A WINCHESTER school has told parents it needs to make savings following changes to government spending - but has stressed the quality of teaching won't suffer.

In a letter to sent out by Kings' School, head teacher Matthew Leeming said: "Sadly, we have now reached a point where our existing level of spending is no longer sustainable."

Mr Leeming said that increases in employers’ pension and National Insurance contributions, the National Living Wage, plus being subject to the 'apprenticeship levy' has added the school's costs, but "these new increases have not been centrally funded – we are required to pay them from within our existing budgets".

However, the school was keen to stress it the "difficult decisions" would not affect teaching standards.

As a result of the changes, Kings' governors have agreed to reduce the leadership team, cut the teaching staff by four 'full-time equivalents', postpone classroom refurbishments, increase the number pupils in each year group, and stop bus services – other than those provided by the council – which serve Colden Common a year earlier than planned.

Mr Leeming stressed in the letter that the teaching cuts would be achieved through staff retiring or moving on, rather than redundancies.

He added: "The new 'National Funding Formula', which has just been implemented, has helped us a bit but not enough to cover all of these increases.

"We have had a long-term plan to manage anticipated increases in expenditure, however, we have been slightly taken by surprise by the proposed pay awards to support staff (between four and nine per cent) and teaching staff (expected to be at least two per cent).

"Please don’t get us wrong – we support these increases. However, these new increases have not been centrally funded – we are required to pay them from within our existing budgets.

"Governors agreed that our over-riding priority must be to protect the educational experience that the pupils enjoy. We also want to look after the adults who work at the school, as far as we can."