Laptops and volunteers to help schools hit by strikes

SCHOOLS have been told to bring in volunteers and use remote learning after seven days of strike action were announced by the country’s biggest teaching union.

A mass walkout of National Education Union (NEU) members is scheduled to begin on Feb 1, to coincide with a “national right to strike day” of protests around the country led by the Trades Union Congress in response to new Government legislation.

Further national teaching strikes are planned for Feb 14 in Wales and March 15 and 16 in England and Wales, while regional strikes in England have been scheduled for three dates between Feb 28 and March 2.

Only 48 per cent of all NEU members in England voted for strike action.

However, the union narrowly passed the legal threshold for industrial action of a 50 per cent turnout, with 40 per cent of eligible members voting “yes” to strikes. Last night the Department for Education published guidance that urges schools to consider bringing in volunteers to help look after children

and keep classrooms open during the walkouts, if they have relevant checks and are supervised by another member of staff or volunteer with a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Schools were reminded that legislation introduced last year means that supply staff could be brought in to cover during strike action.

It also points to examples where schools introduced larger class sizes, pooled resources across schools and brought in temporary workers during strikes to ensure education continued.

It showcased examples of where schools asked a theatre company to deliver performances and workshops, or asked a local football coaching company to come in for the day to deliver coaching to the whole school.

The guidance states that if schools are forced to restrict attendance, they should consider providing remote education where possible – despite warnings from parents, MPS and education leaders that it is not an adequate substitute for face-to-face teaching.

Schools are under pressure to limit disruption for pupils, and it is unclear how many of the NEU’S 300,000 members will walk out. Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, asked “those choosing to take industrial action to take all possible steps to minimise the impact on pupils and families”.

Mary Bousted, 63, rose to prominence when she insisted that reopening schools after the first wave of the virus would be unsafe. A year later, in 2021, she advised teachers that they had a legal right not to have to work in “unsafe conditions” as unions called for remote learning to be continued.

Ms Bousted grew up in Boulton, where she was one of eight children of teachers. She attended a state primary school and grammar school followed by the University of Hull where she studied English. In 1991 she swapped teaching for academia and ran the school of education at Kingston University. In 2003, she became the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

She led the union in strikes over public sector pensions in 2011, contributing to the closure of around two thirds of schools in England for one day in November. She became joint general secretary of the NEU in 2017. Her salary is £117,000 before benefits.

Kevin Courtney

Kevin Courtney, 63, is a Welsh former teacher who has been an active union member since he taught physics at Camden School for Girls, a state school in north London, in 1983.

Born in Pontypridd, he attended state schools before studying physics at Imperial College London in the 1980s. His early career as an activist and union official included roles as branch secretary and vice president of the southern and eastern regional Trades Union Congress. He was deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers from 2010 to 2016. In July 2016, he led a one-day strike over pay and budget cuts which closed thousands of schools in England. Mr Courtney became joint general secretary of the NEU in 2017. His latest reported salary is £103,000 before benefits. The union boss recently criticised Rishi Sunak’s plan to make pupils continue to study maths in some form until the age of 18, saying it would make teacher strikes more likely.

Louise Atkinson

The NEU’S president, Louise Atkinson, is a teacher and Labour councillor for Carlisle city council. She was appointed in September and said the role was “the biggest honour” of her life. She claimed last year that some teachers needed to access food banks. “Through

10 to 12 years of austerity we have lost so much and cannot afford to lose more.”