Home schooling returns on day of industrial action

Headteachers were not permitted to ask staff if they were going to take industrial action

Its back to home schooling today for many parents in our area as most of our local schools are affected by industrial action.   Teachers who are members of the National Education Union have walked out in a dispute over pay and a demand that any increases don’t have to be met from existing school budgets.

Of the area’s secondary schools Banbury FM understands that Warriner in Bloxham and Magdalen College in Brackley are both closed all day.   In Banbury, Wykham Park Academy is shut apart from for year 11 and some of year 13 students, whilst BGN is closed to years 8, 9 and 10 but open for all other years.

At the North Oxfordshire Academy sixth form students are attending school as normal and year 11 pupils will attend until lunch time, whilst everyone else will stay at home.   In Middleton Cheney at Chenderit pupils will be home schooling unless they have made a special arrangement with the school to go in.

Most, but not all of our area’s primary schools are affected by today’s action.

Headteachers have struggled to coordinate what level of schooling they can provide today.   Writing to Wykham Park Academy parents last week, Sylvia Thomas, the Executive Principle, said: “I am now in a slightly clearer position about what our staffing complement will be able to cover safely.   You will be aware that employers are not permitted to ask staff if they are going to take industrial action.”

The Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said earlier that the majority of schools would be open in some form today, but the National Education Union believes that 85% of them will be either fully or partially closed.

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Published: 01/02/2023 01:32pm by Banbury FM Newsteam

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