Staff at a York secondary school are set to strike for two days next week.
Around 100 teachers and school staff at All Saints RC School will take part in the walk out, which is set for 8 and 9 October (Wednesday and Thursday).
The strike has been organised by the National Education Union (NEU), in response to the way the Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust (NPCAT) runs the school.
The school has belonged to NPCAT since May 2023.
Michael Kearney, the union secretary for York, told YorkMix the disputes with the Middlesbrorough academy chain have been ongoing since May this year.
He said that the funding for the school remains at the forefront of their issues.
“Our concerns and what we would like to see changed are things around the funding that’s taken from the school, to fund things like CEO pay.
“Whilst schools across the country have seen massive squeezes on their budgets, the CEO of Nicholas Postgate Academy chain has seen a £60,000 pay rise since 2020.
“We feel that funding that comes attached to students, should be spent on students.”
Mr Kearney revealed that the union are also campaigning for decision-making to be delegated back to the school.
He believes choices have been taken away and centralised within the academy.
“They impose decisions upon schools, including things such as forcing schools to buy a specific Catholic curriculum or specific services from the academy chain.”
The union entered negotiations with the academy on Monday 16 September, after a vote passed the threshold for industrial action.
Since then, there has been no further talks from NPCAT despite promises to do so.
Mr Kearney said he’s “ready and waiting” to have good faith discussions with the academy chain, to make decisions that are “easily achievable and incredibly beneficial for the school and students”.
More freedom
The strikers hope to see staff at All Saints RC School gain back the freedom to make their own decisions, including the services they purchase.
Mr Kearney ensures that the industrial action will be taken with the students in mind, stating that “this is all about the students and the education we’re able to provide for them”.
Staff at the school were initially reluctant in striking, but are aware that any successes would benefit the students greatly.
“This isn’t about pay, our dispute is not to do with the school leadership as the union and the staff have full trust in the current school leadership.
“Part of our dispute is we want to see that current school leadership stays in place because we respect them so much. Our dispute is with the academy chain itself, not with the school,” Mr Kearney said.
Despite four further industrial action dates planned for October (14, 16, 22, 25), Mr Kearney denied that the education of students would suffer.
“Any impact that strikes have on the children’s education in the short term will always be made up by the educators after the industrial action is over. No child will suffer educationally from any actions that we take.
“What is far more damaging and long term lasting than our industrial action is that the academy is taking hundreds of thousands of pounds every year from the school budget in order to fund things such as CEO pay.
“This means we can’t employ as many support staff as we would like and we have to raise class sizes. So that’s far more damaging to children’s education than any industrial action that we would possibly take,” he said.
A public meeting was held by NEU last night (3 October) which was well attended by staff and parents of All Saints RC School.
Mr Kearney told YorkMix the parents were “overwhelmingly supportive” of all of the demands that were shared with them, and many had issues with the Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) themselves.
“They understand now that everything we’re asking for is all around the education that we’re able to provide to the students. They understand that we have worked tirelessly behind the themes for quite a lengthy amount of time and trying to negotiate in good faith and raise our concerns with the MAT.
“They are almost all in favour, and what parents have said to us now is that they are fully behind us. They would like to help us with our campaign to bring local democracy back to our schools,” he revealed.
The academy’s response
A spokesperson for Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust said: “Ofsted have just today completed an inspection of All Saints and we would urge parents and staff to await their report, which will be made public in less than three weeks’ time.
“Part of our strategy for school improvement has included the role of our executive head teacher to give extra support to secondary schools as and when this is needed.
“Parents were kept informed when our executive head came in to give such support to All Saints, and again when this was no longer considered necessary and came to an end.
“Funding for additional support of this kind comes from the pooled budget for the trust and not from one particular school. This is one of the strengths of the academy system and one of the reasons it has been so successful in improving educational outcomes and career opportunities for all our pupils, as evidenced not only by Ofsted but in improved GCSE, A-level and Progress 8 results in all our schools.
“We can confirm that before its expansion, NPCAT commissioned an independent benchmarking exercise in respect of a salary banding for a CEO in a trust of this size.
“This exercise took account of regional and national trusts of similar size in respect of both schools and pupils, and the revised pay band reflects the expanded remit for the new and much enlarged trust.”