Teachers striking again over behaviour concerns

School staff have voted to extend strike action over claims they are facing abusive and disruptive student behaviour which managers are failing to deal with.

More than 50 members of staff at Tewkesbury Academy in Gloucestershire first walked out on Wednesday as one teacher said truancy was "rife" at the school.

Members from two teaching unions said staff would strike again on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after negotiations broke down. Further action would be taken on 23-25 of February, 4-6 March and 11-13 March if a resolution was not found, they said.

The Cabot Learning Federation (CLF), which runs the school, was contacted for comment.

Speaking following a meeting on Monday, Wendy Exton from The Teachers' Union (NASUWT) said staff did not have confidence behavioural issues were being properly addressed.

She said this had left NASUWT and National Education Union members with "no alternative" but to strike.

"We remain ready and willing to engage in further talks with the Trust over a resolution to this dispute," she added.

Exton previously said the union had been in negotiations with the school about the behaviour of about 70 pupils since November.

"They've got a small cohort of students who are just doing exactly what they please, not attending lessons, being verbally abusive and disruptive," she added.

Exton said the behaviour was affecting the learning of other students and added striking staff wanted to see an "effective discipline policy" with the use of permanent exclusion in "very rare circumstances".

In July 2023, a Tewkesbury Academy student stabbed maths teacher Jamie Samson in a corridor, prompting the school and two others nearby to go into lockdown.

Samson was discharged from hospital the same day and the student, who was not named for legal reasons, was sentenced to 14 months detention.

Speaking outside the school during a previous strike day, PE teacher Ian Brownhill, who has taught at the school for 36 years, said the school was "losing good kids" as a result of the behaviour, which included children going "on the rampage around site most lessons".

"They are disrupting lessons, they're getting thrown out of lessons, and they're not going to where they should be going to.

"Truancy is rife at the minute," he said.

A CLF spokesperson previously said they were "surprised and saddened" by the action.

"We remain firmly committed to negotiating in good faith to reduce disruption for families and to ensure all children in our town can enjoy a good education and success in life," they said.

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