SCHOOLS in South Gloucestershire are facing a funding cut of close to £400,000, the Gazette can reveal.

The Learning and Skills Council, which provides money for sixth-form students at schools and colleges, has announced a reduction on average of 3.7 percent.

It means that schools in the region which offer A Levels and equivalent qualifications to 16 to 18-year-olds will receive £387,000 less than last year.

Cllr Sheila Cook, South Gloucestershire Council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said this week: "The greatest individual school loss is £97,000.

"This will have implications for staffing levels at our schools and may mean that a number young people will not be able to stay on at school.

"This is particularly disappointing at a time of economic recession."

The funding is per pupil and comes despite a Government initiative to keep more school leavers in education.

By 2013, it will become a statutory requirement for all 17-year-olds to continue in full-time education and by 2015 this will extend to 18-year-olds.

Therese Gillespie, director for children and young people at the council, said the funding cuts would hit schools hard.

"This is only the second year that schools have been funded this way – which is the same way colleges have always been funded.

"Colleges may be able to absorb 40 to 50 pupils without any impact but schools could not take 10 fewer pupils without feeling the financial pressure."

Alun Williams, headteacher at Brimsham Green School in Yate which runs the Link sixth form in partnership with Kind Edmund Community School and Chipping Sodbury School, said the school needed to attract more pupils to increase funding levels.

He said: "We won't be affected by it hugely but it will certainly be thousands of pounds.

"It will not affect staffing levels or the provision and it won't affect the number of children we can educate.

"It means the same amount of money has to go further."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "As ministers have made clear, we are seeing an even greater surge in demand for places than we have budgeted for.

"We are still working across government on the extra financial support we need to provide for the new learners that are coming forward. The LSC will write again to schools and colleges at the end of this month."

Funding for school places will not be affected as the Dedicated Schools Grant has been increased by 3.7percent for 2009/10 in South Gloucestershire.