Schools strike: Teachers across England and Wales walk out

Image source, PA Media

Teachers are taking part in picket lines and demonstrations across the country

By Hazel Shearing & Sean Seddon

Education correspondent

Thousands of people have gone on strike on Wednesday, including teachers in England and Wales who are on their first national strike since 2016.

As many as 23,000 schools are thought to have been affected, the National Education Union (NEU) said, although the extent of disruption has varied.

Most are striking in a dispute over pay not keeping pace with inflation.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said "the majority" of schools would be partially open. However it is unclear how teaching within individual primary and secondary schools is being organised given that many thousands of teachers are on strike.

According to the NEU, 85% of schools are being impacted in some way. The Department for Education is expected to release figures of school closures later in the day.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union said out of 948 headteachers and principles in England and Wales - mostly in secondary schools - 97% reported teachers in the school were on strike. In about a third of schools, more than half of teachers were on strike, it said.

In Wales, striking teachers are joined by support staff, while members of the National Association of Head Teachers are taking action short of a strike.

Teachers are also striking in two parts of Scotland - Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen - as part of rolling industrial action.

Ms Keegan defended the government's record on school funding telling BBC Breakfast it "makes no sense to give inflation-busting pay rises to some of the workforce" at a time when prices are rising for everyone.

Most state school teachers in England and Wales had a 5% pay rise in 2022. Unions say this amounts to a pay cut because inflation is over 10%. In Scotland, teachers rejected a 5% increase.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, accused ministers of failing to negotiate meaningfully on pay and said teachers had been "forced to stand up".

She acknowledged teachers struggling to make ends meet had been left facing a "catch 22" over whether or not to take part.

Some members were working second jobs and struggling to pay for petrol to get to work, she told BBC Radio 4's Today.

A "toxic combination" of below inflation pay offers and high workloads was leading to a third of new teachers quitting within five years, she claimed.

Ms Keegan rejected that, saying she has held five meetings with union leaders for "wide-ranging discussions" in recent weeks.

Downing Street insisted the government wants further talks and said some had been "constructive", but doubled down on the need for modest pay rises, describing inflation as "one of the biggest risks to people's pay packets".

The NEU said the action was not just about pay, but also about conditions.

Joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: "Parents know from first-hand experience that children are losing out because of the chronic shortage of teachers. Often pupils are being taught by short-term supply, or staff who aren't qualified in the subject they're teaching."

Among those taking part were more than 30 teachers on a picket line outside Chesterfield High School in Crosby, Merseyside.

Physics teacher Laura Greenwood, 41, said she had been there since 07:00 GMT with her nine-year-old son, Isaac.

"It's sad that it's come to this but there was not another option", she told the BBC.

Spanish teacher, Rebecca Kenehan, 31, said she was there "because I still want to be a teacher in five years".

"I love my job but if things don't get better I don't know what I'll do."

Yvonne Brown, CEO of the Leading Learners Multi Academy Trust in Bradford and Wigan, said her schools would operate largely as normal because teachers cannot afford to strike.

She said it would be "business as usual" in all four schools run by the trust because "most staff, including young teachers, are not able to take a day without pay".

Year 5 teacher Helen Butler will be joining a picket line in Portsmouth for the first time in her 26-year career. She has voted against strike action in the past - but this time feels differently.

"We've got some teachers now that are going to food banks," she said, adding her salary had fallen in real terms over a decade.

Watch: What do the teachers' strikes in England and Wales mean for parents?

Ms Butler said she loved her school, where she is an NEU representative, but there were insufficient resources and her workload had increased.

"We're given 10 glue sticks for a class of 30, because it's expensive. I've ended up buying my own," she said.

"I do not know one teacher who doesn't work in their holidays.

"What other job expects you to work in your holidays?"

A secondary-school teacher in Cambridgeshire, who asked not to be named, said she understood why her colleagues were striking but she could not afford to lose the pay.

"Morally, it just doesn't sit right with me," she added.

"The kids have suffered so much through Covid and I just feel like striking and them missing another four days of school is not going to help anybody. They're already so far behind."

Wednesday is the first of seven national and regional NEU strike dates.

Schools in England will each see four days of strike action, three national days and one affecting their region.

Teachers have already been on a national strike in Scotland and action is continuing on a rolling basis. Most teachers in Northern Ireland will walk out for half a day on 21 February.

Teachers are joining workers represented by seven different unions across the UK will strike on Wednesday.

Earlier, the Unison union announced its members in five ambulance services in England will strike on Friday of next week, as part of a dispute about pay and conditions.

The walkout will affect London, Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West.

Unison also says its members at the Environment Agency will join members of the Prospect union in striking for 12 hours next Wednesday. The action will include workers in flood forecasting and pollution control.

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of "weak leadership" and urged him to come to the negotiating table to sort out the "chaos".

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