An MP is meeting with government officials to try and prevent damage to Barnet schools from incoming reductions in funding.

School union NAHT has calculated Barnet is set to lose £497 in funding per pupil when the new National Funding Formula is instated by the government.

MP for Hendon Matthew Offord has met with schools minister Nick Gibb and education secretary Justine Greening to push for ‘transitionary funding’ to ease Barnet schools into the new system.

READ MORE: Barnet Council's CELS committee votes to go along with proposals in the new National Funding Formula for schools

The government is reworking the formula to create “fairer” funding for schools across the UK, which may see low-funded schools get a boost and high-funded schools take a loss.

Allocations to most Barnet mainstream schools will be reduced, causing concern among teachers and school representatives who say Barnet schools will be unable to provide quality education.

Mr Offord said: “I have met with primary head teachers in my constituency and I believe it is generally agreed there needs to be a fairer distribution of funding to schools.

“I share concerns school budgets are already under enormous pressures from a range of sources and even a small reduction in funding will pose a serious threat to the high quality of teaching, learning and achievement which epitomises Barnet’s schools.

“Several head teachers indicated they were having to cut their teaching staff numbers to balance their books.

“At my meeting with the schools minister, I drew attention to the additional pressures already on schools and pressed him to consider a fully-funded transitional period to allow schools time to adjust their budgets and help ensure the high standards currently being achieved do not fall.”

READ MORE: Coalition of 29 Barnet schools writes to Department of Education for fairer consideration in budget cuts

A coalition of 29 Barnet schools has already written to the education secretary appealing for reconsideration of the changes in funding.

The coalition wrote: “The expected savings, as well as changes to pension and National Insurance payments, pay rises promoted by the department, and cuts to funding present significant challenges for all schools.

“For the losers under the National Funding Formula, as the majority of us we will be, these challenges will be further magnified.

“The formula will place a greater proportion of the cuts on fewer schools, increasing the problems we, in Barnet, will face.

“Your department may see this as a zero sum, in which losers are balanced out by winners.

“However, not enough attention is being paid to the effect of this change.

“As losers we will have little choice but to reduce our offer, diluting our success further than other schools, resulting in measurable reductions in quality.”

Barnet Council recently voted to generally accept the changes the National Funding Formula would bring, but to appeal for greater consideration for Barnet schools.