Schools should prioritise vulnerable children and those with parents who are critical workers if they need to prioritise places due to strike action, the Department for Education has said.
This is set out in updated guidance published after the NEU teaching union revealed this evening that its members have voted for strike action.
The guidance says that the DfE expects headteachers to take “all reasonable steps to keep the school open for as many pupils as possible”.
And it adds that, in addition to prioritising vulnerable children, “schools should consider prioritising pupils due to take public examinations and other formal assessments”.
Where schools “must restrict attendance”, the guidance adds, “they should consider, where possible, providing remote education”.
And it also explains that schools should take “all reasonable steps” to ensure that scheduled tutoring sessions on the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) can go ahead during strike days.
DfE guidance to schools on teacher strikes
Guidance is also given on Ofsted inspections, suggesting that some visits may be deferred during strike action days.
This states: “As with any other possible disruption to a school (such as severe weather), on a strike day Ofsted inspectors will take a view as to whether there is sufficient activity taking place to enable it to conduct an inspection of the school. Where there is not, the inspection is likely to be deferred.
“Where there is, inspectors will assess the education that is taking place at the point of inspection, along with all other evidence about the school and its performance, to arrive at a balanced judgement about the performance of the school”.
The NEU strike is set to take place in February and March after a 90 per cent vote for strike action.
Overall, 121,253 members voted for strike action in the ballot, which closed last Friday, with a turnout of 53.27 per cent.
The union is declaring seven days of strike action in February and March, though any individual school will only be affected by four of them.
The first will be on Wednesday 1 February, affecting 23,400 schools in England and Wales.
School leaders’ union the NAHT has said it will consider re-running its ballot on industrial action due to postal disruption, while the NASUWT teaching union has said it will be “announcing plans shortly for further balloting of members” after it failed to meet the legal turnout threshold.
