Primary school staff start two-day strike action

Union members at a Suffolk primary school will go on strike for the next two days

Teachers at a Suffolk primary school will take strike action over alleged management issues.

Members of the National Educational Union (NEU) at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Sudbury will strike today and tomorrow over "poor management practice".

The school, which has commissioned an independent investigation into the issues raised, said it is “keen to resolve" the concerns.

The strikes follow a day of action earlier this month.

'Unacceptable practices'

Staff will stand at the picket line at the school between 07:30 GMT and 09:30 GMT.

Paul McLaughlin, regional secretary for the NEU, said members "regret being forced into a position of having to take action".

“The school governors have known about the issues for several months and have not acted promptly to deal with the problems," he said.

Alleged issues included "unacceptable management practices, excessive demands on workload, including short notice changes to curriculum, and unnecessary book scrutiny".

Concerns were reportedly raised formally in October and the school said talks with union representatives had been held on numerous occasions in recent weeks.

The most recent meeting, on 7 March, was supported by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS).

An independent investigation into the alleged issues has "offered a number of ways in which to address concerns about workload", the school said.

Further talks with ACAS are scheduled for 28 March which the NEU said it hoped would lead to a "satisfactory resolution".

School officials said they "regret the decision of the staff to go on strike" and apologised for the inconvenience to pupils and their families.