THE headmaster of one of Buckinghamshire's most distinguished schools has slammed Labour's education policy.

Tim Dingle, headmaster of The Royal Grammar School on Amersham Road, High Wycombe, in a letter to governors, accused the party of "failing to deliver promised changes".

Education policy, he writes, "has been empty sound bites".

The school, that Ofsted described as "excellent" in an inspection report last year, has had to spend £11,000 advertising for teachers. Previously it had been "several hundred pounds".

The school has suffered an 80 per cent drop in applications for key teaching posts.

The letter paints a picture of schools, teachers and resources under ever-increasing pressure.

Despite Government promises, Mr Dingle says: "In most cases conditions have got worse."

The 3.9 per cent extra funding for the school has been eroded by teachers' pay rises and the rise in examination costs, said Mr Dingle.

He added that the school has not received any more money for new initiatives introduced into the curriculum.

Schools, he writes, are floundering under the mountain of administration and paperwork and it is now directly affecting performance.

In one instance, Mr Dingle claims that he spent 140 hours of unpaid time on administration.

He ends the letter talking about the "chronic lack of building funding, development capital and uncertainty".

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Employment said: "There has been a 30 per cent increase on secondary applications and a 26 per cent rise in applications from graduates to join the profession."

The spokesman claimed that funding was also increasing.

Despite Mr Dingle's assertions, he said that direct grants to schools were already in operation and there had been an £800m funding boost to schools in England and Wales.

"With other grants already announced the increase going to a typical secondary school is £70,000 from April," he added.