“The post of MFL (modern foreign languages) ICT (information and computer technology) technician will be made redundant.

(Image: Get Reading)

“We will no longer employ modern foreign language assistants. The recently vacated posts of Finance Assistant (Trips & cashless catering), second ICT technician & attendance officer are being removed from the staffing structure.”

The letter, dated April 28, included 11 cost-cutting measures and praised his “exceptionally dedicated, committed, skilled and professional” workforce.

He added: “We will continue to strive to provide the very best education possible for your children.”

Mr Gray declined to comment on the letter today.

Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said: “This shocking letter lays bare the scale of Tory underfunding of schools and is a massive humiliation for the Prime Minister.

“She was elected to represent the Maidenhead area on a manifesto that guaranteed to protect funding for every child, yet she was happy to propose a funding formula that would have cut budgets for three quarters of the schools in her seat.

“It’s a similar story across the country, with parents and children bearing the brunt of brutal Tory cuts to schools - and there is worse on the way if she is re-elected.

“She has ignored warnings from heads, teachers, parents and experts on the impact of her policies and now she is even ignoring the people she’s meant to represent as an MP.

(Image: Getty)

“Only Labour’s national education service will provide schools with the resources they need to provide a world-class education for the many, not the few.”

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “This is finally real evidence that the cuts to schools are about to bite and they are about to hit the PM in her own backyard​.

“This shows for all their warm words the Tories are utter hypocrites.

“Services are being slashed, school funding cut and staff are being laid off. Enough is enough. Our children deserve better than this from the Tories.

“The Tories just don’t care about education and are taking parents, teachers and pupils for a ride. We need to a change of direction.”

The Piggott, a Church of England academy school, had 1,243 pupils aged from four to 18 when it was last inspected in 2014.

Watchdogs gave it the second-highest “good” rating.

Mrs May has used her personal website to boast of her links to the school.

Welcoming its conversion to an academy in 2011, she said: “It is great that another local school has successfully converted to Academy status.

“This will bring numerous benefits to pupils and teachers and will ensure that the local area maintains high levels of educational achievement.

“There are now over 700 Academies across the country, the majority of which have converted since this Government came to office.

“This shows that the Government was absolutely right to open up Academy status to a wide range of schools.

“I would encourage other local schools to look into this to ensure that standards continue to rise.”

In 2013, local MP and then Home Secretary Mrs May was grilled by a pupil at the school as part of a drive to get young people interested in politics.

And a year later, she attended the opening of The Charvil Primary School - part of the Piggott Academy Trust.

One worried parent, who has two kids at the Piggott, said: “It is a concern that the school is having to make these decisions.

“I’m worried about the potential impact on the children.

“The letter came slightly out of the blue, but it indicates the pressure the school is under.

“Education needs to have more funding, it comes down to priorities at the end of the day.

“It’s a great and it’s sad they have to make cuts like this.”

In another example of the cash crisis, Furzedown Primary School in Wandsworth, south west London, has been forced to make cutbacks to try to balance the books.

Head teacher Monica Kitchlew-Wilson has asked older pupils to clean classrooms after one of the school cleaners moved jobs and there was too little enough money to replace her.

Her husband Dave Wilson, a trained plumber, has been drafted in to tackle odd jobs, such as replacing grease traps in the kitchen, to save money.

Parents are also contributing, replacing worn-out sports equipment and buying classroom materials.

(Image: Reading Post)

Ms Kitchlew-Wilson said a combination of cuts would leave her school “down by £100,000”.

She told The Observer: “It’s a huge amount for a two-form entry primary.

“I’ve never had a minus in my life and I’ve been here 30 years but there are minus figures at the bottom of every column and we are looking to save money any way we can.”

She went on: “We will have fewer teachers to support those who need extra help.

“There will be children who need extra support who will not get it – they will get less teacher time and less quality teaching as a result of these cuts.”

Parents have been painting ceilings and doing gardening, as well as donating equipment.

“We are getting boxes of stuff from Amazon that parents are buying for us but it’s not right that families have to buy resources for the school,” said the headmistress.

“State schools should be funded by the state and that is what it’s about.”

Last week it emerged Zoe Turner, the head of Kingmoor Nursery and Infant School in Carlisle, had written to parents asking them to donate school equipment such as crayons, paper and glue sticks because the school was “desperately short” of the items owing to Government funding cuts.

A Conservative spokesman said: “We will increase the overall schools budget by £4billion by 2022 – a real terms rise for every year of the Parliament compared to current spending plans – and ensure that no school has its budget cut as a result of a fair funding formula.

“ Jeremy Corbyn can’t deliver any of his promises on school spending as his simply sums don’t add up– and putting him in charge of the Brexit negotiations would put our economic progress at risk.”