A school's headteacher has raised concerns over how soaring energy costs may impact teaching if urgent help is not given.

Sir John Leman headteacher Michael Taylor welcomed a "good start" to term but has called on new Prime Minister Liz Truss to offer schools a support package to get through the cost-of-living crisis.

Mr Taylor hopes that through slight changes to his stretched budget, he can ensure teaching standards remain high.

He said: "We will be rational with our heating usage, turning it on slightly later and off slightly sooner.

"But we do not want to have increase class sizes, as this will affect the students learning and make it tougher for our teachers.

"The idea of coats in classes, unless we are talking about extremely cold weather, I am opposed to, as this will be a distraction to learning and for teaching standards.

"Also coats in classrooms can cause health and safety issues in some classes, such as technology lessons."

Despite increasing the utilities budget by 50pc back in May, Mr Taylor is weary that his reserves may be used up if prices continue to soar uncontrollably, which could impact the school standards.

He said: "We are prepared for price increases. We have a healthy budget in place, going into this forthcoming winter.

"But without support from the new prime minister our budget reserves may be eaten up.

"Budget reserves are for improvements and renovations, so it is going to be a real challenge but I suppose we shall have to sit tight and see what happens.

"My main concern is not being able to do what we do. Schools are always looking to improve and if we are forced to cut back on things, this will impact learning and teaching morale, and this will, long-term, have impacts on society.

"As a leader I like to think medium and long-term and currently I am having to deal with immediate problems which are coming out of nowhere.

"I want to reassure families and students that we will do our very best to maintain the highest standard of teaching, but as families will know, the energy crisis is affecting us all.

"We are hopeful that the government recognises schools' needs for help."