School leaders across the country are preparing for a “lockdown 2.0” style of school opening operations as teacher strikes dates approach. 

Leaders are putting plans in place for the safeguarding of vulnerable pupils and those preparing for major assessments as they warn strike action will “inevitably” lead to the merging of classes, remote learning and some school closures.

On Monday, the NEU, England’s largest teaching union, declared seven days of strike action in February and March, though any individual school will be affected by only four of those days.

The announcement followed the news that 90 per cent of teacher members voted for strike action, with a turnout of 53.27 per cent. 

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Guidance published by the Department for Education after the NEU released its ballot results on Monday told schools to prioritise vulnerable children and those with parents who are critical workers if they need to prioritise places as a consequence of strike action.

Teaching assistant members of the NEU will not be striking in England as the turnout threshold was not met. 

Speaking to Tes, Dan Morrow, CEO and trust leader for Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, said his trust had already started looking at planning for strike days.

Mr Morrow said: “It’s kind of lockdown 2.0 in the sense that the prioritisation list from the Department for Education makes sense - I don’t think anyone in schools would be making any different decisions.”

However, another multi-academy trust leader told Tes that the DfE guidance “shows a lack of understanding” about how schools operate and is “practically unworkable”.

The leader, who runs a medium-sized MAT, said the guidance is “largely a rehashing of Covid guidance, which shows a lack of understanding about how schools work. For example, if you take remote education, who is going to teach the remote classes if the members of staff are taking industrial action?”  

Mr Morrow told Tes that his trust would add Year 6 and Year 2 pupils to the priority list in his trust’s 14 primary schools in terms of those who are subject to statutory assessment.

And in its three secondary schools, the trust will prioritise “safeguarding our vulnerable pupils” who include “any children who are under a form of social care or with specific identified needs”, and is “looking very strongly at the Year 11 and Year 13 cohorts”.

However, Mr Morrow said the trust was “keen to ensure” that it was not “putting pressure on colleagues to do lots of work in preparation for them being absent” because that would “defeat the purpose of the withdrawal of labour”.

He added it was important to “strike a balance” between doing what’s right for pupils “on a day-to-day basis” while also “respecting” the choice of colleagues. 

Merged classes and remote learning

Last night, Tes revealed fresh guidance circulated to members of the NAHT school leaders’ union, which stated that any decisions around the level of service on strike days should not be politically motivated.

The union advised heads to put together risk assessment plans that are grounded in clear evidence under heads’ health and safety duties.

One MAT leader, who spoke anonymously to Tes, said trusts will “do what we’re legally required to do” but that “most school leaders have enormous sympathy and respect for people who are taking action because we share those concerns”. 

They continued: “I don’t think many school leaders will actively seek to undermine industrial action, not least because you have relationships between staff to manage when the strike is over, which is also another reason why staff won’t cover for striking staff because the next day they’re back to being colleagues and why should they?”  

Mr Morrow added that “specific operationalising” would be “difficult” until he had a better idea of the numbers of teachers that would be taking part in walkouts, but that strike action would “inevitably lead to some additional merging of classes”, a change in provision and remote learning for some.

Another MAT leader who spoke to Tes under condition of anonymity said it was “inevitable” that some schools would have to close if they had a large proportion of NEU members among staff, and said their trust was working hard on managing parent expectations “because they’re being led to believe that there’ll be minimal disruption whereas in actual fact it’s probably going to be quite large”.

Rob McDonough, CEO of the East Midlands Education Trust (EMET), said the timing of the strikes couldn’t be worse as it comes “off the back of the significant disruption of the pandemic”.

He said all heads in his 22-school trust “are still reporting that children have not yet got back into full routines of school life”.

“And we are still finding challenging behaviour from children who’ve just not got back into those routines,” he added.

“Clearly, as school leaders, we have a duty and responsibility to do all we can to keep schools open.

“But if we are without staff, key staff, that makes it very challenging for us, and therefore we may have to consider sending year groups home.”

Supply teachers won’t cross picket line

While the government changed the law last year allowing agency workers to cover for those on strike, many leaders have warned this may not be an option. 

Warren Carratt, CEO of Nexus MAT and Evolve Trust, told Tes his schools don’t intend to use supply staff to plug gaps on strike days due to cost, lack of availability and also the negative impact on pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, who are likely to place a high value on familiarity and routine.

Meanwhile, Mr Morrow said he doesn’t plan to plug staff gaps with supply workers as he “can’t get them at the best of times” anyway.

And Niall Bradley, chair of the National Supply Teachers’ Network, said there are not enough cover staff to stand in for striking teachers, and most are unwilling to cross picket lines in any case.

Last year, Mr Bradley wrote to Nadhim Zahawi, who was then education secretary, to warn that a survey had shown that most supply teachers would not be willing to cross picket lines to cover for striking staff, and that plans to use them as temporary cover “denigrate” his members.

“However, even if they [were prepared to cover striking teachers], 76,000 cannot cover 450,000,” he said. “Even if the strike isn’t nationwide, supply members wouldn’t be able to cover for all the striking teachers.”

Some MAT leaders are more confident they will be able to provide a good level of learning on strike days. Jo Coton, CEO of NET Academies Trust - a group of six primary schools in Essex - said she is “determined that it will be business as usual across our six schools”.

“All our team worked extremely hard to keep vulnerable and key worker children in school during the pandemic and this is no different. So we will do everything possible to keep schools open for all children, even if we have to reduce the in-school learning offer that day.

“And we have outstanding remote learning programmes available which we are ready to deploy if it is the case that any children are not able to come to school,” she added.

However, another MAT leader said the government has set parents up to expect schools to stay open and provide onsite learning, and to blame school leaders for “poor management” if this didn’t happen.

However, they said the reality was if “huge disruption” takes place it will be because the contingency planning by the government does not reflect the “reality of how schools operate”.

They added that if teachers are in school they will be teaching classes and not able to deliver remote lessons, and that teaching assistants will not want to undermine striking colleagues by covering lessons.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Education secretary Gillian Keegan held a further meeting with union leaders this week, listening to their concerns and engaging in a constructive discussion around a broad range of issues.

“She reiterated that strike action would be highly damaging to children’s education, particularly following the disruption experienced over the past two years.

“Discussions will continue this week, ahead of the planned strike action.”