Schools out

DESERTED ... no school today for pupils at North Chadderton School

THOUSANDS of Oldham pupils are off school today as teachers across the country went on strike.

Parents have been left to find alternative childcare as the National Union of Teachers (NUT) staged a one-day walk out over funding, pay and workloads.

More than 14,000 primary, secondary and special school pupils are estimated to be off school across the borough with five high schools completely closed: Failsworth, Newman College, North Chadderton, Radclyffe and Royton and Crompton. Hathershaw College and Saddleworth School have informed the council they will open as normal while the rest have told some of their pupils to stay at home.

A total of 36 primary and special schools also confirmed that they would close - with another two already shut for the Muslim festival of Eid - while 32 are expected to be partially closed. The number of pupils affected at each school range from New Bridge Special School - where just one class of five children will miss lessons - to more than 1,000 at some secondary schools.

A total of 91.7 per cent of NUT members in England voted for strike action. The turn out was 24.5 per cent.

The NUT is the Oldham's biggest teaching union and around 1,200 of the borough's teachers are members.

Tony Harrison, union learning rep at Oldham NUT said: "The NUT is not taking action lightly. In light of the huge funding cuts to schools, worsening terms and conditions, and unmanageable and exhausting workloads, teachers cannot be expected to continue without considerable change.

"The effects on the education of our children are also real and damaging. As a result of school funding cuts, class sizes in primary and secondary schools are increasing, subject choices are being cut, and children are getting less individual attention as teachers and support staff are made redundant or not replaced when they leave. There is worse to come, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies predicting that the biggest real-term cuts to per pupil funding in a generation are on the way.

"There is already a teacher recruitment and retention crisis in our schools. Without significant change to the pay and working conditions of teachers, this will simply deepen. We know that many parents share our concerns.

"At the absolute minimum, schools urgently need extra funding to meet the additional costs government has put on them through increased National Insurance and pension payments. This amounts to a 5 per cent charge on the teachers' pay bill for schools. Chancellor George Osborne is freezing the cash per pupil he gives to schools, while increasing what he takes from them. For every 20 teachers employed, a school has to find an extra teacher salary to give to the Treasury.

"The policy of the Government to ensure all schools become academies will result in decisions on pay and working conditions, including maternity/paternity rights and sick pay, being made at school level. There is absolutely no evidence that this sort of deregulation will lead to higher standards. There needs to be a guarantee of good standards for teachers' terms and conditions across the board, in all schools. School leaders' attention should be on educating children, not squandering huge amounts of time on negotiating individual staff contracts."

Two more strikes are planned for the autumn and teachers were also taking part in a march in Manchester today.

Mr Harrison added: "Education Secretary Nicky Morgan should negotiate with teacher unions on protections for school teachers from a workload crisis which is now completely out of hand. These problems are of the Government's own making and it is time it addressed them before the education system in England falls apart at the seams."