Council in talks with union over school strike

Teachers walked out amid a long-running dispute with the council

Union officials are hopeful remaining school strike days will be cancelled as talks progress with a council.

Teachers at three middle schools across Berwick, Northumberland, have walked out, with three days of industrial action planned in a long-running dispute over their potential closure.

But Wednesday and Thursday's action could be called off if a compromise is reached with Northumberland County Council.

The authority is currently pressing ahead with proposals to restructure the system in the Berwick area to a two-tier model. However, members of the education union NASUWT said plans to close Glendale, Tweedmouth and Berwick Middle Schools would put 142 staff at risk.

NASUWT executive member for Northumberland, John Hall, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the union had a meeting this week with the local authority and the strike "depends on the response from the council regarding the application of ring-fencing".

"There's a number of roles that are being filled by the recruiting schools in the Berwick partnership," he said.

"The ring-fencing means the staff at risk of redundancy will be one of those new teachers - it protects them."

'Unacceptable to us'

However, Mr Hall said there was "some resistance" and some headteachers wanted to advertise externally.

"That is unacceptable to us - they are all qualified competent teachers," he said.

The local authority said it would help affected staff to obtain permanent jobs using "recruitment, redeployment and retraining, as appropriate".

There were "no areas of fundamental disagreement" in the authority's last meeting with unions, a spokesperson said, adding it was "both surprised and saddened" that the NASUWT had decided to go ahead with the strike action.