parents and schoolchildren will be joined by Steve Coogan in a protest against education funding cuts at Downing Street next week.

As part of the Save Our Schools (SOS) campaign, the Sussex protesters are delivering messages from children that detail what they love most about their schools.

There will be SOS protesters from Birmingham, Manchester and other places around the country at the demonstration.

Brighton and Hove MPs Caroline Lucas, Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Peter Kyle are also set to attend.

Comic and actor Coogan, who has a home in Ovingdean, said: “I’m fully supporting all the parents leading the fantastic SOS campaign forcing politicians to seriously consider the funding cuts to our state school system.

“We cannot live in a society where we have a state education system that is stripped to the bone and where the arts and sport are the preserve of children whose parents can afford to pay for them.”

More than 20 Sussex schools have written letters to be delivered to Downing Street.

Fifty one teaching assistants are on the verge of being made redundant in Brighton.

That comes in light of SOS organisers estimating Government cuts are costing Brighton and Hove schools £14 million under the Conservatives.

That works out at around £193,425 per school and £487 per pupil.

Alison Ali, co-founder of SOS, said: “Despite years of repeated warnings about the funding crisis from stressed heads and teachers, and despite Parliament’s own Select Committee on Spending saying the Department of Education is suffering ‘collective delusion’ on funding, the Government continues to fudge the issue.

“Now parents are seeing the real effects of these cuts in their schools, as teachers and their assistants are made redundant and class sizes balloon.

“We’ll continue to protest until schools get their £3 billion per year back and until our children get the forward-looking, broad-based education they deserve.

“We hope the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Education are prepared to actually sit and read these poignant messages from tens of thousands of children around the UK and then act upon them.”

The SOS campaign staged two rallies at The Level, Brighton, and Victoria Park in Portslade in May, with more than 45 schools represented.