BACK in 2004, I wrote to Tony Blair asking him to support our school PTA fund-raising efforts, by purchasing one of our school's recipe books. He said he was unable to help individual schools with their fund-raising attempts.

During this half term, I was reading an article in the London Evening Standard, which stated that an Islington primary school PTA had raised a staggering £43,000 by means of a celebrity auction.

Included in the glittering array of prizes, were a private concert viewing in the successful bidder's lounge by the band Coldplay (whose manager has children at the school), a tour of the House of Lords with the Education Minister, Lord Adonis, and a signed Arsenal football. Boris Johnson (also a parent) was the celebrity auctioneer.

Islington schools receive £6,110 per pupil per year against Worcestershire's £3,690 (£2,420 more per year child per year), presumably on the basis of Inner London deprivation and "additional needs", yet the Evening Standard quite clearly states that half the children's families who attend the school are "upper middle class".

Would the new Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, care to explain?

If only Worcestershire schools had access to such a useful and financially viable fund-raising pot. It would take my own school 20 years to raise that lot, and we already lose out £2,000-plus per pupil every year to start with!

Based on the same pupil numbers, the Islington school receives an extra £387,200 compared to that of a Worcestershire one in one year.

That's one hell of a deprivation compensation factor.

HELEN DONOVAN

Founder, Fairer Funding Campaign for Worcestershire Schools

St Margaret's Road, Evesham