A headteacher who has been forced to ask parents to pay £25 a year to cover a funding shortfall says the government’s £400m budget handout is a gimmick.

Steve Davies, executive head teacher of Rose Street Primary School and West Minster Primary School, both in Sheerness, said the money would not help because it was restricted to capital spending and more money was needed in other areas.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said the extra pot of money would enable schools to pay for “some of the little extras” they cannot afford.

But he ringfenced the money, preventing schools from spending it on their priorities.

Mr Davies said: “It is really a token gesture and a gimmick.

"It is going on capital expenditure so I can not use it for what I really want, which is to recruit more staff to help with SEN (special educational needs) pupils.

"We are still having to ask parents for help through our school fund,” he said.

“We will get a little bit extra but I can’t use it to meet the teachers’ pay award, for example.

"We do have areas where we can use the money but the Chancellor could have been really brave and just allocated the money to schools to spend how they want. Frankly, I am just fed up with the government.”

Kent head teachers were among a 1000-strong march to Westminster recently in protest at cuts to their budgets under a reform of school funding.

Education experts have said the extra money was a drop in the ocean.

Alyson Howard, a partner at chartered accountants MHA MacIntyre Hudson, based in Canterbury and Maidstone, said: “The £400m announced in one-off additional support for schools is better than nothing but is not going to go very far.

"At a time when schools are facing the prospect of having to fund a 7.12% rise in employers’ contributions to the Teachers Pensions scheme from September 2019, on top of a 3.5% pay increase, an average boost of £10,000 per primary school and £50,000 per secondary school is a drop in the ocean.”

Opposition parties criticised the proposal, with shadow education secretary Angela Rayner labelling Mr Hammond's choice of language as "utterly insulting to parents and teachers".