The multi-day walkout is the second this year over plans to transfer the school to an academy trust
Striking staff outside Connaught School for Girls, Credit: NEU
Staff at Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone have gone on strike against plans by the leadership team to transfer the school to Star Academies, a mixed multi-academy trust.
The strike, organised by the National Education Union (NEU), began on Wednesday 11th October, and ran on Thursday (12th) and Friday (13th) this week. Agreed future strike dates are 17th, 18th, 19th, and 31st October as well as 1st and 2nd November. The action is the second multi-day strike by NEU staff at the school this year over the academy transfer plans.
NEU members have said the transfer plan would lead to potential job losses, detrimental pay, and increased workload. In NEU campaign material shared online, the planned takeover was said to likely cause “exam factory conditions for students, increased stress, and a top down, restricted and prescriptive curriculum.”
Waltham Forest NEU co-district secretary Pablo Phillips told the Echo that the transfer plan would “increase [staff] workload” and that the best settlement would be for Star Academies to “walk away” from the school.
“Star Academies can find a different school to run. [Connaught School for Girls] needs investment in education coming from the government which doesn’t drive up workload and that provides a high quality education and not a narrow version of a narrow curriculum.”
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“Continuously asking schools to do increase workload for staff is not a good way to run an education system in the modern world.
“What needs to be prioritised is the social and educational development of the child; data driven, factory-like working conditions do not benefit students.”
Blackburn-based Star Academies, which describes itself as “one of the country’s leading education providers”, currently runs 37 schools around the country, including Eden School for Girls in Walthamstow. The academy trust runs a mix of Muslim faith based schools and non-faith schools and academies.
Staff at Connaught School for Girls have so far won two concessions as a result of the strike action. The first concession is that there would be no compulsory redundancies under a transfer to Star Academies, while the second is that teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payments will be made permanent. TLR payments are made to teachers when schools ask them to take on extra responsibilities beyond what they are required to do.
A representative from Connaught School for Girls said: “The school is disappointed the union has decided to take further strike action, following the disruption earlier this year. Nevertheless, we will continue to work with the unions to try to reach a negotiated settlement.
“Our focus remains on supporting our students to achieve the best possible outcomes and minimising any further disruption to their learning.There has been overwhelming community support for the school to join Star Academies and we’re excited at the benefits it would bring to our school community.”
Connaught School for Girls said it is awaiting a decision from Star Acadamies on whether it wishes to proceed with the transfer.
Star Academies did not respond to requests for comment.
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