Parents and staff at Henry Cavendish Primary school have launched a campaign to fight school funding cuts.

Staging a week-long protest, they want to raise awareness of the Government’s proposed plans to introduce a ‘fair funding formula’ (FFF) that will result in money being spread out more equally across England.

The move has been met with fierce opposition as many schools will experience cuts to their funding, with think-tank, The Education Police Institute (EP1), projecting a loss of £300,000 on average per school across the UK.

Leader of Lambeth Council councillor Lib Peck, who attended the protest, called the idea “disastrous”.

She said: “We have seen huge improvements in schools and these cuts threaten all of that progress.

“We have to fight this.

“We need fair funding for all schools.”

Parents and staff all praised the work done at the school but fear many services that make the school great will have to be sacrificed.

Campaigner and parent, Aisha Jung, said the response from the school when she told staff her son had speech difficulties as a result of an earlier hearing problem was fantastic- a speech therapist arrived within a week.

Cuts to funding put this kind of service at risk.

She criticised elected representatives for not standing up for their constituents, adding: “They think they can get away with it.”

“It’s got to be fought. Parents are not willing to go back to 80s level funding.

“We are going to do as much as we can to spread the word and mobilise.”

Another parent at the school, Cassie Wolfinger, said she was “absolutely devastated” by the proposed cuts. She moved to the area so her children could go to the school.

Cassie said: “Henry Cavendish has been hit the worst compared to other schools in the area. We’ve had the biggest cuts of all. I moved to this area for my kids to go to this school.”

Parent Sana Besley called the move “ridiculous” and “cowardly”.

Sana said: “It doesn’t make sense.

“If parents can they will pick up the pieces but it shouldn’t be up to them. It’s short-term gain at the expense of the long-term. Hopefully the right people are listening.”

Head teacher Alexandra Hardy said the news “saddened” her.

She said: “It’s very disappointing that inner city children are going to suffer from the withdrawal of funds that are really needed to ensure we close the gap between children who have affluent parents and those who do not.”

Secretary of Lambeth NUT Sara Tomlinson praised the campaign. She said: “Teachers feel buoyed up by the support from parents to back us up in our fight against the cuts.”

Although Henry Cavendish is a Lambeth school, Wandsworth parents also have children attending. Thirty signed letters have been collected so far this week to present to Battersea MP Jane Ellison.

Although Jane Ellison did not comment on the cuts, she said: “I welcome the fact that the vast majority of children in Battersea go to Good or Outstanding schools.

“As part of my role as a constituency MP I speak regularly with head teachers, teachers, parents and pupils about our education system and about their aspirations for the future.”

Wandsworth Labour’s spokesperson for education, Councillor Jeremy Ambache criticised the MP for remaining silent on the cuts.

He said: “Sadly this will adversely affect the quality of teaching in our schools – and it is likely to ensure that more of our school are rated by Ofsted as ‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requiring Improvement’, and that less schools will be ‘Good ‘ or ‘Outstanding’.

“This is across London.

“We have been out in over 10 schools in the borough. We are finding that over 99 per cent are concerned about the likelihood of cuts to their schools.

“We are hoping the Government will think again and make sure Wandsworth and Lambeth schools are not disadvantaged.”

Joint secretary of Wandsworth National Union of Teachers Andy Stone said Cavendish staff and parents were “absolutely right” to protest at the cuts.

He said: “They are facing a real terms cut of over £680,000 by 2019. That's the equivalent of £856 per pupil or 18 teachers' jobs.

“This would mean much bigger class sizes and less support for pupils.

“This government promised in 2015 that the money following each student would be protected. But in failing to provide for inflation, let alone the other increased costs it is placing on schools, the government is creating a situation where 98 per cent of schools will be worse off.

Mr Stone added: “Wandsworth NUT is planning a big public meeting on the issue on 25th April at 7pm at Furzedown school - we hope parents and other residents will join us in saying that our children should not be made to pay the price of an austerity agenda caused by banking profligacy.”

Although Justine Greening has yet to comment, minister for School Standards Nick Gibb said “school funding is at its highest level on record”.