DEVON’S schools could soon be forced to shut on Friday afternoons due to budget pressures, a leading councillor is predicting.

Cllr Rob Hannaford, the chairman of Devon County Council’s children’s scrutiny committee, said he was ‘convinced’ schools in Devon would soon join schools nationwide closing on Friday afternoons to give teachers the preparation and planning time required, because they could not afford to pay for additional teachers to cover those sessions.

He said: ‘The long term gross underfunding of Devon’s schools is a great scandal that needs addressing urgently to ensure that our local children have the best educational outcomes. In Devon, we see school deficits growing month on month, big staff reductions, support staff being removed despite a rise in children entitled to free school meals and many more children with special needs and parents and families being regularly asked to contribute towards essential items.

‘We are one of the richest countries in the world, so school funding in the United Kingdom should be enough to actually run each and every school properly. Indeed, I am convinced that we will shortly see some schools in Devon having to close early on a Friday to keep running costs down.

‘I really find the profound lack of good progress on this issue hugely frustrating.’

A group of more than 80 MPs have written to chancellor Philip Hammond urging him to increase school and special needs funding before permanent damage is done to the education of children across England.

Read the full story in today’s Times.