State schools face being shut at the same time during teachers’ strikes

ALL state schools in England face simultaneous closures during the summer term in the “biggest strike action on record” as militant teaching unions prepare to coordinate walkouts.

Millions of children may be forced to stay at home for multiple school days after NASUWT, the teaching union, said it would ballot its members for strike action during the summer term.

Dr Patrick Roach, the union’s general secretary, said it was “looking to coordinate wherever we can” with other unions to maximise disruption.

If NASUWT secures a mandate for industrial action, it will consider striking alongside the National Education Union over at least three consecutive days in late June or early July. The unions represent around 400,000 teachers in England.

Dr Roach said it was “inevitable” that all schools in England would close at the same time if the union went on strike on the same days as the NEU.

He said the strikes would be the biggest on record for schools. He added: “It’s going to be pretty close. If you take that together with the four days that’s already been taken, yes.

“Nine days. That’s a lot of action.” Parents face a childcare crisis, with many forced to take time off work or juggle childcare with working from home.

Schools have not faced such severe strike action since the pay disputes in the mid-1980s. Last month an NEU strike forced one in 20 schools to close, while causing disruption for thousands more.

NASUWT is the fourth education union to reject the Government’s pay offer. Teachers in England were offered a £1,000 bonus for this school year and an average 4.5 per cent pay rise next year. The Government offered to cover 0.5 per cent of the pay rise, having allocated an additional £2.3 billion for schools this year and next year.

The NEU called the offer “insulting”, while school leaders’ unions ASCL and NAHT also turned down the offer.

NASUWT said 87 per cent of its members had rejected the pay proposal and 77 per cent supported strike action. This week, the NEU announced five days of summer-term walkouts in England, with the first on April 27 and May 2, weeks before the start of GCSE and A-level exams. A three-day strike is scheduled for after the exam period.

The strikes mean GCSE pupils have only had one year of undisrupted learning since starting secondary school.

Arabella Skinner, of UsForThem, a parents group, said children should not be “pawns in adults’ games”. She added: “It is simply wrong that children are locked out of schools again.”

A Department for Education spokesman said the decision to reject the offer would result in “more disruption for children and less money for teachers”.