A GRAMMAR school in Bucks is among the least funded in the country, it has been revealed, as officials look at new school options for the county.

Burnham Grammar School is among the lowest-funded secondary schools in the country, sitting alongside 20 other Bucks schools in the bottom 10 per cent of around 3,000 schools.

The school in Hogfair Lane received £4,552 in 2015/16, and Bucks County Council leader Martin Tett has discussed the issue with the minister of state for school standards Nick Gibb.

The meeting on Tuesday also covered issues such as high building costs, the government’s academy programme, and the principle of extending Bucks’ grammar school system.

Cllr Tett said: “It was good to meet with Nick Gibb and explain first-hand the problems Buckinghamshire has because of the very low funding for its schools. The seven poorest funded secondary schools in England are all in Buckinghamshire.

“There is also the challenge of providing school places with the high cost of building schools in the south east and the issue of teacher recruitment in an area where house prices are so high and we are in competition with London.

“Nick listened, appreciated the problem and explained what the government was doing to make school funding fairer across the country. He was also very supportive of our excellent schools.”

He added: “We have a growth agenda in Buckinghamshire with potentially tens of thousands of new houses so we will need the equivalent of a new grammar school to cope with the increased number of pupils. We spoke about how we could provide that given the current restrictions on new grammar schools.”

Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she intended to lift the ban imposed on grammar schools, which prevented new ones from opening after the ban was introduced by former prime minister Tony Blair in 1998.

The move was greeted with hostility by Slough MP Fiona Mactaggart, who feels that the greater challenge for Slough schools is to recruit new teachers.

She said: “In Slough we have many excellent schools, which include grammar schools, which at present educate more children from outside Slough than local children.

“In exams, children who have been privately tutored have a huge advantage. The government implies they can avoid this in future to give parents more choice – it’s magical thinking.

“I recognise academically focused schools can boost children’s achievement but these plans are a distraction from the real need to make every school a good school which is properly funded and staffed by excellent teachers.”