SOME of the most seriously ill children in the county could be denied an education unless a specialist hospital school is given more funding, a former headteacher says.

Oxfordshire Hospital School, which teaches children at Oxford Children's Hospital, has struggled to cope with rising pupil numbers as more are referred with mental health conditions.

It's team 40 staff teach youngsters admitted for treatment for long-term conditions and has a base at Helen & Douglas House and teaches sick children at home.

But Gareth Lewis, who was headteacher at the school until this summer, said the rising number of pupils meant the school was having to dig into its savings "just to survive."

He added if Oxfordshire County Council and the Department for Education did not provide more cash the school would have to turn sick children away.

Mr Lewis, who left this summer, said: "The trouble is that there are more and more kids coming to our door.

"They have nowhere else to go, this is the most cost-effective way as long as we get it right".

In the past academic year the school had a budget of £1.6m from the county council.

Part of this money came from the dedicated schools grant – money given to the local authority by central government - but this grant has been frozen since 2012/13.

Mr Lewis said: "Since 2013 our staffing levels have gone up so as a percentage of our total income our staffing costs are about 100 per cent.

"That has been flagged up for some time with the local authority, but they have other priorities and costs and they do not have the manpower or expertise to be aware of these issues.

"In that time the number of kids that we look after and the seriousness of their conditions has increased so we have had a bit of a double-whammy."

In June the school had the equivalent of 57 full-time pupils on its books, but more than 100 were taught over the course of the academic year.

Mr Lewis added funding looked stable for the current academic year but there was

William Gent from Bampton is among those who have been educated at the school in the past year.

The six-year-old, who was born with congenital kypho-scoliosis, spent four months in the Children's Hospital from January to May after having an operation to straighten his spine.

His mum Katie, 37, said: "The hospital school is crucial, it is absolutely vital.

"I am greatly concerned that it is under threat due to finding, it is such a vital service.

"If William had not been attending the hospital school he would have fallen further behind in school.

"Aside from the academic side of things, which is very important, there is a social aspect.

"The children there are in a routine and have some sort of normal life.

"Any parent could need the school, you have no idea what is around the corner."

In the 2014/15 academic year 101 children were taught by the school's outreach service alone, including Josh Mathias from Carterton who has been a pupil since 2014 as he cannot be taught in mainstream education.

His mum Tracy has raised concerns that her 16-year-old son, who has Asperger's syndrome, is not getting the education he needs because the school does not have the funding to create a package to allow him to be educated at somewhere with appropriate facilities.

She said: "He wants to study double science but the hospital school has no laboratories.

"He wants to do IT but they do not have the facilities.

"If he does not get the package and get his GCSEs what will happen to him?"

"It is just not right."

County council spokesman Owen Morton said the school's end of year balance last year was £0.5m.

He said: "The Oxfordshire Hospital School is funded by a specific grant from the DfE, and like all schools, is responsible for managing its own budget - including staffing costs."

Department for Education spokesman Steven Bourner said it was committed to ensuring schools had the money needed to support pupils.