Industrial Action information

26th April 2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

Strike action by members of the National Education Union

I am writing to you about forthcoming strike action by the National Education Union (NEU), one of the main teaching trade unions. You may have seen coverage of this in the news, and I wanted to inform you about the impact this is likely to have at our school.

The strike days that are likely to affect schools in this area are: • Thursday 27th April 2023 and Tuesday 2nd May 2023

The NEU has posted a document for parents, carers and grandparents that explains their reasons for taking strike action. It can be found at https://neu.org.uk/media/24511/view if you wish to read it.

How will strike action affect Hook Infant School

When a strike takes place, those taking strike action stop work and withdraw their labour. This means that those teachers involved in the action will not teach their class or undertake any other duties on a strike day. It is therefore incumbent upon me to consider the impact that industrial action will have on the operation of the school. One of the key issues is to assess whether there are sufficient staff available for the school to remain open, or partially open, during a strike. To determine whether Hook Infant School can remain fully or partially open, a detailed risk assessment has been conducted. This considers the impact that the action will have on the health and safety of pupils, staff and visitors, and whether the school can run a full or amended curriculum, to determine whether it is possible to operate the school safely during the strike. Teachers do not have to let me know if they are going to strike until the morning of the proposed strike day.

Hook Infant School teachers, have at this point in the week, indicated to me that on these occasions they will NOT be taking strike action, therefore Hook Infant School will be open for business as usual on Thursday 27th April 2023 and Tuesday 2nd May 2023.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Walker