How on earth can the town's politicians stand up and merely state that schools are getting more money when something is clearly very wrong?

While already suffering from a shortage of teachers in key areas such as maths, science and English, headteachers in Swindon are having to make tough decisions about their current staffing levels, and redundancies are on the cards.

Alarmingly, it appears those teaching non-core subjects will have to make way for any new teachers.

While significant improvements have been made, the fact remains that schools are being forced to rob Peter to pay Paul. So while it does appear on paper that schools are getting more cash, much of that money is being used to pay for increased national insurance, pensions and other financial pressures. The end result being, Swindon's schools are still relatively underfunded.

It would be a breath of fresh air if politicians, while explaining that more is being done, admitted that the situation is far from acceptable.