STRIKE action continued at Outwood Academy Shafton this week due to plans to extend the day - much to the frustration of the school trust’s bosses.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) working in schools operated by Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) took action on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
It follows two days of strike action the week before, and a further day earlier this month.
NEU members say OGAT’s plans which could see an extension of the school day by 30 minutes - will lead to a ‘substantial increase’ in workload and a potential struggle to retain teachers.
The proposed changes are being implemented without proper consultation of the workforce, it has been claimed.
Outwood Academy Shafton has been closed for year seven, eight and nine pupils on the three days this week.
In a letter to parents, principal Alison McQueen and chief executive officer Lee Wilson, said: “As you know, there was industrial action last week which affected 14 of our academies, including Shafton, with further strikes happening this week.
“This all causes serious disruption to students’ schooling so we have been working extremely hard to reach agreement with the trade unions while still taking forward our proposal to bring the school day into the expected minimum of 32.5 hours per week so that we can further improve the high-quality education our students deserve.
“On Friday, we put a revised formal proposal to both trade unions that made a significant change to our previously proposed model.
“In summary, this reduced the Tutor/Personal Development session from 45 minutes to 35 minutes, with at least five minutes of this dedicated to registration and tutor check in.
“We have then added ten minutes to morning break, increasing this from 15 minutes to 25 minutes.
“This is in direct response to feedback we have had, and is in addition to previous changes we have agreed to.
“We know from the ongoing discussions and responses, that increased social time during the school day is important to students and parents/carers.”
They added that thousands of pupils have been affected by the strike action - and called for it discussions to continue as a matter of ‘urgency’.
“During further negotiations held on Monday, we agreed two further concessions,” they added.
“The first was to formally acknowledge that the first five minutes of the 35-minute tutor/personal development session will be for the registration of pupils and the second linked to further reductions in after-school meeting time.
“Both of these were at the request of the trade unions and in meeting both of these we were expecting at least a pause in strike action.
“Given this, it is disappointing that the trade unions confirmed that this week’s strike action would still go ahead.
“We have formally requested that discussions continue with urgency so that this is not the case, resulting in no further disruption to the education of more than 10,000 pupils currently affected by these strikes.
“We hope that you agree this is a meaningful and significant change and demonstrates that we are listening to the voice of our staff, minimising unnecessary workload, whilst still prioritising the quality of education that your children receive.”
