
Parents of pupils at Wanstead High who have been frustrated by five days of teacher strikes in the past two weeks have taken to demonstrating outside the school, calling for the NEU union to end its industrial action.
More than 450 parents have signed a petition calling for a halt to the strikes while negotiations continue. The petition says that following meetings with the union and the local authority, and having examined all the documents from all sides, the group has concluded the union should “now immediately stop all strike action”. It says:
The strike action is not the appropriate route to resolve [the outstanding disputes] and the impact on our children is disproportionate.
Negotiations to resolve the dispute were taking place at the arbitration service ACAS on Thursday but it is not yet known if agreement has been reached.
Meanwhile the dispute received national coverage with a story in the Times, including this tweet from Giles Coren.
UPDATE 3PM: It looks as if agreement was not reached at ACAS even after some concessions by the school, though further meetings have been mentioned. If nothing changes though there will be two further strike days next week.