Bedlington Academy teachers strike over workload and pupil behaviour

Bedlington Academy has 650 secondary and sixth form pupils

Teachers at a Northumberland school have begun a 15-day strike citing complaints of workload burdens and a failure to tackle badly behaved pupils.

Members of NASUWT walked out of Bedlington Academy in Bedlington on Tuesday.

The union said more than 20 staff were taking part due to management "negatively impacting welfare".

The 650-pupil school, which is part of the North East Learning Trust (NELT), said lessons would continue.

The union is planning to stage strikes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, until 7 April.

NASUWT said more than 20 members are on strike

Union general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said: "Excessive and unnecessarily workload-intensive approaches to marking and planning are being foisted on teachers at the school which are seriously hampering their ability to maintain a reasonable work-life balance.

"This is not only undermining their professionalism as teachers, but is impacting on their mental and physical health."

He said problems were being "exacerbated" by the school's "failure to put in place a system for managing pupil behaviour which supports teachers to maintain good order and ensures pupils are able to focus on their learning without undue disruption".

'Hugely disappointed'

A spokeswoman for NELT said "additional support" was being brought in during the strike so "disruption to children's learning is kept to a minimum, particularly in the run-up to exams".

Chief executive officer Lesley Powell said: "I am hugely disappointed that after a prolonged period of disruption to children's learning due to the coronavirus pandemic, NASWUT and their members have chosen to take this course of action."

She said the school is rated inadequate by Ofsted but is improving after being taken over by NELT.

"We cannot, in all conscience, suspend policies and procedures that we believe are required to support the education of the young people of this academy," she said.

Ms Powell said teachers work an average of 30 hours a week and it was "reasonable to expect staff to complete some tasks outside of directed hours whilst remaining within the bounds of expectations within School Teachers pay and conditions".