Unions call for U-turn on plans as teachers' strike looms
Jun 9 2009 by Tony Collins, Birmingham Post
The two biggest teaching unions are calling on the new Conservative-controlled county council in Staffordshire to abandon a proposed school reorganisation in Tamworth on the eve of a new round of strikes.
Members of the National Union of Teachers and NASUWT are planning major disruption at all secondary schools in Tamworth by walking out on selective days of action.
The strikes at Belgrave, Queen Elizabeth Mercian, Rawlett, Wilnecote and Woodhouse schools in Tamworth are set to start tomorrow and continue until June 18.
The dispute is over plans to turn Woodhouse School into a privately-run academy, and to combine existing sixth form provision in Tamworth into a new post-16 centre.
But teaching unions are calling on the new Tory-controlled Staffordshire County Council to reverse the decision of the previous Labour administration and drop the proposals.
Parent campaigners won an estimated ten per cent of the vote after standing in last week’s council elections.
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “I am extremely disappointed that the previous council members closed their ears to the objections which came from all quarters.
“I hope common sense prevails and the new administration listens to the parents and teachers who know what is needed to ensure the best possible education is available for the young people of Tamworth.”
Rob Kelsall, the NUT’s Midlands regional officer, added: “Teachers have worked tirelessly to raise standards in Woodhouse School and it is an insult to propose that the school is now replaced by an academy operated by a private sponsor.
“The council not only wants Landau Forte to run the academy but also hand over the entire sixth form provision in Tamworth to them also.
“It is without doubt a ludicrous and damaging decision of the previous council’s leadership.”
Teachers will strike tomorrow at Woodhouse School, on Thursday at Wilnecote, at Belgrave on June 17, and at Queen Elizabeth Mercian and Rawlett schools on June 18, although the action at Queen Elizabeth Mercian only involves the NUT.
Unions will also lobby the full council meeting on June 18.
The NASUWT said the reorganisation plans could result in job losses for more than 70 teachers, as well as threaten teachers’ pay and working conditions and weaken sixth-form provision.
General secretary Chris Keates said: “The teachers at the schools are resolute in their determination to continue their protest about these ill-conceived and inappropriate plans.
They [the plans] will rip the heart out of education provision in Tamworth.”
She said they now expected the Conservatives to honour their pre-election promise and abandon the plans immediately.
Peter Traves, the council’s director of children and lifelong learning, said he understood the concerns of teachers.
But he added: “We believe industrial action is unnecessary, potentially damaging to the education of students and both alarming and inconvenient for their parents.”
