The next planned round of teacher strikes in July will clash with transition days in around four in 10 secondary schools, a new Teacher Tapp survey suggests.
The NEU teaching union is planning to hold another two days of strike action on Wednesday 5 July and Friday 7 July in its ongoing pay dispute with the government.
However, there are concerns that the action will clash with end-of-year school activities, including transition days, sports days and school trips.
A Teacher Tapp snapshot survey of more than 7,000 teachers on Monday to ascertain the extent of the disruption reveals that 39 per cent of teachers in secondary schools said the strikes coincided with transition days, in which Year 6 primary pupils visit their new secondary schools ahead of their official start in September.
Teacher Tapp also points out that any disruption may affect even more primary pupils, since they traditionally visit their new teachers for the following academic year on the same day that Year 6 pupils visit their future schools.
The data also shows that 14 per cent of teachers reported that their school has planned sports days on one of the two strike days and 17 per cent indicated that some students are due to be on day trips on strike days.
Survey responses also show 7 per cent of respondents mention that residential trips are being held on one of the strike days, and 12 per cent of primary teachers reported their schools had scheduled concerts or performances on one of the two dates.
The strikes could also hit pupils’ work experience, with 12 per cent of secondary teachers saying they expect to have students on work experience placements, which typically involve teacher visits and supervision.
On Saturday, the NEU announced its latest strike plans for July with the existing mandate for industrial action it has for the remainder of the academic year.
It is also balloting its members for further strike action in the next academic year along with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the NAHT school leaders’ union and the NASUWT teaching union.
‘Rob children of special memories’
As Tes reported yesterday, school leaders have expressed concern at the timing of the latest NEU strike dates affecting end-of-year events, which could “genuinely rob children of special memories”.
Some also warned that the strikes could undermine efforts to tackle the pupil attendance crisis.
Commenting on the new survey findings, Laura McInerney, co-founder of Teacher Tapp, said: “This is an unusually busy week for schools, with only one-in-three respondents considering the planned strike days to be normal working days.
“The wide range of potentially disrupted activities, including sports days, residential trips and concerts, shows how much schools do beyond their teaching remits.
“On the one hand, putting strike actions on these days may make the disruption more noticeable; on the other hand, it may put teachers in difficult positions, as these are one-off experiences for students that are difficult to replicate. We will continue to investigate the strike action in the coming weeks.”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “No teacher wants to be taking strike action. The education secretary can have the strikes halted by doing her job and publishing the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report and re-opening negotiations with the NEU and the education unions, ASCL, NAHT and NASUWT.
”We regret the disruption caused to education by our strikes and we support the rearrangement of transition days where possible - as some local authorities are considering.”
Mr Courtney added: “We grant exemptions to members involved in school trips that cannot be rearranged. However, the disruption to children and young people’s education occurs daily due to the running down of the education service by government. This cannot go on.”
Lobby of Parliament over schools crisis
Earlier today, members of ASCL, the NAHT, the NEU, the National Governance Association and Unison took part in a joint lobby of Parliament to protest the “unprecedented crisis” facing schools over funding.
At this event, ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton called for education secretary Gillian Keegan to immediately publish the leaked STRB report, which is said to have advised a 6.5 per cent pay rise for teachers, and to ensure that education is adequately funded.
Mr Barton told the lobby: “The reason we are here is because we know there is an extraordinary brewing crisis in our schools and our colleges. We are here because of a crisis of being able to recruit and retain and to fund.
“This is an issue that will not go away. It will only be resolved by talking. The longer you leave that, the more attitudes are going to harden, the more parents are going to notice that somebody who is called the secretary of state for education appears not to give sufficient attention to education.”
