Teachers strike for safety

Teachers at Tewksbury Academy school are continuing with strikes in response to ineffective school leadership and an unsafe learning environment. The teachers allege intimidation by some pupils.

The strikes, involving around 50 members of NASUWT and NEU unions, began on 4 February. A lack of an adequate response from school management led to more action, culminating in three strike days next week (11, 12 and 13 March).

No exclusions

The core of the dispute is that the teachers believe the school management is failing to deal with disruptive students. The effective disciplinary policy is one of no exclusion of any pupil regardless of what has happened.

The unions lay the responsibility for the situation on the school’s management. Legitimate concerns about disruption by a few pupils, including abuse and attempted intimidation of teachers, have been dismissed or ignored.

Trust breakdown

Meetings between unions and management after the initial strike did not result in any significant progress towards dealing with the behaviour of a few pupils. The breakdown of trust in management led to continuation of the action.

“Teachers should not have to strike to secure a safe school environment.”

Wendy Exton, NASUWT national executive member for the area, pointed out that every school should have effective pupil behaviour management as a matter of course. This safeguards staff and pupils from violence and abuse and supports pupils in focusing on their learning.

She continued, “Teachers should not have to resort to strike action to secure a safe, calm and orderly school environment.” Both unions have said they remain open to discuss resolution of this dispute.

Notoriety

Tewkesbury achieved national notoriety in 2023 after a teacher was stabbed. That year, it joined the Cabot Learning Federation, a multi academy trust (MAT) of 36 schools.

The school has recently moved from an Ofsted judgement of “requires improvement” to “good”, but as a more than one in five of the Cabot MAT schools have are rated as “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.

Support

Academy schools are remote from local authority oversight and support. Cabot MAT supports the school, stating that it did “not recognise [the teachers] descriptions…as an accurate portrayal”. But it is unclear how much effective support Tewkesbury is receiving, being over 40 miles away from its nearest secondary neighbour in the MAT.

Tewksbury recently moved from an Ofsted judgement of “requires improvement” to “good”, but more than one in five of the Cabot MAT schools have are rated as “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.