Northumberland teachers hope to save jobs with seven days of strike action
The NASUWT says that more than 100 redundancy notices have been issued in plans to close Glendale, Tweedmouth and Berwick Middle Schools as part of a move to a two-tier system
by Daniel Hall · ChronicleLiveTeachers at three Northumberland middle schools are set to launch seven days of strike action this week.
Northumberland County Council has earmarked the closures of Glendale (Wooler), Tweedmouth and Berwick Middle Schools as part of a move from a three-tier system to two for the Berwick Partnership. In recent years, there have been a decline in pupil numbers, an increase in surplus places, and children have left the Berwick Partnership for neighbouring schools in Alnwick and north of the border in Scotland.
The restructuring of the Berwick Partnership involves a £47.794m investment in "first class facilities" which the council says will transform education in the area for generations to come. However, the NASUWT Union says that its members are being forced to fight for their jobs, with 142 staff at risk and only 50 - 60 jobs available to apply for after a restructure.
Teachers begin the first of seven days of strike action over the next three weeks today, following six days of strike action undertaken by teachers in June, and will continue until Thursday. Further strike action is planned to take place between Tuesday, October 22 and Thursday October 24.
NASUWT is demanding a full consultation to protect jobs and put a "meaningful" voluntary redundancy programme in place. It says that the County Council has so far failed to honour its pledge and protect staff from job losses.
Northumberland County Council says that there has been "extensive engagement", including a two-year consultation with schools and the wider community, and is "surprised and saddened" that the strike action is to go ahead.
John Hall, NASUWT executive member for Northumberland, said: "We believe the Council owes it to staff and pupils to pursue other options such as redeployment so that as many jobs can be saved as possible We have sought at every stage of this process to work with the Council, but our members have been left with no option than to move to strike action.
"The Council must now listen and work with us on a plan to avoid the compulsory loss of these skilled and dedicated teachers from their local community. The council should do everything it can to keep these brilliant committed teachers, not take their jobs away in such a short-sighted and insensitive way."
A spokeswoman for Northumberland County Council said: "Our aim is to secure permanent employment for all staff over the next two years. This will include recruitment, redeployment and retraining as appropriate.
"We continue to work closely with the schools and the trade unions to ensure staff across the partnership are supported during this process.
"There has been extensive engagement with all unions and particularly with the NASUWT and NEU who were taking industrial action in the summer term. These consultations have been positive and recruitment procedures have been fully agreed with all partners.
"At our last meeting there were no areas of fundamental disagreement and we agreed to work together on further details. As a result, we are both surprised and saddened that despite the progress being made, the NASUWT has decided to go ahead with this unilateral and extensive strike action."
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