Teaching staff across North Northamptonshire continue their walkouts as union says 'children are missing out because there are not enough teachers'

Teachers in Kettering held a rally while on strike yesterday

Teaching staff at schools across North Northamptonshire entered their seventh strike period this week in a row over pay.

Many schools were affected yesterday (Wednesday, July 5) by strike action and some had to close to pupils. Staff will also strike tomorrow (Friday, July 7).

NEU branches are coordinating picket lines across North Northants and members are also being encouraged to attend a rally in Corby town centre tomorrow.

Lodge Park Academy teachers formed a picket line in Corby

North Northants NEU Joint Branch Secretary Simon Rielly said: “We want to solve this dispute. We want the government to negotiate with us directly. If the Conservative government really wants to stop this industrial action, if they really do care about children’s education, then they will talk to us seriously and make the time to negotiate a settlement to this dispute.

“Pay for experienced teachers has fallen by over a fifth in real terms since 2010. And now Britain is facing the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Yet while your bills keep going up, your pay is not keeping pace.

"Children are losing out because there are not enough teachers. Even when there is a teacher in the classroom, increasingly they are not qualified in the subject they are teaching. Parents and grandparents hear their children and grandchildren talking about ‘new’ teachers in the middle of the school year; of lessons being ‘covered’ by supply teachers, of teachers leaving. Lack of qualified teachers harms the education that children and young people receive”.

NEU District Secretary Phill Monk said: “Energy and food bills are soaring. The pay offer of five per cent for most teachers in September 2022 was well below the soaring level of inflation – so this was real terms pay cut of over seven per cent in 2022 alone, in addition to the already major real terms pay cuts between 2010 and 2021.

"To add insult to injury the pay offer is not fully funded. Teachers have lost 23 per cent of the value of their pay in real terms against RPI inflation since 2010 and educators are leaving the profession in their droves.”