It always comes back to money, especially when there isn’t much to go around.

Damian Hinds wanted to talk about teacher workload when he appeared at the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders, but funding was what the headteachers really wanted to ask him about.

When he dodged the question, he got a frosty reception from this most distinguished group of educationalists.

The education secretary’s week got worse when it emerged that the official statistics watchdog told him to re-do his homework after he incorrectly told MPs that schools were set to receive a real-terms increase in funding up to 2020.

To make matters worse, Sir David Norgrove, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, even said Mr Hinds’ corrected statement was still not entirely accurate.

Chancellor Philip Hammond should be glad that school leaders were not in the public gallery when he delivered his Spring Statement on Tuesday, which, despite pleas from the unions, contained no new money for schools. We will have to wait until the autumn to see if his hint that more money might materialise at some point in the future comes true.

And in case anyone needed reminding about how serious all of this really is, the Education Policy Institute released a report showing the number of maintained secondary schools in deficit has trebled, raising fears that many schools might not be able to afford even sub-inflation pay rises for teachers.

Mr Hinds may have been glad to see the end of this week, but he is set to face even more scrutiny next week.

On Monday he and his DfE colleagues face an hour of education questions in the Commons, and on Wednesday he appears in front of the Education Select Committee, which he once sat on, for the first time as education secretary.

Expect funding to figure highly, as well as teacher recruitment, exclusions and SEND.

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