Two of the county's education trusts have detailed the ongoing challenges of working with an "incredibly tight" budget while minimising the impact of cutting costs on students' learning.
Bosses at the Sapientia Education Trust and Wensum Trust - which run 28 schools in Norfolk and Suffolk between them - said costs were rising at a worrying rate.
It comes after a survey found two-thirds of schools in England revealed they may have to make teaching assistants redundant or cut their hours to save money.
Jonathan Taylor, CEO of Sapientia Education Trust which looks after schools including Fakenham Academy, said: "There is no doubt that school funding is incredibly tight at the moment.
"Schools are facing increased costs and, while funding has increased, costs are currently increasing at a more rapid rate."
The chief executive acknowledged that Fakenham Academy benefits from belonging to a larger group of schools, allowing it to take advantage of centralised contracts.
He also said the academy's increasing popularity was leading to a higher proportion of per-pupil funding being allocated.
Mr Taylor added that plans to invest in the school's facilities - including upgrades to PE and IT facilities - remained unaffected.
But he said: "Next academic year does look to be more challenging financially across the whole school sector."
Publishing the results of its survey this week, the headteachers' union, NAHT, said more than half of 11,000 respondents were considering cutting teachers' hours.
While the government says it has increased funding by £4bn this year, next week's Autumn Statement is expected to bring widespread cuts.
The Wensum Trust, which runs Wells' Alderman Peel High School and Wells Primary and Nursery School, will not be immune to the impending challenges.
Daniel Thrower, who heads up the trust, said: "These are challenging times for communities across the country.
"We are encouraging schools to help save energy costs by looking at their energy consumption and making changes that will not impact on the learning environment of our children.
"Our priority is to provide young people with the best education we can, and we continually review our budgets to ensure we achieve that."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here