Co-ordinated strikes to hit schools later this year?

Schools in Hampshire and across England could face co-ordinated strike action by teachers and headteachers in the autumn.

Four education unions, which represent school leaders and teachers, intend to coordinate industrial action in a long-running dispute over pay.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) will re-ballot its members during the summer term on strike action, leading to possible walkouts in the autumn.

It comes as teacher members of the National Education Union (NEU) staged fresh strikes in schools and sixth form colleges across England on Thursday - with another national walkout planned for Tuesday.

The NEU will re-ballot its teacher members in a bid to take further action in the autumn, and teachers represented by the NASUWT union will be re-balloted too.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is also due to hold a formal ballot for national strike action for the first time in its history.

The Government offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year (2022/23) and an average 4.5% pay rise for staff next year. But all four education unions - the NAHT, the NEU, the NASUWT and the ASCL rejected the pay offer.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said: ‘This is an unprecedented show of solidarity. It sends a clear signal to government that our dispute is not going away.

‘School staff will not put up with eroded pay, squeezed school funding and unbearable workload and working conditions any longer - and we are fully united together in fighting for change.’