A MOTHER says she is bewildered by a Tory MP’s claim that he has sorted out the school funding crisis in his constituency.

Sarah Maynard was shocked that Sir Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West, believes he has “already solved” the issue.

He made the comments after he was re-elected in the early hours in Friday.

Ms Maynard’s children go to schools in Worthing and she wants to work with Sir Peter to help him tackle the crisis.

The MP said yesterday that he does believe there needs to be fairer funding for schools but that his comments referred to other education issues in the county.

Ms Maynard, 44, said: “It has left me and other parents completely bemused and bewildered to be honest.

“The classes at my children’s school are full so making cuts doesn’t make sense.

“We want to work with him to help improve schools but firstly I would like him to clarify his statement and how things have got better when clearly they haven’t.

“Mainly we want to raise awareness of what is going on and try to change the current education funding formula that we feel is outdated.”

Ms Maynard is part of the Save Our Schools (SOS) campaign group.

Her son goes to Thomas A Becket junior school and her daughter attends Davison High School.

Ms Maynard, 44, said: “Seven full-time teaching assistant equivalents are being made redundant this year at Thomas A Becket.

“They are all valued members of the teaching staff and really help support the children, particularly the ones who struggle in class.

“Parents are being asked to supply pens and pencils for their children’s classes which is crazy.”

Ms Maynard thinks Sir Peter makes a positive effort with his constituents but wants quicker action.

She said the current funding system did not give her children “the best opportunity possible”.

She said: “If you cannot afford to pay staff, that spells danger. That is no good for parents and it makes us worried for our kids.”

Sir Peter said he wanted to make it clear he believes fairer funding must still be secured for West Sussex schools.

He said: “I am doing, and will do, everything possible to help the funding crisis.”

He said he wanted to clarify that the comments Ms Maynard referred to did not relate to the money problems.

He said there had been other issues, such as the number of school places, which had been successfully solved with the opening of a new school.

Sir Peter said he had been working with the protest group and had made members clear about his view of the ongoing problems.