Preparing for Strikes

St Ninian’s headteacher Chris Coole has told parents that the school has planned for the ‘worst case scenario’ with teachers due to strike later this month.

This comes after members of the NASUWT announced plans to strike across six days in the coming months.

In a letter to parents, Mr Coole said that the school was working through its contingency plans for the strike.

He said: ‘As the scale of this strike action has not been confirmed to the Department, this has made it difficult for schools to contingency plan. As such, planning for the first two dates is being carried out on a worst case scenario basis so please prepare for the possibility that students may be asked to remain at home on those days. I will share with you our detailed plan once it has been finalised.

‘I fully understand the impact that this could have on our children, young people and families and I appreciate the disruption that may occur. I do not take these very difficult decisions lightly however, all of which will be made with the safety and wellbeing of all of the children at the school in mind.’

Primary

Meanwhile, the head of Onchan’s Ashley Hill primary school Peter Lewis, has written to parents to said he expects the school to be ‘open for ‘business as usual’ on Wednesday November 30 and Thursday December 1 2022’.

‘I will, of course, keep you updated if there any changes to these arrangements and will communicate to you in the coming weeks with the arrangements for 11th and 12th January 2023.’

Strikes

As the row over pay and conditions continues between DESC and NASUWT, members of the union are due to walk out on November 30 and December 1, January 11 and January 12 and February 15 and February 16.

However, under Manx law, they are not required to tell school leaders if all members will walk out or just a few.

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