Hexham teachers strike over failure to address behaviour management

Members of NASUWT-The Teachers' Union at Haydon Bridge High School in Hexham will be taking the first of five planned days of strike action tomorrow (Tuesday) over the failure of school management to put in place an effective pupil behaviour management system.

NASUWT withdrew the first two days of planned strike action on the 19th and 25th November as a gesture of goodwill after management agreed to act to address members' concerns about a lack of action to deal with poor pupil behaviour. However, no effective actions have subsequently been put in place by school management, leaving NASUWT with no choice than to reinstate strike action.

Matt Wrack, NASUWT General Secretary, said:

"We have been in talks with the management at Haydon Bridge for well over a year over the lack of any form of effective pupil behaviour management system. Unfortunately, school leaders are still failing to address their basic responsibilities to staff and students.

"Our teachers have been told they can expect support if they seek to uphold good standards of behaviour and if they tackle incidents of defiance and challenging behaviour from pupils. But little to nothing has changed.

"We need to see managers leading from the front, fulfilling their duties and supporting their staff in this fundamental aspect of running a school.

"Our members' patience is exhausted and further strike action will be inevitable unless concrete improvements in the leadership of the school are made."

Julie Parkin, NASUWT National Executive Member for Northumberland, said:

"We believe school leadership is currently failing in its duty of care to staff and pupils at Haydon High. We have given them numerous opportunities to work with us to put in place an effective pupil behaviour management system, but they have failed to do so.

"No school can operate effectively without a robust behaviour management system, which is consistently implemented and in which school management takes the lead.

"Our members have been forced to take strike action in order to secure basic working conditions which should be the expected norm in every school. It should not have had to come to this and the responsibility for any disruption caused by the strike action rests firmly with school management."