School leaders covering traffic and bin duties as funds run dry

School leaders in England are having to double up as caretakers and lollipop wardens as funding "hits rock bottom", teaching unions have said.

- Sally Weale

Others were having to call on relatives to fix crumbling buildings and do other odd jobs after years of inadequate funding for schools, they said.

Seven in 10 schools are struggling with real-terms cuts to their budgets since 2010 – 1,200 more than last year – according to the Stop School Cuts coalition, which has been monitoring funding levels for almost a decade.

Research by the coalition, which is made up of three education unions, school governors and a parents' charity, found more than 1,000 schools had suffered cumulative real-terms cuts in excess of £1m each, with Essex, Birmingham and Kent among the hardest hit areas.