Teacher Strikes

The National Education Union (NEU) has announced four days of strike action which will affect schools in London. These dates are:

  • Wednesday 1st February 2023 (National)
  • Thursday 2nd March 2023 (London and the South)
  • Wednesday 15th March 2023 (National)
  • Thursday 16th March 2023 (National)

Having assessed the effect of the proposed industrial action on Wednesday 1st February 2023 it has been decided that the Academy will be partially closed for the entire academy day.

This means that only students in Year 11 and Year 13 will be able to attend and be taught on the Academy site on this date. They will be taught formerly in classes, however Year 13 will have a study space in the event that any member of staff is not directly available for their lesson.

Students are expected to arrive at 8.20am for 8.30am start to lessons. Food at break and lunch will be available on this day as per normal. They will be recorded for attendance to the Academy as per a normal day.

Student Learning Online

Students in Years 7,8, 9 or 10 and 12, will have work set online for that day. All Year 7-10 students must access their work via Satchel One, our classwork and homework setting platform. Year 12 will get a specific email from the Sixth Form Team about their arrangements and expectations. We will monitor the platform to see the work being completed. There will be 4 lessons set for the day though some subjects and content may vary from normal timetables. Students can do additional revision and work using the website for BBC Bitesize https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize and GCSE and A Level students should use the SENECA learning platform https://senecalearning.com. Both are free services.

Our experience of delivering blended and online learning, developed during the pandemic, means that we have a well-established online learning facility, although we may not have staff able to facilitate this fully for all subject areas on any strike day. Students have full access to our online learning platforms by each year group as well as other suggested activities in order to ensure they are able to engage with meaningful studies during this day.

Context

Members of the NEU are not required to inform the Academy in advance whether they plan to take strike action although some have indicated their intentions to us. Further, please note that we are not permitted to ask staff to set cover work (or cover for each other) when unions take industrial action. We will set the work centrally to assure consistency. As such, we have had to make the difficult decision to close the Academy on this strike day for the majority of students.

Exceptions

The exceptions to this are children who are considered vulnerable and children of critical workers in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Students already known to the Academy as vulnerable or SEN, will be contacted separately to be offered a place at the Academy.

Parents who require additional advice or support you can contact your child’s Student Achievement Manager (SAM) directly.