Head teachers refuse to ease strikes pain on worst day of walkouts for a decade

‘School leaders have huge sympathy with colleagues and are just as frustrated at the Government as them’

HEAD teachers are refusing to put in place contingency measures that could limit the impact of staff walkouts, as the country faces the worst day of strike disruption in a decade.

School leaders have been urged by the Government to use measures such as bringing in volunteers and supply teachers, adopting bigger class sizes or arranging activity days with theatre groups or sports coaches to keep classrooms open during action by teachers.

Last night, school leaders were refusing to consider such measures as unions said heads were sympathetic to striking teachers’ pay demands.

The first walkout of National Education Union members across England and Wales is scheduled for Feb 1, which is becoming a de facto general strike as train drivers, civil servants and university staff join teachers in taking industrial action.

Although health unions have not announced a walkout for that date, NHS leaders warned last night that the teachers’ strikes could also bring the health service to a standstill because so many staff would have to be off work owing to childcare issues. Nurses are on strike today and tomorrow as industrial action continues to engulf the country and cause chaos for the health service and public transport.

Schools began writing to parents yesterday to warn that entire year groups could be sent home during strikes. The

Co-op Academy Southfield, a special school in Bradford, told parents the strikes “may mean that some children will need to remain at home”.

A source close to several academy trusts said school leaders “fear being labelled strike-breakers if they bring in support staff ”. Trust bosses are mostly sticking to plans “to be open for vulnerable pupils, [children of ] critical workers, early years and years 6, 11 and 13”, the source added.

Vic Goddard, co-principal of Passmores Academy in Harlow, Essex, said he supported the strikes but was “torn” between making the impact of strikes felt by closing the school to some year groups, and keeping the school open to support the community.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “School leaders have huge sympathy with their colleagues and are

just as frustrated that the Government has failed to address this appalling situation.” He said that using volunteers, external groups or agency staff as cover was “a difficult issue as it may sour industrial relations”.

Jonathan Gullis, Tory former education minister, accused heads of enabling strike chaos by refusing to consider all options to keep schools open.

The Policy Exchange think tank said: “Any heads who deliberately refuse to implement the guidance the Department for Education has set out are not acting in the best interests of children.”

School strikes risk bringing the NHS to a halt because they could force hundreds of thousands of health workers to stay home, health service sources warned. During strikes by nurses and ambulance crews, health officials have drawn up detailed contingency plans to mitigate against the impact of strikes.

But health chiefs are concerned that it is far more difficult to make plans to ensure services can run properly if schools close, because the impact is far more difficult to assess.

One senior NHS source said: “There are real worries about the impact of school strikes on the NHS.

“Given the number of NHS staff with children of school age, the number of nurses with children in school, you have a strike that could take out parts of the NHS without being able to make the same kind of contingencies we have seen. Effectively, it’s another NHS strike but without the ability to make the same kinds of contingency plans.”

Today, the GMB union, which represents ambulance workers, is expected to announce a fresh series of strikes, while Unison and Unite plan further ambulance strikes next Wednesday.

The National Education Union, the UK’S largest union representing teachers, has said the first of its seven days of strikes over the next two months will fall on Feb 1. Leaders have urged all members in England and Wales to walk out en masse – a move that could lead to several school closures.

Yesterday, rail unions RMT and Aslef announced plans to strike on the same date, bringing the railways to a standstill once more.

The University and College Union, which represents lecturers, also announced that over 70,000 staff at 150 universities will also walkout on Feb 1, when the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents civil servants, has already declared that 100,000 members in 124 different government departments and other armslength bodies will strike.