CAMPAIGNERS fear a cash injection of £1.3bn will fail to secure the future of Oxfordshire's struggling schools.

A major investment designed to ease the pressure on school budgets has been dismissed as 'a drop in the ocean', with critics stressing the cash is not 'new' money.

The Government unveiled the cash on Monday, to be split between schools in England over the next two years while it persists with a controversial new national funding formula.

But Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Layla Moran, who is both Oxford West and Abingdon MP and a governor at Botley School, said the £1.3bn is made up purely from savings elsewhere in the Department for Education.

She branded the announcement 'a desperate attempt to pull the wool over people's eyes', adding: "Instead of providing the £4bn of extra funding promised in their manifesto, the Conservatives are recycling cash from the education budget.

"It is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

"Schools are still facing cuts to their budgets once inflation and increasing class sizes are taken into account.

"It's only a drop in the ocean compared to what schools need."

The national funding formula will be introduced in September 2018 in an attempt to make school funding fairer and end the disparity that has traditionally made Oxfordshire's schools some of the worst funded in England.

But campaigners have projected it could cost Oxfordshire schools almost £30m because funding under the new formula would not keep up with inflation and other pressures.

Helen Brockett, of campaign group Fair Funding for All Schools Oxfordshire, was concerned the funding announced was merely 'a reshuffling of existing funds'.

The Abingdon mum-of-one said: "It's giving with one hand and taking with the other.

"Further down the line, it will probably have a detrimental effect.

The trainee speech and language therapist said campaigners had 'shone a spotlight' on funding concerns.

She added: "The Government has started to listen. But there is still a lot of work to be done.

"It's a step in the right direction, but we are concerned this is just re-juggling money."

Education Secretary Justine Greening said the £1.3bn will mean up to three per cent more funding per pupil for underfunded schools, and a 0.5 per cent per pupil cash increase for every school.

Oxfordshire county councillor Professor John Howson, an education expert, said efficiency savings were 'being used to camouflage the lack of significant extra cash for schools'.

He added: "It's not much money bearing in mind the rising number of pupils on school rolls.

"There is a big risk Oxfordshire will remain underfunded in the primary sector, although it might be better for the secondary sector.

"There are a lot of uncertainties."

Ms Greening said the 'vast majority' of funding will be ring-fenced for primary and secondary schools, but local authorities will be allowed to move 'limited amounts' to areas such as special schools.

It has pledged at least £4,800 per pupil for every secondary school by 2020, but no specific sum has been set aside per pupil at primary level.

Professor Howson also noted that £280 million of the 'new' cash will be drained from the free schools budget.

Free schools are a flagship Conservative policy and allow groups such as charities and parents to set up schools free from Government control.

He said: "[previously] if you were a bunch of parents and wanted to build a school [where there is a need], the DfE would probably have said yes. Now, I suspect they would say no."

Iain Littlejohn, chairman of governors at Larkmead School in Abingdon, said he was 'maintaining a healthy scepticism' about the announcement.

He said: "It's encouraging they are talking about £4,800 per student, which would be a £500 per pupil increase for us, but they didn't give any idea about timing.

"The reality is that schools in Oxfordshire are facing very severe funding challenges.

"That has meant making difficult decisions about the breadth of syllabus, support we are able to offer to disabled students and things we would not have wished to have cut."

Lynn Knapp, headteacher at Windmill Primary School in Headington, was more positive about the new cash.

She said: "Any money coming in has got to be helpful and will give a little more leeway.

"When the purse strings are really tight, every little bit helps."

Schools are likely to learn more about individual budgets in September.