Responding to a new Sutton Trust survey which found senior school leaders were struggling to recruit teachers and increasingly have to cut school trips, support staff and sport activities, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “These shocking figures lay bare how a continuing funding and recruitment crisis is preventing many schools from offering children, including some of the most disadvantaged, the rich education they deserve.

“School leaders are struggling with basic recruitment of teachers, and with teacher training numbers again looking likely to miss targets, a clear picture of teacher and leader shortages is emerging.

"But schools are also being forced to pursue an increasingly narrow core curriculum because they cannot afford to offer cultural and sporting activities which level up opportunities and enrich children’s knowledge and wellbeing.

"The government needs to recognise that school leaders desperately need more funding and make a serious offer to end the industrial dispute which reflects the real-term pay cuts, crippling workload and high-stakes accountability faced by dedicated staff.

“Instead, ministers have proposed that schools should fund below-inflation pay rises from already stretched, inflation-hit budgets, a delusional approach which will strengthen the perception that teaching is no longer an attractive profession and make it harder for leaders to offer children a first-rate education.”