More School Strikes
PAUL McLAUGHLIN
Schools across Hastings were once again disrupted last week as a result of industrial action taken by teachers belonging to the National Education Union. The Hastings Academy and St Leonards Academy were forced to close some classes last Thursday (27 April), whilst other schools across the town, included the ARK Blacklands Primary Academy and the ARK Little Ridge Primary Academy were also affected by the dispute. Similar closures were expected to take place on Tuesday of this week (2 May).
The long-running industrial action is over what the teaching union claims is an “inadequate” pay offer from the Government. After a series of strikes in February and March, the teachers were presented with a new pay offer from the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan. This included a £1,000 one-off payment and a 4.3% pay increase from this September.
The union rejected this offer on the grounds that there was no new money involved and that as a result headteachers would have to fund the pay increase from within existing budgets. This, they say, would inevitably involve cutting staffing levels or other school services.
The NEU plans to re ballot its members for further strike action in the autumn. This ballot will open on 15 May and close on 28 July. The union says it fully expects its members to support its demands for an above-inflation pay increase, plus extra money to ensure any pay rises do not come from schools’ existing budgets.
Demo at Goat Ledge
Teachers from across Hastings gathered at the Goat Ledge Café on the Lower Promenade by Warrior Square last Thursday to hold a demonstration. James Ellis, a teacher from the Hastings Academy, said he regretted having to go on strike. However, teachers’ pay has fallen, he claimed, by as much as 23% since 2010, with teaching assistants now being paid less than the minimum wage. He also emphasised that the dispute was not just about pay. He said many schools were in a state of disrepair, some had no heating and others were literally falling down. He said he was “very angry” at the year-on-year cuts to school budgets which had forced headteachers to cut support for special needs pupils and those with disabilities. There were other knock-on effects with cuts to staff numbers, a greater workload for those teachers who remained and an increase in staff experiencing mental health symptoms due to their work.
Christian Agbodza, the President of the Hastings and District Trades Union Council and a teacher at St Leonards Academy, said that he and his colleagues were determined to ensure that children’s education was not unduly impacted by the dispute. Measures had been agreed to ensure that exam year students would attend school on strike days “for revision activities or exam practice”, and that the NEU would support arrangements that provide “the minimum level of teaching staff needed” for these to take place.
And several teachers – among them Chris Gidlow, who teaches history at St Leonards Academy – did conduct classes that morning at Goat Ledge’s seating booths by arrangement with the café management.
Jenny Sutton, the secretary of the Hastings District of the NEU, apologised to parents facing another day with their children not in school, but said teachers were striking for the future of education “Our schools are in crisis, and we cannot just sit back and let the situation get any worse.”
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