Strike in support of suspended headteacher


Alistair Tice, Yorkshire Socialist Party

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) at Listerdale Primary School in Rotherham have taken two days of strike action, on 2 and 3 December, against the unjustified suspension of their headteacher.

The head was suspended by the Academy Trust in September at 8am one morning without union representation. The reasons for the suspension still haven’t been made clear, even the head himself doesn’t know!

The school was “academised” last year and is in budget deficit and the suspicion among staff is that the head’s suspension is related to this.

NUT members began action short of a strike in late October against job cuts and reduced hours of teaching assistants and the increased workload due to the head’s suspension. But the Academy Trust has refused any negotiations and stated that “the services of Acas are not required”.

Most parents are supportive of the action – they weren’t even informed that the head had been suspended until after half-term. 75 people, mostly parents, attended an NUT public meeting on 3 December.

One striking teacher told me: “Just out of interest I googled ‘teachers strike’ and was shocked by how many are going on around the country. But then felt re-assured that it’s not just us.”

The strike action forced the trust to meet the union at Acas on 4 December where they flatly rejected proposals to suspend strike action. Rotheram NUT secretary Fred Sprague said: “It seemed clear to us that the employer attended the Acas talks only under pressure from parents but with no intention of entering into any real discussion about how this dispute could be resolved.”

Strike action involving the majority of teachers at the school has resumed again for three days on 8 December.