Staff at Newham primary school announce further days of strikes

Thirty-seven National Education Union (NEU) members at Calverton Primary School have already taken industrial action on September 20 and 21, are striking today (September 27), and have set more dates for September 28 and 29, October 4 to 6, 11 to 13 and 18 to 20, and November 1 to 3.

The strikes were initially due to begin on September 14 but were postponed after Queen Elizabeth II's death.

The postal ballot on whether or not to strike for NEU members at Calverton Primary School was open from June 28 to July 12 (Image: Ewa Jasiewicz)

The dispute centres around proposals including a reduction in dependency leave from 10 days to five and an end to the "extended day" programme where students are cared for at school until 6pm.

The strikers are also asking the school to "commit to certain parameters on the amount and hours of work expected" so workload is managed.

Deborah Brooks, interim director of education at Newham Council, said: "We are working closely with the board of governors to swiftly resolve this issue.

"School leaders have assured us that children's education will continue throughout this dispute with the minimum disruption possible."

Liam O'Hanrahan, a teacher at Calverton Primary and the school's NEU representative, claimed the workload demand is "really close" to being sorted.

He said: "The school have agreed to a kind of workload charter and... we have to finalise the directed hours but we're hoping that that's not going to be a huge issue."

On Tuesday, September 20 staff formed a picket-line from 7.30am to 9.30am, and then attended a rally at Ascension Church Centre (Image: Ewa Jasiewicz)

On the "extended day" programme, Liam said: "We understood that the school would like to replace the extended day, where children are cared for after school, with clubs.

"We understood that was going to replace it like-for-like but now we understand that they will run until 4.30pm so we're a little bit concerned for the parents."

However, the main issue, according to Liam, is the proposed reduction in dependency leave: "It's really come down to this dependency leave which really matters to the members of this school because... that would be a massive financial hit to people."

At the rally, the speakers were (left to right): Liam O'Hanrahan; Michael Gavan, regional officer for the NEU; Louise Cuffaro, Newham NEU divisional secretary; and Dominic Byrne, Barking and Dagenham NEU divisional secretary, national executive member of the NEU and chair of the Action Committee (Image: Ewa Jasiewicz)

Louise Cuffaro, NEU secretary for Newham, said there would be a meeting this week between the school and striking staff.

Calverton Primary School would only make comment through the council.

Located in Custom House, the school became part of the CPD Schools Federation in October 2021, and Lando Du Plooy took over as headteacher after the Easter holiday.