Update on industrial action
At the time of writing, I believe that this will be the situation at our school on the upcoming strike days. If anything changes I will let you know straight away. As per the professional advice we have received, we have done our best to prioritise keeping Y6 open in the mornings, purely for SATS revision work.
Thursday 27th April
School will be open for pupils in the following classes only: Reception, Year 2, Year 4, Year 5 open all day.
Year 6 will be open during the morning only for SATS revision activities but all Y6 pupils must be collected at 12.10pm or permission received in writing for them to walk home at 12.10pm. The class will not be open for pupils in the afternoon.
Tuesday 2nd May
School will be open for pupils in the following classes only: Reception, Year 5 all day.
Year 6 will be open during the morning only for SATS revision activities but all Y6 pupils must be collected at 12.10pm or permission received in writing for them to walk home at 12.10pm. The class will not be open for pupils in the afternoon.
The NEU is planning to hold 2 national strike days next week (Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March).
If this industrial action goes ahead, our school will be impacted as follows:
Reception Class (Bumblebee Class) will be open for pupils on both days
Y4 Class (Dragonfly Class) will be closed to pupils on Wednesday 15th and open for pupils on Thursday 16th
Y5 Class (Fox Class) will be closed to pupils on Wednesday 15th and open for pupils on Thursday 16th
All the other classes (Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y6) will be closed on both days.
Wednesday 1st March is the day when the NEU is planning its next teachers' strike day in this region. It seems as though the strike will go ahead.
Based on the information I have been given, I can confirm that Reception Class, Year 5 Class and Year 6 Class will be open as usual and pupils in these classes can attend school.
That means that Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 will be closed to pupils on Wednesday and children in these classes should not come to school.
Remote learning
Teachers who are on strike will not prepare or set work for pupils on strike days. However, here are links to remote learning that you might find useful for your child if you would like them to complete some learning tasks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary
https://teachers.thenational.academy/key-stages
Clearly this is a difficult situation, which will cause disruption to many families. A national strike by teachers is very unusual. Taking strike action is not something that any teacher would undertake lightly. Those on strike will have thought long and hard about their decision and will also lose pay for the days that they are on strike.
Dr Nick Rudman
Executive Headteacher
Strike action by members of the National Education Union - Important update on 1st February industrial action at Maltese Road
I am writing to you about forthcoming strike action by the National Education Union (NEU), one of the main teaching trade unions. You may have seen coverage of this in the news, and I wanted to inform you about the impact this will have at our school.
There are three national and one regional day strikes planned. The strike days that are likely to affect schools in this area are:
Wednesday 1st February 2023
Wednesday 1st March 2023
Wednesday 15th March 2023
Thursday 16th March 2023
As Executive Headteacher, I have reluctantly concluded that school will have to close to all pupils on Wednesday 1st February.
I do not yet know what will happen on any future planned strike days.
The NEU has posted a document for parents, carers and grandparents that explains their reasons for taking strike action. It can be found at https://neu.org.uk/media/24511/view if you wish to read it.
When a strike takes place, those taking strike action stop work and withdraw their labour. This means that those teachers involved in the action will not teach their class or undertake any other duties on a strike day.
It is therefore incumbent upon me to consider the impact that industrial action will have on the operation of the school.
One of the key issues is to assess whether there are sufficient staff available for the school to remain open for any pupils during a strike.
To determine whether this school can remain open, I have had to consider the impact that the action will have on the health and safety of pupils, staff and visitors, and whether it is possible to operate the school safely during the strike.
Remote learning
Teachers who are on strike will not prepare or set work for pupils on strike days. However, here are links to remote learning that you might find useful for your child if you would like them to complete some learning tasks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary
https://teachers.thenational.academy/key-stages
Clearly this is a difficult situation, which will cause disruption to many families. A national strike by teachers is very unusual. Taking strike action is not something that any teacher would undertake lightly. Those on strike will have thought long and hard about their decision and will also lose pay for the days that they are on strike.