'Upset' Wellingborough pupil starts petition after Ruskin Academy pulls out of 'Voice in a Million' concert due to teacher strikes

The parents of a Ruskin Academy pupil in Wellingborough have praised their daughter’s efforts after she began a petition following the school’s absence at an upcoming concert.

Olivia Miah, a student at Ruskin Academy, was one of those who was set to attend the ‘Voice in a Million’ concert at The OVO Arena on March 15, 2023, but industrial action has meant that Ruskin Academy does not have sufficient staff needed to attend.

As a result the school will not participate, despite the concert going ahead as planned.

To voice her and other pupils’ displeasure, Olivia started a petition which has received more than 80 signatures, and the hope is to gather as many as they can to show the students’ frustration that the concert is ‘collateral damage’ from the forthcoming industrial action.

Olivia’s mum Sophie Miah said she’s proud ‘to see that she’s growing up and she wants to do something to help’.

And added: "It’s not just herself because all of the children in the choir were upset, and she could see that, so she wanted to help everybody and try and give them a chance to try and do something.

"I said ‘could you not use volunteers’ and they said ‘oh we didn’t really think about that, we’ve just cancelled anyway’ so they’ve just pulled out automatically.”

A spokesman for Lion Academy Trust, the charity which Ruskin Academy falls under, said the school’s absence from the concert was the result of ‘a series of unfortunate events’, but insists that the organisers of ‘Voice in a Million’ were contacted to try to reschedule the event to accommodate the upcoming strikes, to no avail.

They said: "This is part of a carefully managed risk assessment in terms of how many adults, how many children are going to be on the coach, and how is this going to be managed across a broader spectrum of issues, one of them being whether we can keep these trips as planned or not.

"This isn’t something that’s been taken lightly, this isn't something we’re able to be more flexible on for the simple reason that there’s a shortage of staff, and staff aren’t necessarily available to support these trips because of the national strike issue.

"We’re terrifically proud of all of our pupils, it’s something we’re very happy to support, obviously we understand pupil and parent disappointment that these events can’t go ahead.”

The spokesman for Lion Academy Trust refuted Sophie Miah’s claims, adding: “I can assure you that staff wouldn’t have said ‘oh we just didn’t really think about that’, that’s just not accurate.

"I understand that might have been how it was received, but that clearly isn’t what was said.

“I wholly understand parents and pupils are disappointed, but in this case I’m afraid that’s unavoidable and deeply regrettable.”

Teachers from Ruskin Academy, Wellingborough are taking strike action in accordance with the National Education Union (NEU) that insists pay rates for experienced teachers have fallen by one fifth (taking inflation into account) since 2010.