Are bigger strikes set for the upcoming school strike dates?
Some teachers who wanted to go on strike on Wednesday were unable to due to their unions not meeting the legal threshold of the number of ballots received.
Teachers part of The National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women, were unable to strike as the ballot turnout was only 42%, despite nine out of 10 members voting for the strikes.
Katherine Hixon, Assistant Headteacher of St Edmunds school in Dover, who is part of this union said: “Of the people balloted in my union, about 97% voted to strike but that didn’t count.
“The government also insisted that the ballot was done during the postal strikes, so one of the reasons that we didn’t get enough people balloted is because we didn’t actually receive their ballot papers.”
Teacher’s part of the National Union of Education (NEU) were able to strike, due to a turnout which was unanimously in favour and the school could only partly remain open for Year 11.
Miss Hixon spent the day in school teaching Year 11 students. The school remained open for Year 11 as it was felt that they had missed too much of their education due to covid already.
However, the budget cuts this school and schools across the country are facing means there are limited funds left to provide students with necessary learning resources, such as stationery and books.
She said: “As an assistant head, I can tell you we haven’t actually got the money to even provide tea and coffee in the staffroom for staff for free, so we can’t find 5% for everyone’s wages.”
The government’s proposed pay rise is expected to come out of the existing school budget and they have not offered the school any more money to cover this, meaning there would need to be huge budget cuts for this to happen.
She added: “I think the fact that so many people have changed union to join the NEU, more people are doing so means the school closures are going to keep on happening and they’ve got to keep on happening.”
Rishi Sunak has promised fresh talks after the strike chaos affected the majority of schools in the UK.
But what will these proposals be and what will future strikes look like as more people switch unions so they are able to strike.
