Wanstead parents up the pressure

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.

3 thoughts on “Wanstead parents up the pressure”

  1. Ridiculous. The parents should be supporting the teachers that are overwork, underfunded and underpaid. It’s tragic to see parents with enough free time to stand outside their kids school berating and slagging off teachers, rather than appealing to the council and school to meet the demands of the union.

  2. It might be worth considering that the teachers are striking to improve the conditions in which they teach the pupils of the school. If you are happy to have your children’s teaches unable to teach to the same level as other schools because of unnecessary workload or assessment or coving other classes then keep supporting the headteacher. If you want your pupils to have teachers who have the same amount of time as other teachers in other schools to prepare engaging and exciting lessons and teach your children then support the strike.

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