FED-UP teachers who highlight the government's failures in education are branded whingers and dinosaurs, according to a leading East Lancashire head.

Anthony McNamara, head at St Augustine's RC High School, Billington, near Clitheroe, blasted the government for the pressures it puts on staff, and said inequalities in school funding meant his pupils were hundreds of pounds worse off than students at other nearby schools.

Anthony McNamara, head at St Augustine's RC High School, Billington, criticised the funding system which, he said, meant neighbouring former grant maintained schools were receiving "privileged" cash support.

"The inequalities in funding which year on year leave each pupil at St Augustine's several hundred pounds worse off than children in neighbouring schools have still not been tackled," he told the audience at the school's annual prize celebration evening on Thursday.

"Our parents are still subsidising through their taxes privileged levels of resourcing for former grant maintained schools."

Mr McNamara said St Augustine's gets £2,006 for each of its 1,013 pupils. Funding at different schools can cover a £400 range depending on various criteria such as the number of special needs pupils.

Speaking after the ceremony Mr McNamara added: "I'm not getting at other schools. I'm just fed up of the system. Year on year we have to ration to the penny what we spend on books and equipment. "The Chief Inspector of Schools, Chris Woodhead, and the government itself accepts the inequality is unacceptable."

Mr McNamara said overall funding of education was also unacceptable. "We have what appear to be beautiful playing fields on our site but for most of the year they are an unusable gluey swamp because the drainage system is rotten," he added. "Our situation in Billington is repeated across the county and it is stopping children from developing their sporting skills. A national millennium project to reclaim and invest in school playing fields may not have had the glamour and glitz of the Dome before its inevitable fall from grace, but it would have hugely improved the quality and potential of school sports." Mr McNamara said surveys showed morale among teachers was at its lowest in decades with the government all too ready to brand heads and professional groups who express their concerns as whingers or dinosaurs.

"The combination of poor pay, increasing bureaucracy, and relentless fault-finding by Ofsted teams of variable quality followed by public naming and shaming of schools is making many graduates think twice about joining the teaching profession," he added.

Mr McNamara praised the positive aspects of school life. The school celebrated its best ever GCSE exam results with 71 per cent of students gaining five or more top grades.

A Lancashire Education Authority spokesman said: "The calculation of a school's funding is complex. However, Lancashire's funding formula is fair. Funding depends upon a myriad of factors."