A senior leader in a large multi-academy trust, speaking anonymously to avoid alarming parents, said: “We will be forced to collapse classes. I’m looking at going from 10 sets to eight in maths and English, with a top set of up to 50 or even 60 kids in a big space.”

The leader said they were already having to “double up classes” to cover absences, and this would get worse. One of their secondary academies had 15 staff off last week, with stress-related illness noticeably on the rise.

“The senior team has been teaching 100 kids a time in the hall to relieve pressure on teachers,” he said. “Cover lessons make behaviour worse.”

As well as cutting less popular sixth-form subjects and increasing A-level class sizes – in some cases to twice the optimal number of pupils – he is considering cutting costs by starting the school day late or finishing early once a week.

He said: “If we have another year of this underfunding, by next year I think you’ll have lots of schools going to a four-day week because they can’t afford to teach for five.”

A school has created a wellbeing garden for children and teachers whose mental health have been affected by the pandemic.

An unused courtyard at Chapel Allerton primary in Leeds has been transformed into an “oasis of calm”.

Community groups have worked alongside the school to create a space where pupils can relax and enjoy nature.

Headteacher Nicholas Sykes said the “mental and emotional wellbeing” of everyone at school was very important.

The garden will be used for mindful activities and lessons and also be a place that pupils and staff can got to for some quiet time.

The document, entitled “Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child”, did include at least one key measure that could significantly change the education landscape.

The single most impactful announcement was the promise that all schools in England would either be in a multi-academy trust or in the process of joining one by 2030, with a single regulatory approach.

Six years ago, Nicky Morgan was forced to do an embarrassing U-turn on a similar pledge as education secretary after backbench Conservative rebels rejected the idea of already high-performing schools being forced to become academies.

While most of the 3,500 secondary schools in England are now already academies, the great majority of the 16,800 primaries in the sector are not, with only 44% of mainstream schools in England having made the switch. “There is some logic to all schools becoming academies,” said one commentator. “We know the current system is fragmented. It’s logical to bring schools under the same regulatory framework.”

Critics, however, warn that joining an academy trust does not necessarily lead to higher attainment and that making all schools academies will be fraught with difficulties. Zahawi has sweetened the pill by offering local authorities with successful schools the chance to set up their own multiple-academy trusts. Faced with government pressure to academise, it remains to be seen whether schools, unions and local communities still have the energy for a fight.

Otherwise, the white paper covers familiar territory – the new and widely welcomed national register for children not in school, the use of data to modernise and improve tracking of attendance, the £30,000 starting salary for teachers, plus more and better teacher training.

More councils in England are calling on the government to delay the reopening of primary schools amid rising cases of Covid-19.

Local authorities in Wolverhampton, Cumbria and Kent are now asking for a delay to the start of term on Monday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC parents should send their children to schools where they were open.

Some schools announced on Sunday they would remain closed after teachers said they felt it was unsafe to go in.

Mr Johnson told BBC One’s Andrew Marr the risk to children was “very, very low” and the benefit of education was “so huge”.

He added that while school closures would be kept “under constant review”, the government would be “driven by public health considerations and by the massive importance of education”.

Teaching unions have called for remote learning and some head teachers have begun legal action to force ministers to reveal data behind the decision for most schools to reopen.

A primary school in Suffolk has had a teepee built in its playing field for pupils to learn while maintaining social distance.

The structure was constructed by staff at an events company whose children attend East Bergholt school. It will likely be used for outdoor lessons and lunch breaks.

New government guidelines have set out ways for schools across England to allow children back from next month.

Headteacher Gill Mitchell told BBC Look East’s Debbie Tubby that children would be “supervised to wash their hands” before entering any new or redesigned classrooms.

 The government is to review the provision and funding of special needs education for children in England, after the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, admitted that many families faced struggles as a result of the government’s reforms.

The introduction of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) in 2014 was followed by a steep increase in the number of children and young people with special needs and disabilities (Send) in England, with local authorities and schools complaining of funding shortages, and families of long delays in receiving diagnoses and support.

 “Our reforms in 2014 gave vital support to more children but we know there have been problems in delivering the changes that we all want to see. So it’s the right time to take stock of our system and make sure the excellence we want to see as a result of our changes is the norm for every child and their families,” Williamson said in announcing the review.

Last week the government said that special needs education in England would receive an extra £700m from next year, which Williamson said was “to make sure these children can access the education that is right for them”.                                                

The Department for Education (DfE) said the review would look at how support had “evolved” since 2014, and tackle the lottery of provision that sees children in one area receiving less than children with the same needs in another area. It will also look at balancing provision across mainstream and specialist schools, and how support is linked across health, care and education services.

About 1.3 million school-age pupils in England are classed as having special educational needs – 15% of the pupil population, according to DfE figures – while the number with EHCPs has risen from 271,000 to more than 350,000 this year.

Almost 20,000 children with special educational needs such as autism are attending school outside their council area because of shortfalls in local provision – with the number rising by nearly a fifth in two years, the Observer can reveal.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that some children are studying hundreds of miles from home as the special education needs and disability (Send) system struggles to cope with a funding crisis.

Parents of children with Send are preparing for a national day of action on May 30 in protest at the lack of funding, with more than 25 demonstrations across England and Wales and a rally in Westminster.

The Observer’s figures show that in 2018-19, 19,771 special needs children of compulsory school age attended school outside their local authority area. The true figure will be higher, as only 113 of England’s 151 councils provided data. Among the 100 councils that provided figures from 2016-17 to 2018-19, the number of out-of-area school placements rose by 18% from 15,503 to 18,229.

Opposition against the removal of schools from local authority control has resurged as families march in the streets and headteachers reignite calls for forced academisation to end.

