A Thurrock councillor has warned children are “paying the price for austerity” after thousands of families received letters telling them budget cuts have caused a school funding crisis.

The letter sent to parents across the borough details how school budgets have been cut by 8 per cent since 2010 resulting in growing class sizes and a lack of resources to support vulnerable pupils, including those with special educational needs.

It was sent as part of campaign led by a headteachers’ group named Worth Less? and comes after education secretary, Damian Hinds, refused three requests from headteachers to discuss the cuts because “diaries are very full”.

One letter obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service and sent to parents by the head teacher of Hathaway Academy, calls the Government’s approach “entirely ill-judged”.

It states: “Thousands of head teachers simply do not understand what issues could be seen as more important than the ones we are raising on behalf of schools, children and families.”

Adding: “We continue to recognise that there is not a ‘bottomless pit’ of money and also acknowledge that many local MPs from across the political spectrum are taking a supportive approach. We much make clear, however, that the current response from the Department of Education is inadequate.”

The leader of the Thurrock Labour Group, John Kent, said: “Thurrock youngsters are paying the price for austerity.

“It is incredible that the education secretary won’t meet with headteachers. After all, what could be more important for any education secretary than the education of our children and meeting with teachers who are concerned about school budgets?

“The Government needs to listen to these teachers instead of repeating dodgy and misleading statistics about school funding.”

At the end of last year, the Government faced criticism from headteachers when Chancellor Philip Hammond allocated schools across the UK £400million to “buy the little extras they need”.

The Chancellor said the extra cash would allow schools to afford things such a “a whiteboard, a couple of computers, whatever it is they want to buy”.

At an October council meeting following this announcement, Mr Kent said “there is not a school in Thurrock that has not seen its funding cut” and an average of £230 has been cut per pupil.

He added that claims from the Government that they are investing more than ever before is also true but “that is simply because there are more children in school than ever before”.

He added: “Schools don’t need little extras, they need teachers, they need teaching assistants, they need textbooks and exercise books. They need the end of Tory austerity that has seen billions cut from school budgets.”

Conservative Councillor Mark Coxshall defended the government’s spending record at the meeting, claiming that “rising satisfaction, rising exam results” shows there is not a problem.

Conservative Councillor Shane Hebb added: “Schools of today are better equipped than anything we ever had back in my day when I was educated in the borough in the mid-90s.”