Parents braced for schools strike
As of this morning (Monday), 27 schools across the district have announced they will close on Thursday
HUNDREDS of parents of West Berkshire school pupils are facing the prospect of taking time off work or paying for extra childcare on Thursday as the teachers' strike forces schools to close.
As of this morning (Monday), 27 schools across the district have announced that they were either having to close or partially close on Thursday as teachers protest against Government proposals to change the conditions of pensions and increase the retirement age.
Many of the schools have said that they are being forced to close because the number of teachers intending to strike is such that they can not comply with health and safety regulations.
On the flip side, there is good news for the parents of pupils at 30 schools in West Berkshire which have announced that they will not be forced to close.
Headteacher at The Downs School, Val Houldey, said in a letter to parents that she was sorry that the majority of the school was having to close with only Year 12 attending but said to keep the school open would put pupils at risk.
Mrs Houldey said: "The action is not against the school itself but is part of national industrial action organised by these trade unions about changes to the pension schemes with their members.
"We must all hope that the issues over which the industrial action has arisen are resolved as soon as possible."
Sprucroft Primary School in Thatcham, has seven members of staff on strike so will only be partially open.
Headteacher at the Spurcroft Road school, Nathan Butler-Broad said: “It's more the affect it's going to have on the families, particularly the families that have one in and one out.
“What I don't want to do is offer a baby sitting service.
“If I don't have the staff to deliver education, what we need to decide is how we open.”
Classes 3, 4, 5, 9 and 10 will be also be closed at Speenhamland Primary School.
A spokeswoman for Speenhamland School, who asked not to be named, said: "For the teachers that are out they cannot teach and their children will not be in school."
She added that the parents had been given a weeks notice to the disruption.
The strikes came about after members of two national teaching unions voted to take action to defend teachers' pensions. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers union followed the NUT lead, and 83 per cent of its members voted to take strike action against the plans to increase teachers' pension contributions
from 6.4 per cent to 9.8 per cent and raise the retirement age to aged 68.
The teacher strikes are also expected to coincide with civil servants striking over a planned increase in the retirement age for public sector workers, from 60 to 66.
Schools so far closed or partially closed:
Aldermaston Primary school
Brookfields Special School
Calcot Junior School
Denefield School
Downsway Primary School
Enborne Primary School
Francis Baily Primary School
Inkpen Primary School
Lambourn Primary School
Long Lane Primary School
Mortimer St Marys Junior School
Parsons Down Infant School
Parsons Down Junior School
Robert Sandilands Primary school and Nursery
Shaw-cum-Donnington Primary School
Speenhamland Primary School
Sringfield Primary School
Spurcroft Primary School
St Bartholomew's School
St Nicolas Junior School
The Downs
The Oaks
The Winchcombe School
Theale Green Community School
Westwood Farm Infant School
Westwood Farm Junior School
Whitelands Park Primary School
For up to date news on school closures, go to www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=19107
Are you a parent, teacher or pupil affected by the strikes?
Contact tanya.haji@newburynews.co.uk or call (01635) 564 541
