TEACHERS and support staff have taken to the picket lines to protest against planned redundancies at local schools.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) voted in favour of industrial action at sites in the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership.
Today (14th January) is the first in a series of strikes – and has already seen the closure of Nether Stowe School as well as Anna Seward Primary School and Scotch Orchard Primary school, while other sites, including St Chad’s Primary School and St Michael’s Primary School, have shut to some year groups.
Staff took to the picket lines this morning to highlight their concerns over the redundancy plans.
Chris Denson, national executive member of the NEU, said:
“Members are really concerned for the students that they teach. Any cuts should come from the massive central office spend, not from teachers and support staff who do so much for the children that they support day in, day out.
“They are deeply concerned about the potential impact on support for children, for SEND support, for the impact on class sizes, not to mention the loss of jobs for members and their colleagues.
“The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership need to drastically re-think their plans.
“Cutting pupil facing roles will always damage education, wherever it happens. The massive central spend and central structure need to be cut, not support for students and their teachers and support staff jobs.”
But the trust say the planned redundancies were required as a result of “significant overstaffing” which had been “masked by an accounting error in 2022-23”.
In a statement, the ATLP said:
“When the error was identified, it was discovered that staffing levels were significantly high.
“Through the hard work of everyone across the trust we have managed to reduce this, but unfortunately more is needed to reduce staff expenditure to nationally accepted key performance indicators.
“It is also incorrect to suggest the central team are not facing cuts. The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership central team are affected as much as staff in schools.
“Any suggestion that schools pay a 20% ‘top slice’ is misleading, as is the comparison to the typical ‘top slice’.
“The trust operates central services, meaning roles that would traditionally sit in school budgets like caretakers, cleaners and kitchen staff are provided centrally. Repair and maintenance and IT budgets also come from the centre meaning school leaders do not need to worry about unexpected costs.
“This is not top slicing. These are costs that the school would normally fund directly.
“The NEU’s persistent use of the term ‘top slice’ is a deliberate effort to mislead and suggest the trust is taking too much of school’s money, which is simply not true.
“The proportion of money allocated to frontline teaching staff is absolutely in line with nationally accepted key performance indicators.”
Further strike dates are scheduled to take place on:
- 15th January
- 20th January
- 21st January
- 22nd January
- 26th January
- 27th January
- 28th January
- 29th January
