A “TSUNAMI” of problems and a “cost-of-learning” crisis have been revealed in a survey of primary school headteachers in West Yorkshire.

The heads reported children from different years having to be taught together, overwhelmed staff, cuts to help for children with special needs and soaring food and energy bills hitting other parts of school budgets.

The survey of 84 primary schools was carried out by the Calderdale Against School Cuts campaign (CASC).

Calderdale is a metropolitan district based on the town of Halifax in West Yorkshire.

CASC campaigner Sue McMahon said heads reported non-replacement of staff (88 per cent), cuts to support staff (67 per cent), cuts to teaching staff (42 per cent), and a massive 98 per cent of heads worrying about balancing school budgets in the next three years.

Headteachers told the study they had had to cut budgets for school meals and that “we cannot run on the limited staff we have but cannot afford to replace staff who leave.”

“The level of support we can offer children with additional needs is extremely worrying,” another said.

Other anonymous comments included “we are facing a financial abyss despite very tight fiscal management” and “we will have to have redundancies.”

One headteacher said he was taking early retirement “to help the school budget.”

Another said: “We will have to have mixed age classes.”

“With no clear plan from government about how the prospective pay rises will be funded, the impact of inflation, the cost-of-living increase and energy bills being four times greater than two years ago, the level of uncertainty is extremely worrying,” yet another warned.

Ms McMahon said: “The tsunami of this crisis will hinder the life chances of the most vulnerable in our schools.

“The survey revealed that schools are now having to make deep cuts to provision, and these will have a profound effect on children’s education and their life chances.”

She accused Education Secretary Gillian Keegan of “letting down a generation of children” and said she and her predecessors had “ignored the real impact that underfunding is having in schools.”

“The government has forgotten what they pledged they’d do in their manifesto and invest in the nation’s children,” she said.