A SPOKESMAN for the North-East's biggest teaching union has voiced concern about the increasing costs ordinary families face in supporting their children's education, even in state-funded schools.

As the Office of Fair Trading writes to schools asking them to take steps to ensure parents are not forced to pay excessive prices for school uniforms, a survey of 2,500 parents in England by the NASUWT, show that parents are feeling the financial squeeze.

The survey found that more than half of parents were expected to buy their child's uniform from a particular supplier, pushing up costs.

More than half of parents had spent over 100 on their eldest child's uniform alone and over a fifth of parents reported that they were required to pay for field trips that are compulsory elements of examination courses, such as A-level geography and biology.

More than one in ten parents also said said that they could not afford to allow their child to participate in an educational trip or visit in the last year because of the expense and well over a quarter of parents were required by schools to purchase textbook and reference books for their children; Simon Kennedy, North-East regional organiser for the NASUWT said: "Rising costs are a real concern. It follows on from our concerns around the Government's agenda to bring private providers and private education to the state education sector.

"The pressure that schools are under because of the budget crisis means there is less money going into schools which means some schools somehow have to generate income. Some schools will use this to effectively select pupils. If you cant buy the right uniform or the right sports kit you can't send your kids there."

Mr Kennedy argued that cutting back on investment in education was not in the country's short or long-term interests and there were alternatives to the current approach.

The NASUWT believes that provisions in the Education Act 2011 which removed the cap on the price that could be charged for school meals in academies, enabled schools to charge for activities and subjects which were previously free.

The scrapping by the Coalition Government of guidance on school uniforms, combined with the cuts to school budgets, are helping to push up the cost of sending children to school, the union said.