SECONDARY schools in England are facing a “perfect storm” of pressures that could have severe consequences for children, headteachers have warned ahead of their annual conference this weekend.

Budget cuts, changes to exams, problems recruiting teachers and Brexit are causing major upheaval, according to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).

The union is also expected to argue against government proposals to expand grammar schools at its conference in Telford.

General secretary Russell Hobby said: “The combination of challenges facing secondary schools and their students has never been greater.

“Many school leaders are concerned about maintaining high standards in the face of simultaneous upheaval on so many fronts. It’s a perfect storm.

“The government is loading more uncertainty onto the secondary system than ever before. There is a real risk it will break.”

Mr Hobby repeated warnings that schools are facing “unacceptable levels of financial pressure,” with an NAHT survey showing that 72 per cent of headteachers believe that budgets will be unsustainable in two years’ time.

The severe financial problems are simply down to the government’s choice to freeze spending and keep it at 2010 levels for each pupil, he added.

“The 2010 cash isn’t going as far as it used to. You can’t expect it to. But the government is flatly refusing to admit the reality,” he continued.

Ministers have insulted headteachers by suggesting that schools could cope on their budgets if they renegotiated their photocopying contracts or clubbed together with six other schools to get cheaper deals, outgoing NAHT president Kim Johnson said.

Mr Johnson said that his school in Kent, Bradfields Academy, spends 90 per cent of its budget on staffing and that changing procurements would not make any real savings.

“I’m going to have to make redundancies,” he added.