Dear all,
As we have mentioned during the two previous industrial action days, teaching members of the National Education Union (NEU) have voted for several days of strike action with their third and fourth scheduled days of action to be on Wednesday 15th March 2023 and Thursday 16th March 2023. We understand in school that the dispute is with the Government, and not with the school; we endeavour to respect colleagues’ right to strike, whilst we are also very mindful of the ongoing disruption for you all, and our children over and above all.
As a school, and as before, we are obviously required to assess whether we can safely open if a number of colleagues are not present. As we stated before, approximately 53% of our teaching staff are in the NEU and have been asked to observe this action by their union, and this was, indeed, borne out by the approximate number who took the strike action on the previous occasion. Colleagues continue not to be required by law to give pre-warning of their decision to strike, so we cannot find out more accurately than this whether or not this figure will be replicated on this occasion, but it seems likely.
Given this level of potential absence, we have risk assessed according to all usual processes for doing so and concluded that we are unable to safely cover the site and normal lessons with that number of staff out. We have therefore made a series of plans for each of the industrial action days to provide an educational plan that will work and be safe, but that will also provide some variety of experience for as many students as possible across the two dates. A detailed plan is attached to this message for the remaining two dates.
Wednesday March 15th and Thursday March 16th:
Year 11 are invited to attend school from 9.30am-12.15pm on both occasions. They will receive their normal lessons, and during any lessons where their teacher is striking, we will provide a combination of useful assessment practice / revision opportunities including time for private study. It is important Year 11 come prepared with their own personal revision work, to be conducted during times when their normal teachers are unavailable due to the strike. This should include revision guides and resources for GCSE subjects.
Year 7 are invited to attend school from 9.30am – 12.15pm on both occasions. They will receive their normal lessons, and during any lessons where their teacher is striking we will provide a menu of Citizenship curriculum content and literacy/reading/mathematics and PE based activities for them. Year 7 students should also attend with a personal reading book and their trainers.
There will be one scheduled break for these year groups during this time when they can eat and relax as usual, and where packed lunches for those eligible for FSM will be available.
Years 8/9/10 will be invited to attend a mixture of FROG pre-assigned work or pre-recorded Teams lessons at home, with vulnerable children and those you identify to us as unable to work from home being welcomed in school alongside Year 7 and Year 11. You can inform us of the need for your child to be with us, if there is no safe alternative, via our online form (click here). Then, Lesson 4 and Lesson 5 will be Live Lessons for Years 8/9/10 via Microsoft Teams, delivered by non-striking teaching staff.
The visual for these days can be seen below:
*Year 7 and Year 11 to leave site by 12.15pm
For Year 11 who are attending the History trip, this will continue as planned (please refer to Mrs Groom’s Arbor message). Year 11 students who are completing their GCSE Food NEA will also complete this through the day (please see Mr Abbott’s Arbor message).
We will also be inviting BTEC Dance students and Performance Groups (across Years 8/9/10/11) for specific times to complete their performance practice. Students involved with this would have been contacted by Mrs Smith already.
We understand that no model to cover a day interrupted by industrial action is ideal and the imperfections you spot about this one, we will undoubtedly share: our motivation for this pattern for the days, though, is to endeavour to give our youngest students and those closest to their exams greater in person structure for their days this time, whilst also maintaining an online offer for the remaining year groups. If we are managing further days like this down the line, we would rotate the year groups coming into the school, but, as of now, no further dates have been identified to the school by this or any other union.
As stated at the beginning of the letter, if a settlement is reached, and the industrial action is no longer taking place, the school will revert to its normal pattern for the day on each occasion.
If anyone has any questions or comments about their individual child(ren) about the plans above, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@noadswood.hants.sch.uk and one of us will be delighted to get back to you.
With our thanks again for your continued support around these recent alterations to the usual run of things,
Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood Leadership Team