By Justin Parkinson BBC News Online education staff

David Mills is reluctant to appeal for donations from parents

Budgets are tight, while outgoings seem never-ending: staff, heating, maintenance, electricity, water, and so on, and so on.

Last year, the situation came to a head, so to speak, with hundreds of schools across England declaring themselves up to �500,000 in debt.

After a long-running row between central government and local authorities, an extra 4% was made available for this financial year.

But, as ever, head teachers are feeling the squeeze.

Wages and pension contributions have increased, while they have had to fund the workload agreement, which takes administrative tasks like photocopying and reading the register out of teachers' hands.

'Uncomfortable'

One head, David Mills, has had to appeal for donations of up to �50 from parents to help clear a deficit of �10,000.

His school, Kegworth Primary, in Leicestershire, also suffers from being in the worst-funded local education authority in England.

Only �3,091 is available per pupil, compared with the national average of �3,514.

Mr Mills told BBC News Online: "The appeal for donations came about as a result of the situation we are in.

It seems very unfair that we should get so much less David Mills

"Several parents offered to help, so we gave others the chance to contribute too.

"It doesn't sit comfortably. It's also not our fault. We are a good school and it seems we are being penalised for that."

Most staff at the 153-pupil school have been in place for a long time.

This means having to pay higher wages than for newly qualified teachers, but without any extra funding.

Mr Mills, head of Kegworth for more than 10 years, has had to cut back on support staff.

He said: "We've made as many cutbacks as we can, but there are some things you can't save on. We still have to keep the school going.

The school has already had to lose some support staff

"We were expecting the government's funding review would help Leicestershire out, but it hasn't. We've actually come out worse.

"The government is focusing its funding on areas of deprivation in the big cities. We are in a largely rural area, so we don't benefit.

"It seems very unfair that we should get so much less."

Kegworth has received good reports from school inspectors.

Mr Mills said: "It's a little bit upsetting that our efforts are being hit by under funding. This is beginning to have an impact on schools.

"It's costing more money for me to have stable, long-standing staff. We don't have anybody on an average salary, but we don't get any more money.

"It's hard for parents to understand. I'd rather not make an appeal for help. it doesn't exactly help parents' confidence.

"We would rather concentrate all our energies on giving the children a good education. The government should improve its funding. This is not going to go away."