Parents are increasingly leading the battles against schools being converted into academies, which are state schools independent of local councils, as they become more aware of negative stories.

The increased use of WhatsApp and social media groups connecting opposing parents across the country, including those who have been successful in their fight, has also spurred families on.

The opposition from parents comes as school leaders at the National Association of Head Teachers conference in Telford this weekend debate a motion calling on the teaching union to reaffirm its opposition to forced academisation.

Some headteahers and parents fear that joining an academy trust, which sets its own policies on admissions, behaviour and the curriculum, could result in the school’s identity and staff being lost.

High-profile reports of the large salaries of academy chain CEOs, at a time when schools are struggling to provide even the basics to pupils amid cuts, has also fuelled opposition to the system.

In Nico’s case, East Sussex county council now covers only half of the cost of the support he needs; his school has to pay for the remainder or disrupt his education. “Rather than funding his care according to his education, health and care plan, the local authority is funding his care according to their own matrix, saying that’s the maximum funding you can get for that type of disability,” said Heugh.

She is a member of SEND Action, a national network of families committed to upholding their legal rights. “I am able to fight for my son but there are many parents who are not able to. Their children are not receiving the correct level of provision at school, or are being excluded altogether and losing their education. It’s frustrating, because children with SEND are capable of achieving so much with the right kind of support. I know my son is.”

In December the education watchdog Ofsted said education provision for children with SEND was “disjointed” and “inconsistent”, and that in 2018 more than 2,000 of the most needy pupils missed out on the support to which they were entitled – a number that has tripled since 2010.

The school leaders’ union NAHT has reported that only 2% of headteachers feel they receive sufficient funding for pupils with SEND.

Irwin Mitchell will argue that the government has been acting unlawfully since the 2014 Children and Families Act extended special education needs provision from 18 to 25 years, increasing the numbers entitled to funding. “We couldn’t find any evidence that the funding had increased,” said solicitor Anne-Marie Irwin. “Public bodies are required to act in a rational manner. It’s irrational to include in the act a whole raft of new [people] who need support, and not allocate money to fund that.”

A report last December by the Local Government Association showed that demand for services for children and young people with SEND rose by 35% between 2014 and 2018, and that this academic year, 93 local authorities expect their spending on children with high needs will be underfunded to the tune of £287m. Increased post-16 responsibility was the single most commonly cited factor contributing to the growth in high needs spending by local authorities.

In addition to education, critics point to the damaging impact of austerity cuts first introduced in 2010 across a range of other policy areas:

Housing

Housing has become a full-blown crisis since 2010: more expensive, more scarce, and less secure in many parts of the country, especially for young people and low-income working families, as successive governments have let the market balloon while imposing hefty austerity cuts to housing support.

Rents have soared, while wages have stalled. Tenant insecurity has risen. Overcrowding is at record levels. Homelessness has increased. One in 200 people in England are homeless, according to Shelter. Rough sleeping is up over the decade: 600 homeless people died on the streets or in hostels in 2017, up 24% since 2010.

Local government

Back in 2012, a notorious PowerPoint slide circulated in local government called the Graph of Doom. It demonstrated that if austerity cuts and demographic pressures (more older people living longer) continued, councils would be unable to afford to provide anything other than social care within a few years.

Many town halls believe that point is fast approaching. After nearly a decade of cuts, councils spend a fifth less than in 2010; larger councils now spend 60% of their diminished budget on adult and children’s social care, meaning other services – parks, libraries, swimming pools, Sure Start centres, fixing potholes, bus subsidies, winter road gritting, museums – have had to be eviscerated.

Social care

Around 1.4 million adults in the UK fail to get the basic social care support they need, such as help with washing, dressing and eating, according to the charity Age UK. Rising demand from an ageing population, coupled with shrinking budgets, has led to ever tighter rationing.

Since 2010, adult social care spending in England has shrunk by £7bn, with the government averting crises with a series of “sticking plaster” funding packages. Long promised plans for putting social care funding on a sustainable level have been lost in the Brexit long grass, while there is little optimism the autumn public spending review will come to the rescue.

In children’s social care, welfare cuts, soaring poverty levels and rising parental mental illness have contributed to an explosion in child protection activity. Since 2010, assessments of children at risk of harm or neglect have gone up 77%, while child protection plans increased by a quarter, and children in care increased by 15%.

English councils predict a £2bn budget shortfall in children’s services by 2020, forcing growing cuts to preventive services such as family support to meet the cost of child protection.

NHS

Eight years of tiny budget increases have left the NHS in England seriously overstretched, chronically understaffed and £4bn in the red.

Limiting the NHS to 1% rises – far below the historic 3.7% average – has also forced patients to endure increasingly long waits for A&E care, cancer treatment, planned operations and to see a GP at their local surgery.

In-depth research published last week found levels of public satisfaction across Britain with the NHS at their lowest ever (53%) and the highest levels ever of dissatisfaction with GP services. Delays in accessing care were the main driver of rising discontent, it found.

Police

Police chiefs have long been warning about the impact of budget cuts on their ability to do their job, and the issue has come to the fore with the escalating concern about violent crime.

Home Office research leaked to the Guardian last year found that falling officer numbers were likely to be “an underlying driver that has allowed the rise [in violent crime] to continue”.

In Theresa May’s six years as home secretary to 2016, police numbers fell by 20,000 as she slashed their budgets while insisting that they could cut crime by eliminating inefficiencies. The number of officers fell from a peak of 144,353 in 2009 to 122,404 by March 2018.

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has trumpeted the extra £970m in police funding pledged for the next financial year. However, police chiefs have warned that this is too low, and that some of the cash will be swallowed up by other liabilities, possibly leading to a further fall in headcount.