Teacher members of the NASUWT teaching union have voted to take strike action over pay, workload and working time from September.
The union said it intends to issue notice of a programme of continuous action short of strike action commencing in September and dates for strike action in the autumn term will also be considered.
It said that any walkouts will be coordinated with other unions where possible.
The NEU teaching union, whose members have walked out on a series of strike days this term, are also balloting members for strike action next year, alongside the Association of School and College Leaders and the NAHT school leaders’ union.
Overall, 88.5 per cent of eligible NASUWT members voted to support strike action and 94.3 per cent voted in support of action short of strike action in a ballot that closed on Monday.
The overall turnout in the vote was 51.9 per cent, just above the legal threshold of 50 per cent.
The union’s previous ballot for industrial action failed to meet the legal threshold at the beginning of the year.
Commenting on the results, Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Today our members have sent a strong message to the government and to employers that teachers demand a better deal on pay and to address excessive workload and working hours.
“Our members have secured the largest mandate for industrial action by the NASUWT in over a decade, exceeding the government’s anti-trade union ballot thresholds.
He added: “We have today written to the government and to employers confirming the prospect for industrial action in schools the length and breadth of the country from this autumn.
“Our members’ goodwill has been taken for granted for far too long. Excessive workload demands have become so debilitating that we have seen record numbers of teachers and headteachers leaving the profession, or reporting anxiety, work-related stress and self-harm because of the pressures of the job.
“No teacher should expect to work in conditions damaging to their health and wellbeing. Ministers cannot continue to wring their hands and do nothing. If the government won’t take the action needed to end excessive workload and working hours, we will take action in workplaces across the country to protect our members.
“Our members deserve better and pupils deserve better, too. The government cannot continue to ignore the damaging impact that the teacher recruitment and retention crisis is having on pupils’ education.
“The government must urgently resolve teachers’ demands for concrete measures to tackle excessive workload and working hours and to secure real-terms pay restoration.
“The government must stop playing politics, publish the report of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) and put an end to the damaging speculation they have allowed to develop over recent weeks.
“The STRB’s recommendation of a 6.5 per cent pay award for teachers and headteachers, which has been widely reported, is the minimum to which our members are entitled. However, NASUWT members are clear that teachers deserve better than just another real-terms pay cut.
“The government is ultimately responsible for teachers’ pay and working conditions and ministers must now get back to the negotiating table to agree a deal that will command the support of our members.”
