David Cameron pledged to shelter education from the worst of the cuts, yet some heads are struggling to fund basic resources
At Richard Lee primary school, the building is in such dire condition that when teachers put up children's work they find the next day it has been ruined by sodden classroom walls.
The school in Coventry needs to spend £3.8m on urgent repairs over the next two years, according to official estimates by the city council. This academic year, Nicola Harwood, the headteacher, was given just £9,000 for the work and has been told not to expect much more next year.
Four of the classrooms are plagued by damp. One is now unusable because black mould has come through the carpet and it would pose too much of a health risk for children to sit on the floor for story time.
At times, pupils have had to move into the school's corridors to continue their lessons. Only a third of the school's windows are double-glazed and because the building is on a slope, the rooms are often draughty and cold.
In October, David Cameron told the Commons that the coalition had taken "difficult decisions" but was "protecting" the schools budget and per-pupil funding as well as boosting school funds with the pupil premium. A year earlier, the education secretary, Michael Gove, vowed to "protect the frontline".
But, as research by the Guardian in recent weeks suggests, in education the frontline is already being hit and some of the most vulnerable children and teenagers are taking the brunt of the cuts.
Health hazards
At Richard Lee, the GP of one pupil has requested that his patient move classrooms because the damp and cold were affecting the child's health.
Harwood says she has been worried by the number of chest infections and stomach bugs her pupils have and wonders whether it is to do with the conditions.
"Surely our children have at least the right to learn in an environment that is dry and warm," she says. "There is just so much that needs repairing here that we hardly know where to start. Water finds its way into every crevice. We patch something up and find water is coming through somewhere else."
When the building was constructed in the mid-1950s, erected quickly because of a baby boom, it was meant to be only a temporary solution. But Rob Lawrence, the school caretaker, says very little has changed since he attended the school back then.
The roof is a major concern, with water seeping through daily. It supposedly had a design life of 20 years, but has already been up for more than 50.
In June, plaster fell from the ceiling in the main corridor. Fortunately, this was in the middle of the night; had it been in the day, someone could have been seriously injured.
One of the children's toilets has a sewage problem and the staff toilets regularly flood. The boiler has broken twice and is now so out of date the school has been told it is impossible to find spare parts for it.
Richard Lee was going to be rebuilt in 2009, but the money was withdrawn. Lynette Kelly, Coventry city council's cabinet member for education, says the city has a number of school buildings that were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s and are no longer fit for the needs of modern education.
"A decade ago, schools were in much better condition. The situation now is desperate.
"If one school has a broken boiler, it takes a huge chunk of our reserves. We had a school catch fire a few years ago and we had to use a lot of money to cope with that," she says.
Books, trips and cover
Elsewhere, Rachael Mattey, headteacher of Isambard community school, a comprehensive in Swindon, says: "We are having to reduce the budget wherever we can."
This year Mattey has received £274 less for each child in her care than last year. With 1,200 pupils, that quickly translates to a serious shortfall.
"We have cut our budget for new books, resources and staff development," she says.
"If teachers are sick this winter, we won't be able to afford to buy any cover and we should really have two more teaching assistants than we do."
The pupil premium – funds that a school receives for each child on free school meals – amounts to £31,000 at Isambard, the equivalent of one extra teacher.
It's of little comfort when the school population has grown by 240 pupils in the last year.
"We work extremely hard to make sure this doesn't affect standards," Mattey says. "It's going to be a real challenge."
At Hartlepool sixth-form college, a grant that provides funds for pupils to be involved in debating clubs, go on theatre trips and receive help with their university and college choices has been cut by 73%.
The same is happening in colleges across the country, but Rick Wells, the college principal, says pupils like his will suffer the most. A cut of this magnitude will deepen the inequalities that teenagers from deprived neighbourhoods already face.
"In this part of the country, which is underprivileged, not having the money to fund pupils' theatre trips puts our students at considerable disadvantage when they apply to university," he says. "The families of our students have historically not spent money on these activities."
Play schemes and after-school clubs
Cuts to school budgets, local authorities and a tougher environment for charities mean much less financial support is going to nurseries, play schemes and after-school clubs.
Many are having to close or risk doing so, despite thousands of working parents relying on them for affordable childcare. A survey of 488 after-school clubs by the charity 4Children found almost 10% were likely to close over the next school year.
Audrey Bobb's after-school club, Jumoke, in Crystal Palace, south London, is closing because it has no grants and parents can no longer afford the fees.
Carly Holness started a play scheme for children from Peckham and the surrounding areas in south London because she wanted to give them something to do other than watch daytime TV during their school holidays.
She managed to secure £6,500 from charities last year for her business – Playscheme@Friars – but is struggling to find any more funds this year and the money she has will run out in February.
"We just keep applying for grants, but it's rejection after rejection," she says.
School sport
"The galling thing is that this country had a sporting legacy that was the envy of the world … now it's all withering away," says Chris Dunne, headteacher of Langdon Park school, a community sports college in Tower Hamlets, east London.
His school is head of its local sports partnership, meaning it works with primary and secondary schools in the neighbourhood to ensure there are enough coaches and facilities for everyone.
But the school's sports grant has been cut by 80% this year and Dunne has had to ask businesses for sponsorship.
If this doesn't work, he admits he'll have to get rid of 10 sports coaches.
Last year, the government performed a significant U-turn by agreeing to continue to fund the schools sports system in England after previously pledging to scrap it.
But there has been a dramatic reduction in the money that goes to the 450 school sports partnerships across England.
Education budget breakdown
• In the 2010 spending review, the government announced a freeze, in cash terms, of funding per pupil.
• Schools have been asked to find £1bn in savings between 2010-11 and 2014-15 from back-office functions and procurement.
• However, schools have received an extra £488 per pupil on free school meals this year – the pupil premium. This will rise to £600 in April.
• The government has pledged that no school will see more than a 1.5% per pupil funding reduction in budgets in 2012-13 compared with 2011-12 (before the pupil premium is added).
• But the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report in October that found spending on education between now and 2014-15 will fall by 13% – the fastest fall in any four-year period since the 1950s.
• The same report found that almost three-quarters of primary schools in England and about 90% of secondary schools will see a reduction in real terms over the next year. Just 5% of primary schools and 2% of secondary schools will see a real-terms increase.
• The cuts to school budgets come at a time when the number of pupils in primary schools is set to rise dramatically. Between 2011 and 2015, pupil numbers in state nurseries and primary schools are projected to increase by 9%. Pupil numbers in secondary schools will continue to decline until 2016.