A Jewish school has lost £1.5 million from its annual budget, forcing it to drop subjects such as A-Level French and German because it can no longer afford to offer.

Joshua Rowe, the chairman of governors at King David School in Manchester told the JC: “Over the past six years our budget is down by some £1.5 million per annum a reduction of 30 per cent.”

He said the school, which has around 900 pupils, has had to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from the generosity of parents to pay for basic school needs.

Pupils have been encouraged to take three A levels rather than the standard four. On top of dropping the French and German A-Levels, the school has stopped offering Latin and Mandarin GCSEs to pupils.

The school has also made both its full-time counsellors redundant and increased class sizes to cope with the shortage of money.

Mr Rowe said: “In addition to these cuts, the school has also had to absorb teacher salary increases as well as a significant proportion of the SEN (Special Educational Needs) funding previously paid by local authorities.”

He said the loss of counsellors was of particular concern because of the rise in mental health issues.

According to Mr Rowe, teacher salary increases at the school have risen by about £300,000 over the past six years and special needs funding has cost the school  £130,000.

A charity set up raise money for the school has had to run dinners at which parents are asked to make financial contributions to help run the school sufficiently.

The school, which is one of the top five non-selective schools in the country at both GCSE and A level, said its annual budget has fallen from about £4.9 million to £3.9 million between 2012-13 and 2018-19.